How to stop the revolving lollipop?

It can be hard to tell sometimes if the computer is busy processing, when you see the "revolving lollipop" or "spinning beachball", or has gotten hung up on the user's request.

Actually, it is here on these Apple Discussions forum that I'm most rolling my eyes waiting for Safari to return a link I clicked. There is a file in the discussion help files talking about the three servers used here, and you might get stuck on one that is slow. That may be, but the tip I picked up here (quit Safari every now and again as it takes over the Mac OS) seems to return me to speedy surfing all around the WWW.

Hello again...Safari has lately been a 'memory hog'...I keep Activity Monitor open in the Dock and set to display memory usage.

It is easy to monitor Safari's ever increaseing use of RAM...

Robert is right about a quit/restart of Safari to clear the RAM

may verywell explain things...

Hello All,

No one has yet mentioned maintenance in this thread. The dreaded "Lollipop" can be reduced or even removed totally by some pretty simple steps...

1. Make sure you have backups of any vital data.

2. Run a permissions repair from Disk Utilities, having first removed all cables from your respective machines. Apart from keyboard and mouse ( or Monitor where appropriate ) Re- start when Utilities has completed its tasks.

3. Download something like Onyx from here

Be very careful to read all the instructions and please make sure you get the correct version - There is an update for 10.4.3 @ versiontracker.com

There are other things that can help too:-

Deleting the icons folder from Safari....

Home Folder > Library > Safari > Icons.

The icons folder can be safely deleted - it can speed up browsing greatly.

Running fewer Applications at the same time also helps.

I hope this helps at least some of you if not all.

Cheers

Ian

Herschel, its a quirk of only Safari, AFAIK, because it is specially designed for the Mac OSX. Other browsers don't have this advantage of the being streamlined with the Mac OS. So its swings and roundabouts...or spins and roundabouts. 🙂

Edit: Just saw you mention Firefox, yes I want to begin using that one too.

Dave, I'll set up Activity Monitor and watch the RAM, if it will show when Safari begins to hog the memory. Can't recall how much memory it's supposed to be allocated. But this 'new' OSX is supposed to just switch memory to the active program--have to refresh my mind on that.

Remember, its possible to Force Quit from an applications contextual menu in the Dock. If an app. returns the beachball I check - by clicking and holding the apps icon in Dock - to see if "Application Not Responding" is showing at the top of its contextual menu.

BTW, forget to mention in first post - Force Quit in the Apple menu, what is the third key in the keyboard shortcut? Is it the power key?

Edit: Ian, yes, basic maintenance shouldn't go without saying. Icons yes I will delete. Wonder if you'll comment on memory switching as I spoke on.
Finally, ican I set Safari to image off browsing? I saw an automator action or script for it yesterday, but would have thought it was a standard feature.

TIA

Never used a Windows PC til 2 years ago...Herschel...I haven't seen the same complaints for Firefox..or any other browser...do a 'search' of the Discussions..memory...safari....hog...

Again...learning to watch and use 'Activity Monitor' will help you establish what is going on with your iMac

dave

Herschel...wondering which apps. you are haveing trouble with?

You should be able to click on the Apple in the upper menu bar and select Force Quit...then be shown a list of open apps. to quit.