Spinning Wheel of Death - More and More a Problem

[Grilled Cheese]

I have an M1 Max MacBook Pro and I'm getting the spinning wheel of death showing up more and more often for no apparent reason. It can happen in response to all sorts of basic functions that should be effortless for the M1 Max. For example, I might simply click on a folder in Finder, or click to open a plugin in Logic and -bam- spinning wheel for 15-20 seconds before it goes away and everything is back to normal.

It can happen right after a fresh boot up.
It can happen when processor activity is really low, and when my RAM (64gb) is barely being used.
I have almost 2tb of free space on my 4tb drive.
MacOS: 15.5.

This was not an issue 2 years ago. Now it happens 2-5 times per day. Any idea why this would be happening?

 

[doolar]

Tough one to diagnose. I would start with running Apple Diagnostics to have it check anything obvious.

 

[Fishrrman]

I would look for one or more applications or processes that are running amok "in the background".

Here's a way to see if the problem is "localized" in your user account:
- Go to users and groups settings
- Create a NEW user with administrative privileges. Give it any name/password you want. Consider it to be "experimental" -- you can just delete it later on.
- Now, log OUT of your "regular" account and Log into the newly-created account.

Try browsing around for a while that way.

Are you still getting the "spinning wheel of death"?
Or... do they suddenly disappear?

If you're STILL getting them... then it's probably something OS-based.
If you're NOT getting them... then it's like something "in your account". You have to find out what.

Why not upgrade to 15.7.1 ?