Getting the "beachball" in Photos

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Hawk12-74 Author

Level 1

5 points

Getting the "beachball" in Photos

So this just started this morning...

MacBook Pro mid 2014 running 11.6.8. Keep getting a beachball when selecting a photo in Photos.

I can select photos in albums and in the library, just double click on the photo.

Made a new library and added 2 photos from my phone. Still got the beachball.

Long time Mac user (have an SE).

Have multiple Time Machine backups.

Is there a way to see what's running?

Nothing changes on Activity Monitor screen 92-96% idle.

Is it possible the app is corrupt?

Any help would be appreciated.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jul 25, 2022 9:44 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Hawk12-74 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 25, 2022 2:01 PM in response to Hawk12-74

Great news.

Tony's help resolved the issue. I powered down the computer and waited the usual 15-20 seconds and restarted the computer.

Opened the Photos application and clicked on any photo and sure enough it went full size.

I should have done that without asking!!! But really appreciate the whack in the back of my head lol.

Also thank you to Old Toad for your response. I don't use those cleaning, speedup or optimizing programs. Apple does a better job. I do keep the photo's on the laptop itself, not on an external drive. Don't use the cloud, as I'm in the country and use my phone as a hot spot for internet. Fortunately I have several time machine backups, so there is not much lost if the laptop decides to leave me stranded. Still have a little bit over 133 GB of the 500 available on the internal SSD.

I didn't see any other performance issues with the laptop, so I thought it was an app related issue. I am also using the Photo application quite a bit as I am inventorying my business assets.

Thanks again for your quick help and response.

Dan

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Answer 2

Jul 25, 2022 12:40 PM in response to Hawk12-74

Hi

Where is your library stored? If on an external drive, what is the format.

As a start, try restarting your mac in safe mode and try to see if it works then.

If it does, then start normally and try again.

Safe mode will clear temporary files and caches, and sometimes fixes odd glitches such as this.

See:

Start up your Mac in safe mode – Apple Support (UK)

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

215,954 points

Jul 25, 2022 1:15 PM in response to Hawk12-74

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

Also how much free space do you have on your boot drive?

Log into a new, basic, admin user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac, and see if the problem persists. This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

215,954 points

Jul 25, 2022 2:29 PM in response to Hawk12-74

I take it from your reply that you don't shut down your laptop often, just sleep it. Rebooting frequently clears out temporary system and application cache and swap files which, if they get damaged can cause performance problems.

What drives are SSDs shutting down at night and rebooting in the morning doesn't take long so it's not a big inconvenience like the older rotation drives were.

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Answer 5

Hawk12-74 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 25, 2022 10:03 PM in response to Old Toad

You are correct, I seldom shut down the laptop. If I do its because it going to be unplugged for quite a while.

I do run First Aid periodically.

I will probably restart it before doing Time Machine backups every 5-10 days.

I run my small business with the laptop...

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Getting the "beachball" in Photos

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