Q: Spinning circle when logging out

All the usual caveats apply, backup before you modify the system, delete the items (or move them to another disk or folder if you are worried about deleting the wrong thing) but ensure the originals are gone or updated.

Use the Finders "Go menu > Go to Folder…" to open the hidden ~/Library (your users library).

Reboot for the system changes to take effect.

There is a quick test for you, considering how much 3rd party stuff you have running. Safe mode, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455 . If that is much more usable it is because of all the crap that is set to run on login & at the system level. Safe boot will make some things not work, because it disables some core extensions - that is normal.

You have CleanMyMac installed, which has a bad reputation for deleting system files & generally using up the system resources with necessary tasks.

See some of the CleanMyMac threads for info on removal & whether you need it.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23541217#23541217

https://discussions.apple.com/message/22738441#22738441

http://macpaw.com/support/cleanmymac/knowledgebase/how-to-uninstall-cleanmymac-2

It's also worth checking if LogitechControlCenter is up to date, I think other uses have said it is incompatible with 10.9

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23703820?ac_cid=tw123456#23703820

J.Patrick wrote:

 

Kernel Extensions:

          com.Logitech.ControlCenter.HID

 

Launch Daemons:

          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

          [loaded] com.freemacsoft.appcleanerdaemon.plist

          [loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent.plist

          [loaded] com.quark.quarkupdate.plist

 

Launch Agents:

          [loaded] com.Logitech.Control Center.Daemon.plist

          [loaded] com.quark.quarkupdate.agent.plist

 

User Launch Agents:

          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist

          [loaded]com.leadertech.PowerRegister.LGT2.c59807af95d106639fca8f10676ced62.plist

          [not loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.helperTool.plist

          [not loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.trashSizeWatcher.plist

          [not loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.volumeWatcher.plist

          [loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.diskSpaceWatcher.plist

          [not loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.scheduledScan.plist

          [loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.trashWatcher.plist

          [loaded] ws.agile.1PasswordAgent.plist

 

User Login Items:

          Mail

          Dropbox

 

3rd Party Preference Panes:

          Flash Player

          Flip4Mac WMV

          Growl

          Logitech Control Center

          Perian

          Quark Update Preferences

 

Internet Plug-ins:

          AdobePDFViewer.plugin

          AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin

          CouponPrinter-FireFox_v2.plugin

          Default Browser.plugin

          Flash Player.plugin

          FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin

          iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

          JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

          QuickTime Plugin.plugin

          Silverlight.plugin

          Yahoo! Installer 3.plugin

 

User Internet Plug-ins:

          Move-Media-Player.plugin

          Yahoo! Installer 3.plugin

 

Kernel Extensions:

Inside /Library/Extensions/

These also load third party code, but they insert it into the 'core' of the OS. These can be safe, however you must ensure the related tools or apps are up to date, otherwise the system is basically built upon quicksand. Remove them all & see if the OS works better.

Launchd jobs: several types

LaunchAgents          - Stored in /Library/LaunchAgents

LaunchDaemons      - Stored in /Library/LaunchDaemons

User LaunchAgents  - Stored in ~/Library/LaunchAgents

These are all background jobs, they are not necessarily bad, but if they are loading old code it could be doing untold damage to the performance & stability of the entire OS. Focus on the System level jobs (the ones inside /Library - the system level) also look at 'failed' jobs.

EtreCheck gives a status on launchd jobs…

[loaded]                  - a running job

[not loaded]            - jobs that are set not to run, basically harmless, remove them unless you plan to use the associated software (if it is up to date)

[failed]                   - jobs in a crashed or unknown state, it could be forking processes or using all the system resources, remove these.

User login items:

Applications and helpers that are managed inside 'Systems Preferences > Users and groups > Login Items tab'.

These are loaded at the 'User level', consider removing all of them whilst you troubleshoot.  When you decide to re-add them ensure the software is up to date.

3rd Party Preference Panes: & Internet Plug-ins:

/Library/PreferencePanes/ and ~/Library/PreferencePanes/

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ and ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/

Once again these items all must be up to date, or remove them from your system. If the prefpanes manage additional software use the uninstaller or see the developers site for uninstall instructions.

Read the list of Internet plug-ins carefully, there are often duplicate Flash player versions that won't help stability, it's just wasted space too.

Don't forget to also update Safari's extensions in it's preferences (if you have any).

Re-run EtreCheck to see if any items are still running, some apps will re-establish the background jobs when opened (hence the need to update or remove).

