The spinning beachball has taken over my MacBook Pro since upgrading to Big Sur

Hi Sfrench,

Thanks for your post! Based on the information provided, you've had issues with your MacBook not responding. We'll do our best to help out.

First, make sure you've got all apps up to date. As we update our macOS, it's important that third-party apps are current, as well. If they were downloaded using the Mac App Store, then you can launch this and select Updates on the left to ensure they're up-to-date.

Have you recently upgraded to this Mac? For example, if you recently restored a backup from Time Machine or signed in to iCloud, then this could cause issues while the Mac is still syncing. This should continue to get better as time goes on (24-48 hours).

Do you hear a lot of fan noise when this happens, then we'd also try these other recommendations: About fans and fan noise in your Apple product

This could be related to a start up or launch items, since these would start when you log in. Should the issue persist, we'd check Activity Monitor for any processes under the CPU and Energy tabs that might be running higher than expected. This explains more about how to use Activity Monitor: Activity Monitor User Guide Which apps/processes seem to be using the most energy/cpu?

Hoping this assists in solving the concern, so you can get back to using your MacBook normally. Wishing you the best, take care!