After becoming the proud owner of a iMac 2023, I find that the spinning ball appears much more than it did on my 2015 MacBook Air. It is rather concerning for such a new machine. Any ideas please?
iMac 24″, macOS 14.3
Post the free EtreCheck report using the Additional Text option when posting. You have an app that is consuming the resources.
Using EtreCheck - Apple Community
If you have any of these types of apps, they should be removed:
Post the free EtreCheck report using the Additional Text option when posting. You have an app that is consuming the resources.
Using EtreCheck - Apple Community
If you have any of these types of apps, they should be removed:
To avoid the question / answer and question answer scenario
Suggest the User starts with the Top Suggestion and test.
Thereafter, move down to the next and test again.
Keep on going in the Order that they have been presented or until you reach the Final Suggestion
Restart in Safe Mode. This will perform a Disk Repair, clear cache files and only load Apple Software, extensions and fonts. The boot up will be slow and can take some time - Normal.
Safe Mode will also eliminate Third Party Software, extensions and drivers from loading. It will only load the Minimum amount of Core Apple Processes to allow the the computer to function at a reduced Level of Performance
Does the issue present in this mode ?
Sometimes a Safe Boot followed by a Normal Boot will just put things right.
If not - there could be something in the main User Account playing up. To further isolate this - Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac. Then log out of the Main User account and log into the dummy account and test again if the issue persists.
If the issue is present in the dummy account - then, this appears to be a System Wide issue on the computer.
Download the Application Etrecheck ( External Link ) directly from the Developer.
The Application is Not a " Silver Bullet " and is only a tool to examine the Hardware / Software used on this computer
This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer Hardware / Software used on this computer
The application is free or paid from added features.
The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information.
Post back the Full Report - copy and paste - >>>> using the Additional Text Icon ( 3rd Icon to last ) <<<<
Lastly - should you decide to use and post the Report now or at a later time, we are willing to have a very close look and offer some insights
And No, I am not an AI / Chatbot poster
You are showing Spotlight working overtime trying to reindex the files on your drives. I would first try rebuilding the spotlight index:
Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support
Also consider adding the Lacie drive to the Privacy settings in Spotlight to prevent it from indexing that drive to see if there is an improvement. The Lacie drive is using the SeagateDiskService kernel extensions which may be interfering with the indexing done by Spotlight.
If that did not help and your beach balling just started happening yesterday after installing DuckDuckGo, I would recommend testing that by moving it to the trash and restart. The program is easy to download again from the App Store or move out of the trash so testing is easy. I have not seen any problems with DuckDuckGo and don't suspect anything, but it is running a VPN process on login that could slow web surfing or DropBox performance.
Overall your system is pretty clean without the many System Extensions and Launch items that we normally see consuming resources the cause a slow down.
The EtreCheck report showed that DuckDuckGo ver1.75.1 was installed yesterday, but it could have ben an update. It is showing DuckDuckGo VPN being a Login Item within the app. You may have a setting for it in the app or may see it at > System Settings > General > Login Items.
I am still thinking the drive indexing is what is giving you the slow down, but did not realize the Lacie drive was used for Time Machine. Were you able to re-index spotlight using the link. It will take a while before that completes and you would be able to notice a difference. What else is listed as Backup in the screenshot of the Finder window?
Does booting into Safe Mode make a difference?
It appears your Spotlight indexing is now operating as expected. I would still check the Toolkit provided by Seagate to make sure it is not doing any Mirroring or additional backup options. It looks like Toolkit is in your Application folder and may also appear in your System Settings. More information about Toolkit can be found here.
https://www.seagate.com/support/software/toolkit/
I also have Family Tree Maker 2019. Make sure it is updated to 24.2.2. I use it frequently and also notice that startup is slow. Also if you are syncing with Ancestry, it further delays the startup. The app does not run natively on Apple Silicon, so it relies on Rosetta 2 for emulation, but there is nothing we can do about that.
The one thing I'm not sure about is in the screenshot showing your background processes, there is one called "rm" from an unidentified developer. Can you click on the info button to reveal additional information?
To force Spotlight to reindex, drag any folder from your computer, such as your Documents folder, into the Privacy settings of Spotlight. After you drag it in, then remove it by selecting it and clicking the "-" button. This will force Spotlight to re-index all files.
You won't be able to prevent the Lacie drive from indexing since it is your Time Machine drive.
The drives maybe reported as fine
Though I still see the below appearing in your Second Etrecheck Report
1- SeagateDiskService.kext - com.seagate.IOSED01 (67.0 - SDK 10.10)
2 - com.wdc.WDPrivilegedHelper.plist
Fail to understand the Need or Requirement to have, often times Buggy Third Party Software for the Manufacture, installed and used to Control the External Drives(s)
Safe Boot would have eliminated the Third Party software used to manage the external drive (s )
MacOS is very able to manage external drives without Third Party software interfering in this
Outside fro the other suggestion with are all good ones.
Though on the below with a 256 GB SSD and Lacie External Drive using 3 Volumes for what purposes
Perhaps OP can enlighten us
Apple M3
Drives:
disk0 - APPLE SSD AP0256Z 251.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)
disk4 - LaCie Mobile Drive 1.00 TB (Mechanical)
External USB 5 Gbit/s USB
disk4s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB
disk4s2 [APFS Container] 1000.00 GB
disk5 [APFS Virtual drive] 1000.00 GB (Shared by 3 volumes)
disk5s1 - B*************c (APFS) (101.09 GB used)
disk5s2 - H***********e (APFS) (426.88 GB used)
disk5s3 - B*************c (APFS) (2.49 GB used)
disk5s1 - B*************c
Filesystem: APFS
Mount point: /Volumes/B*************c
Encrypted
Used: 101.09 GB
Shared values
Size: 1000.00 GB
Free: 469.33 GB
disk5s2 - H***********e
Filesystem: APFS
Mount point: /Volumes/H***********e
Used: 426.88 GB
Shared values
Size: 1000.00 GB
Free: 469.33 GB
disk5s3 - B*************c
Filesystem: APFS
Mount point: /Volumes/B***************1
Encrypted
Used: 2.49 GB
Shared values
Size: 1000.00 GB
Free: 469.33 GB
Are you using any mirroring software on your Lacie drive as noted here:
LaCrie External Drive Toolkit vs. Mac Tim… - Apple Community
Also found another Support Article that may be related, but not sure if it has anything to do with the issue you are having:
Hi. Prior to etrecheck I rebooted in Safe Mode followed by First Aid on everything in Disc Utility that I could see. All stated 'succesfull' so I presume it was all ok.
I have a Lacie portable hard drive that is permently attached; and also a Cannon printer/scanner but not by wires.
Hi. The mac won't accept the Lacie drive. So I can't add it to spotlight. What shall I do?
And I have had duckduck for years. What is VPN and can I stop it? Shall I get rid of duckduck or can I fix it?
I'm sorry, but which file/files do I want to put in to spotlight? the beachballing is quite random.
And, I went to login items and found this. I turned off dropbox as it was driving me nuts and i admit i did not know how to stop it. Are there any others things that I should stop on log in? Seagate and Western digital? Are they both Lacie? And rm is Cannot printer. I'll do the spotlight thing when you can get back to me. thanks again.
As there has been a lot of Back and Forth between yourself and the Other Contributor related to this computer issue
Out of respect to the hard work already done by them
Better I take the position of Observer and allow the Other Contributor to join back in and take the Lead Role
Spinning ball of death appears too often on my new iMac.