Well Logitech Control Center was one of the problems. Logitech just issued an update to version 3.9

Edit: Due to an annoying forum bug I did not see recent responses until posting this one. You can disregard it.

Message was edited by: John Galt

I had the same issues and uninstalling the Westerdern Digital Smartware software seems to have done the trick, and dramatically sped up the Mac also.  It wasn't set up for RAID (as far as I know) and I was using one partition as a Time Machine drive and another for backing up a NAS drive. 

Also found that the WD Smartware unistaller already installed did not work, but downloaded another from the WD site which did work: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=119&sid=214&lang=en

I had a similar problem, where logging out would give me a gray screen with just my arrow cursor, but I didn't have the Western Digital drivers installed. This thread was still helpful, though. I used EtreChecker and found out I had to delete /System/Library/Extensions/ElmediaPlayer.kext which I didn't even know I had. More details here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/24661754#24661754

Er.. Oops I go back on my previous comment.

After more testing, I discovered that ElmediaPlayer was NOT the culprit. Rather, it was this sequence of steps:

1. Install Soundflower

2. Move /Applications/Soundflower into a different folder (e.g. subfolder)

THAT is the true cause of my problem. I didn't notice it before because right after re-installing Soundflower, I hadn't moved the folder yet. So appologies to ElmediaPlayer for my false accusation.

I don't know what difference moving the app will make but Soundflower has a kernel extension. Re run EtreCheck to see it. If you don't need it remove it via the uninstaller that is inside the download dmg.

It's possible Soundflower is conflicting with something else if you need to move the app to make the Mac stable.

It's a 'sound extension', so I'd check all apps that may use it are up to date.

I'd also suggest a boot into safe mode to rebuild kernel extensions between tests (hold shift @ boot, then reboot at the login window to enter a normal boot).

Drew, Yes I know. That's why I was looking into it in the first place. But if I leave the Soundflower directory in /Applications/ it works fine, so I'm happy. I suspect the Soundflower kernel extension code simply has /Applications/Soundflower hard-coded so it breaks when you move the folder. (This doesn't surprise me, because its uninstaller is just a list of commands that includes removing a hard-coded /Applications/Soundflower folder, so there's probably other hard-coding in there...)

I did in fact run EtreCheck and found my list of kernel extensions. That's how I decided what to try uninstalling. I uninstalled ElmediaPlayer, Soundflower, and ControllerMate and found that the problem went away. I re-installed Soundflower and ControllerMate, and the problem was still gone, so I deduced that it was ElmediaPlayer. But then I moved the Soundflower folder, and the problem returned, so I realized the problem was actually with moving the Soundflower folder and not with ElmediaPlayer.

Ah, that makes more sense.

I am having the exact same isseus but i have almost nothing installed. I have noticed it seems to strike newer EFI makes than older. My Imac  2011 for instance lighting fast log out shutdown etc. This is what seems to be the common demoninator. I am open to ideas

EtreCheck version: 1.9.11 (43) - report generated May 28, 2014 at 3:53:00 PM CDT

Hardware Information:

          MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)

          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro10,1

          1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores

          8 GB RAM

Video Information:

          Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: (null)

          NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - VRAM: 1024 MB

System Software:

          OS X 10.9.3 (13D65) - Uptime: 0 days 0:6:20

Disk Information:

          APPLE SSD SM256E disk0 : (251 GB)

                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 250.14 GB (204.56 GB free)

                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

USB Information:

          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

          Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Thunderbolt Information:

          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper:

          Anywhere

Launch Daemons:

          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

          [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support

User Login Items:

          None

Internet Plug-ins:

          SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.0 Support

          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support

          Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support

          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

Audio Plug-ins:

          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

          AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9

          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9

          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins:

          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

3rd Party Preference Panes:

          Flash Player  Support

Time Machine:

          Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

              12%          WindowServer

               3%          Dock

               2%          hidd

               1%          fontd

               1%          SystemUIServer

Top Processes by Memory:

          197 MB          Safari

          106 MB          Dock

          92 MB          com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

          90 MB          mds_stores

          66 MB          WindowServer

Virtual Memory Information:

          4.99 GB          Free RAM

          1.91 GB          Active RAM

          235 MB          Inactive RAM

          884 MB          Wired RAM

          345 MB          Page-ins

          0 B          Page-outs

Can you try the reinstall like FlameLegend? The installer has the default option to 'Reinstall Mavericks' that will cause it to overwrite the system files. It should leave your user accounts & applications in place (you may need to re-apply software updates).

Obviously the Mac should be fully backed up before you begin something so drastic, but it may help?