Spinning Beach Ball - Help me keep PEACE in my house

[OldManJimbo]

Is there any method of determining what causes a 2016 MacBookAir to very frequently show the beach ball?

My wife is extremely impatient with her Air - she constantly complains about the spinning beach ball. She re-starts almost every day. All the apps are latest versions - she really doesn't do much with it other than Facebook and the web pages opened when clicking links in Facebook. When I look at her machine, I see that she often has 10+ windows open in Safari - but she also claims that the "damn spinning ball" occurs even when there are just a few tabs open.

I've tried to tell her that closing open tabs would help, but she doesn't believe me.

My question - is there a utility that would show why the beach ball occurs?

 

[BrianBaughn]

No particular utility. You'll probably have to go through several steps and checks to see if you can pinpoint the reason(s).

First, does she get beachballs before she starts Safari?

 

[satcomer]

On the affected Mac get the Free application EtreCheck. Think of it as a supersized System Report that will point you to old files you then could manually delete, then reboot.

 

[OldManJimbo]

No particular utility. You'll probably have to go through several steps and checks to see if you can pinpoint the reason(s).

First, does she get beachballs before she starts Safari?

No - the spinning only occurs when using Safari

 

[BrianBaughn]

No - the spinning only occurs when using Safari

Check to see if any Safari Extensions are causing the issue. First, see if any need to be updated. Second, test Safari with Extensions "off".

 

[OldManJimbo]

Check to see if any Safari Extensions are causing the issue. First, see if any need to be updated. Second, test Safari with Extensions "off".

There were only two extensions - a coupon finder, and an Amazon wish-list button. I deleted the coupon thing. Kept the Amazon app because I figure they probably know what they're doing.

I'll see if she complains less frequently about the beach ball.
[doublepost=1482512151][/doublepost]

On the affected Mac get the Free application EtreCheck. Think of it as a supersized System Report that will point you to old files you then could manually delete, then reboot.

Ran the report, and it is way too technical for me. You mentioned it would show "old files" - where might those be listed on the report?

 

[Bruno09]

Hi,

please post the report here so that we can help you.

Also download and run this : https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

 

[satcomer]

There were only two extensions - a coupon finder, and an Amazon wish-list button. I deleted the coupon thing. Kept the Amazon app because I figure they probably know what they're doing.

I'll see if she complains less frequently about the beach ball.
[doublepost=1482512151][/doublepost]

Ran the report, and it is way too technical for me. You mentioned it would show "old files" - where might those be listed on the report?

Post the printout. We will then study it to see if you need to delete some things. Just block out your personal information!

 

[ardent73]

Is there any method of determining what causes a 2016 MacBookAir to very frequently show the beach ball?



My question - is there a utility that would show why the beach ball occurs?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464

if it is just Safari consider a third party browser... https://www.brave.com/

 

[HDFan]

Did you clear all history (Safari/Clear History), Website Data (Preferences/Privacy/Manage Website Data ....) and passwords (if you have a password manager)? Be aware that this means Safari won't remember anything that you've done in the past, so if Safari has a password that you don't remember for a website that could be a problems.

As for the extensions until Safari is stable I would delete everything. You want to basically have it as it was when first installed to verify that it works as it should. Then as you add things back if it starts beach balling you can figure out what is causing the problem.

 

[Weaselboy]

Ran the report, and it is way too technical for me. You mentioned it would show "old files" - where might those be listed on the report?

Post the report here for us to take a look. The report is anonymized, so contains no identifying information about you.

Also, I would bet money that coupon extension is adware. Download and run MalwareBytes like Bruno09 suggested to check for malware/adware.