Why is Quicktime freezing?

Paul Downie wrote:

the RAM *seems* to be an issue.

Your RAM is fine.

opening a months worth of scripts — pages documents — and recording them with QuickTime.

Could you explain this a bit more?

The problem with Spotlight seems pretty obvious. You have 30 TB of external storage. I'm guessing those aren't solid state devices. That's an awful lot of indexing to do. I recommend excluding these devices from Spotlight and/or disconnecting them if you aren't using them. That should resolve the problem.

It looks like one of those drives is for Time Machine. Usually the problem with Time Machine is when people use a drive that's too small. I think your Time Machine drive is too large. Spotlight is required for a Time Machine volume. Do you have non-Time Machine data on the drive? 13 TB of Time Machine data? It actually doesn't matter what your answer is. That's bad any way you look at it.

Time Machine is useful for backing up your startup drive. While it can backup external drives too, you can get into risky territory there. That's the reason for my question about "scripts", "pages", and QuickTime. You've got some kind of custom workflow there and I can guarantee that Apple didn't design Time Machine with your custom workflow in mind.

The easiest answer is to create a new APFS volume on your desired big external and use that restricted volume for Time Machine. Make it about 3 TB or so and that would be ideal for Time Machine. But that's an easy answer for someone who has an empty 18 TB drive. You already have 13 TB used for unknown data. You'll have to proceed very carefully there. I won't make any recommendation until I know more about where your data is and what you're using it for.

Re: "Why is Quicktime freezing?"

Am no expert in thiis area, yet your question deserves some response.

Seems from your Screenshot that your Mac is using all it's resources on other tasks running in the background. Eg: If you recently upgraded your MacOS, Spotlight may be quietly re-indexing everything.

_______________________________

Re: "How do I stop this happening?"

If you recently upgraded / updated MacOS ... Just be patient, and allow your Mac to complete the update process. Try to use the Mac for less demanding tasks (eg: than working with high-res images), maybe allow Mac to continue on overnight, until things get back to normal with everything operating smoothly

Else, if a recent upgrade / update is not the scenario,:

Try re-starting your Mac: (Apple Menu > Restart) to see if that restores order.

or

Apple support have an article online that may be helpful:

See what to do: If an app freezes or quits unexpectedly on Mac - Apple Support

Seems corespotlightd's high CPU use continues ... various apps have crashed, some more than once.

Third-party (non-Apple) apps such as unnecessary virus-checkers, ad-blockers, cleaners and the like, (even VPN) are notorious for causing interference.

For starters: Try turning off (or, better yet, use an un-installer from the developer to clear out any files it has created) the third-party cleaner app "Appcleaner.app" that the Etrecheck report shows is installed on your Mac.

Any third-party apps you find necessary, need to be kept up-to-date so they do not cause compatibility issues.

Reminder: I'm no expert in this area; ie: replied to do what I could, and to help get your discussion underway, when your question remained unanswered.

According to the Etrecheck report:

The Heavy CPU usage is the major issue that needs addressing right now.

Seems your Mac has 16 GB RAM (memory) and you have various processes running in the background that are using some of that.

Getting rid of the third-party cleaner app likely helped free up some more RAM for use. You may need to free up some more of that RAM to use with your workflow.

When you make demands on the memory by opening numbers of memory-intensive apps and / or a large number of Pages docs, or such, your Mac may require more RAM than is available to it, in order to carry out those tasks.

This likely explains why the Mac mini struggles, freezes, or overheats.

Your MacMini (2024) with M4 chip was purchased with 16 GB RAM installed.

(Other choices: 24GB, 32GB, 48GB, 64GB: Technical Specifications)

(Your 16GB RAM is "not upgradable" according to the Etrecheck report)

If you do not receive the answers you need here, you may want to reach out to Apple support.

Eg: Mac Desktop Support website: (has info. / support / contact options etc.)

iMac, Mac mini and Mac Desktops - Official Apple Support

Thank you for your reply, screenshots, and for sending feedback to Apple.

I also appreciate your thoughts, and info.

Re: "I can’t find Smart Delete …"

Maybe a Finder / Spotlight search can locate that ?

________

More info. (Pasted from Etrecheck report):

" User Login Items:

[Not Loaded] AppCleaner SmartDelete (Julien Ramseier - installed 2024-11-20)

Modern Login Item

/Applications/AppCleaner.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/AppCleaner SmartDelete.app "

____________

Smart Delete app was also an ingredient in serious Mac issues in another thread.

AWDL causing persistent WIFI Connectivity… - Apple Community

The very well respected community member assisting says:

"Install and Un-Install

the fundamental principles:

• anything installed with drag-and-drop to the /Applications folder can be un-installed by Drag-and-drop to the Trash. After a restart, the Trash can be emptied.

• anything installed with a complex installer program requires the manufacturer's un-installer program. sometimes this is included as an "option" in the Installer package, but the software-maker's web site should specify how to un-install (if they don't, they get swamped with users clamoring for Un-install Instructions)

• anything claiming to be an 'uninstaller helper' is just JUNK. (worse than web site click-bait)

Like this, for exapmle:

AppCleaner SmartDelete (Julien Ramseier - installed 2025-01-11)"

You didn’t provide details. Go to the menu bar in quick time and click file and then click movie inspector, (or if that doesn’t exist the only other place it could be is under the window menu.) and take a screenshot of the pop up window. Post it here. That can help us diagnose the problem. Also, tell me if your fans turned on or not.

Are you on a M series chip (Apple Silicon)? Check this in the classic “About this mac” button in the  menu.

What's in the /etc/hosts file here?

It usually looks like this:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1       localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost 
fe80::1%lo0	    localhost

And for clarity, the Ø character shown above is a zero, not the letter O.

Seems there is also another AppCleaner : SmartDelete.app to uninstall.

MacOS Tahoe is a major upgrade, requiring 10 Gb or so storage space ... during installation it was wise to have at least 50 - 60 Gb free, preferably more, for Mac to operate smoothly. Apple Intelligence installed earlier also makes demands on memory / storage. Seems Macs with 16 Gb RAM do struggle using Tahoe.

From the Etrecheck report:

That’s great. I see you found “my trick” with the @Gandolf243!

I was just wondering since a while ago I was playing a video that was (unknown to me) 120 fps!!! It occurred to me that that might be the problem here. It wasn’t but I am glad that you fixed it. I recommend that you find a way to report that to apple so that you (or anyone else) don’t have to wipe that folder every once in a while.