Big Sur: IconsFinger trouble. Spinning pinwheels & bouncing icons

Thank you jmangles,

I understand now, that recently you updated your 27" 2019 iMac Retina 5K, from Catalina to Big Sur 11.2.1. .

This the info. needed to complete the picture of the problems you are experiencing in your original post.

Hoping someone with greater knowledge will help you troubleshoot this situation.

In the meantime, as Big Sur is a major upgrade, a lot of fine-tuning has to go on behind the scenes to get everything running smoothly, after the upgrade. For example, I understand one of the things going on, is that Spotlight has to know (re-catalogue?) where everything is now, so it can find any file immediately when you search for it, and, of course, it uses energy to do that.

If you are familiar with Activity monitor, you could use it to see what is using the power, than you want to be using.

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/activity-monitor/welcome/mac

It may help your situation if you can leave your system turned on overnight, so some of the fine-tuning can be accomplished while you are not using it.

Feel free to let us know again, how things are going, and whether there is any improvement over time.

All the best.

.

Hi jmangles,

Thank you for your reply.

Sorry you are having such a frustrating time, and that your work is being hampered by the situation.

I am hoping someone in the Apple community with more expertise, will volunteer time to assist you through the situation.

Yes, Spotlight would likely only re-index everything once.

My experience in this area of fine-tuning after upload is scanty.

I understand the process is quite extensive, especially troublesome if your system is running so slowly

The activity monitor could tell you what is using up the power that you need to be using.

Very aware you need to speedily get things back to normal.

(If you want to try contacting Apple directly, you could start with the "Get Support" link at top right of this page.)

If you didn't do a "clean install" of Big Sur, it is possible your system could have memory or storage problems"

View memory usage in Activity monitor

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/activity-monitor/actmntr1004/mac

How to free up storage space on your Mac:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

All the best

Found there is another discussion about a slow Mac after update ... that has some helpful info:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252366357

Eg: If you added "Clean My Mac" software, that can be troublesome.

"Chrome" uses a hefty amount of power that some alternatives (Firefox) do not.

And more ...

As has already been suggested - Activity Monitor >> View >> View ALL Processes and look in CPU Tab for unusual CPU Usage and then look in Memory Tab for same. Often times, this can pinpoint a RunAway Process. Further, did you check of ALL Installed Applications are compatible with the Big Sur upGrade. Often times, it Application may function but an update of upGrade to said application is required to be more compatible with Big Sur.

The Computer - is new but is it a Fusion Drive - Big Sur is reported to not play too niece with them.

On different aspect - are there any AntiVirus, Disk Cleaner, Optimizers, Defrag, VPNs etc installed which should be removed as per Developers Instructions. They are useless, unneeded, cause havoc and interfere with the normal operation of the OS. The Built-in Security of Big Sur is all that is required.

Hi jmangles,

Welcome to the Apple Community.

I'm just another Mac user in the community, who would like to help.

Those "in the know" are all volunteers.

Thinking it might encourage an expert to help you:

If you let us know:

Which operating system you upgraded from (eg Catalina)

Then:

Which version of Big Sur you are running now? (eg: 11.2.1 , 11.2.2 ?)

Which computer ( ie MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac etc.) you are using Big Sur on.

What year of manufacture your computer is.

What your screen size is (eg: 15" ?)

All of the above can easily be found by clicking the Apple icon at the left of the top menu bar, and selecting "About this Mac".

Thank you for posting your query.

Hi,

Thank you. My daughter has had an issue previously with Mackkeeper, which AdMedic fixed beautifully. I am very cautious not to download anything that may cause an issue. I am also running Parallels, as I needed Windows to run a work related program. Processor; 2.5GHz Quad Core Intel Core i7. Memory; 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3

The instructions on the Activity monitor, I didn't completely understand, but I have binned a heap of unused apps, emptied the trash etc and reduced the memory used. I still have some memory pressure issues by the looks of it, but after clearing the caches (Safari & Chrome) and several restarts, it is showing improved available memory and is responding better, although still a bit on the slow side.

Thanks so much for the assistance. I really appreciate it.

Hi,

Same problem here. Have a 15" MBP Retina Mid 2015 running Big Sur 11.2.3.

Unbelievably slow, with the Big Pinwheel of death...

Heads Up - Parallels is not fully compatible with Big Sur YET.