iMac freezing after downloading

[DJBigD68]

I’m trying to get some help for a friend. They’re having issues with an iMac being stuck on the spinning wheel. The OS is 11.5.1, they’re running Apple Music 1.1.6.32.

Spinning wheel comes up when you do anything. But seems to happen after downloading songs from Apple Music.

Rebooting is all they’ve done. Is anyone else experiencing this issue with downloading Apple Music causing the spinning wheel?

Should they try running First Aid?

Thanks.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Have them go through the suggestions at:

Macintosh OS X Beachballs!

and

Macintosh Slowdown Solutions

The very first thing that I would try is to fully uninstall any third party fully-interactive anti-virus software that they have installed, which will require an uninstaller program from the software's developer. Sophos is often the culprit. Afterwards re-start and see if that fixes things.

The next thing that I would consider is how big the hard drive is, and how full it is. If it is in the 80% full or greater range, I'd suspect that to be the source of the problem.

Please let us know how things resolve.

 

[DJBigD68]

Have them go through the suggestions at:

Macintosh OS X Beachballs!

and

Macintosh Slowdown Solutions

The very first thing that I would try is to fully uninstall any third party fully-interactive anti-virus software that they have installed, which will require an uninstaller program from the software's developer. Sophos is often the culprit. Afterwards re-start and see if that fixes things.

The next thing that I would consider is how big the hard drive is, and how full it is. If it is in the 80% full or greater range, I'd suspect that to be the source of the problem.

Please let us know how things resolve.

No third party anti-virus software was installed. The hard drive is 1TB and is barely 20% full.

We're thinking it may have something to do with the router. Apparently the Internet signal is very poor.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

We're thinking it may have something to do with the router. Apparently the Internet signal is very poor.

A poor Internet signal should cause problems accessing the Internet, but it shouldn't otherwise cause your entire Mac to slow down and/or exhibit rotating beachballs.

But that would be easy to check. Just disconnect the router and see if your Mac gets all better instantly.

There have been instances where a failing or out-of-spec peripheral has caused havoc with the Mac that it was attached to. The diagnostic procedure for that is to detach all non-Apple peripherals (even keyboard and mouse...re-attached the units that came with the Mac) and see if things are better. If they are, re-attach all third party peripherals one at a time and restart until you find the problematic one.

Once again, I highly recommend that you read through my Web sites and follow the directions on them.

 

[jasongoldworthy]

the problem here could be that the Mac is using a spinning hard drive.

and maybe the music is taking a long time to download due to a bad internet connection which in turn is causing the Mac to read and write to the hard drive at a slower speed.

in turn causing the beachball effect that your experiencing.

normally the best option here is to replace the spinning hard drive with an SSD internal or external USB

 

[Randy B. Singer]

the problem here could be that the Mac is using a spinning hard drive.

and maybe the music is taking a long time to download due to a bad internet connection which in turn is causing the Mac to read and write to the hard drive at a slower speed.

in turn causing the beachball effect that your experiencing.

normally the best option here is to replace the spinning hard drive with an SSD internal or external USB

I'm sorry to be contrary, but that's not good advice.

While it is true that an SSD is quite a bit faster than a RDHD, that isn't what is causing the original poster's problem. The original poster said that they get the rotating beachball "when you do anything.". No healthy Macintosh should be regularly seeing the rotating beachball when you attempt to do anything, no matter what year it was made and no matter what type of hard drive it has installed.

Folks like to recommend an SSD as a cure-all because it always improves performance. The thing is, any Mac made in at least the last dozen years or so should be an excellent performer as it came from the factory, even with a slow 5400rpm RDHD.

I recommend that the original poster nail down the true source of the underlying problem FIRST. Once they have done that, then they can decide if they want to throw money at their Mac to increase its stock performance by purchasing an SSD.

(I do admit that the underlying problem might be a failing RDHD. That should be tested before simply swapping out parts for expensive new ones. If the original poster's RDHD is failing, an SSD replacement might be a good option.)

 

[jasongoldworthy]

hi randy no need to be sorry,

what also would help is the spec of the Mac in question just incase its only got 8gb ram and so forth

my conclusion was that they said the issue happened after downloading music from apple.

hence why I said maybe it was the drive taking a long time to finish its tasks

lets await the reply of the OP and see where we stand spec wise and if its a MacBook Pro / MacBook Air / iMac

 

[Randy B. Singer]

hi randy no need to be sorry,

what also would help is the spec of the Mac in question just incase its only got 8gb ram

I'm sorry again, but that isn't the problem either.

8GB of RAM is more than plenty, in every single case, to keep a healthy Mac from exhibiting rotating beachballs "when you do anything."

For the last five or six years Macs have had extremely advanced memory management, including memory compression. Only the most demanding of professional applications would require more than 8GB of RAM, and only specifically when one ran them, not when you did *anything*.

Even when your Mac legitimately needs more than 8GB of RAM, it just hits the hard drive and uses virtual memory. That will slow down performance, but it shouldn't lead to an inordinate number of freezes and rotating beachballs.

Heck, a year or two ago, Apple had Mac models that couldn't be upgraded past 8GB ever. Why? Because it was plenty for just about 98% of Mac users.

Folks like to tell users when they are having a freezing/beachball problem to throw money at it. "Install an SSD!" "Install more RAM!" The problem is that those are just about NEVER the underlying problem to a freezing/beachball problem. Stop telling people to do that! Or at least have them run some tests first to see what they really need.

 

[MacInWin]

Folks like to tell users when they are having a freezing/beachball problem to throw money at it. "Install an SSD!" "Install more RAM!" The problem is that those are just about NEVER the underlying problem to a freezing/beachball problem. Stop telling people to do that! Or at least have them run some tests first to see what they really need.

Yes! Preach it, brother! Fix the speed problem first, then decide if hardware can help.

 

[ferrarr]

Some entry level Macs only come/came with 4gb ram.

 

[jasongoldworthy]

well I agree with you Ferrarr

looks like no matter what I say I may be wrong but.

as I said it could be a ram problem or a drive problem we don't know what machine they are running

we don't know if its an iMac or a MacBook Pro / Air

 

[Randy B. Singer]

The rule of thumb is: If one's Mac *ever* ran great with the amount of RAM and the hard drive that it came with, then the solution to a sudden slowdown problem ISN'T that they need an SSD or more RAM.

(Their RAM or hard drive might be failing. But one should determine that FIRST, before throwing money at the problem unnecessarily.)

 

[MacInWin]

I repeat: Yes! Preach it, brother! Fix the speed problem first, then decide if hardware can help. We do rush to add hardware when there may well be a fundamental software/configuration issue that will still be there.

 

[Slydude]

I've gone down this rabbit hole a time or two myself, particularly when it comes to adding memory. Once I learned to use and understand Activity Monitor, I haven't spent money unnecessarily on memory. Memory management is much better now than when I started using Macs (think LC II era).

 

[MacInWin]

The reason for more ram is to avoid swapping out to make memory available. With rotating disks and slow interface speeds, that swapping was a huge performance hit. In the new environment of a System-on-a-Chip M1 machine, the swap speed is pretty much at RAM speed, so swapping is not as big a performance killer as it was. When the time comes for me to get an Mx machine, I'll put my money on storage and not so much on RAM.

 

[Slydude]

Good idea. Now that you mention it, I'll probably do something similar. My current machine has 16 GB, and the debate will be, get the same amount or try to get by with 8 GB. By then, I might be doing more iMovie/FCP editing, so 16 GB might be nice

 

[techiesteve]

lets await the reply of the OP and see where we stand spec wise and if its a MacBook Pro / MacBook Air / iMac

The OP earlier stated it was an iMac running 11.5.1, with a 1TB HD with 80% free, but we haven't been updated with what iMac and its spec. As it's running 11.5.1 it has to be a 2014 model or newer. I suspect it will be a 21.5" iMac. The OP's last post was on Friday, nothing since then. Could be as the iMac was described as belonging to a friend so he doesn't have direct access to it.