Freeform slow/unresponsive on Mac, requires force quit

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Freeform slow/unresponsive on Mac, requires force quit

Despite turning off the grid dots and reducing my boards to pretty small sections of content, Freeform is quite often either VERY slow to respond (like 5-10 minutes of hanging up) or won't respond at all and has to be force quit. This makes it useless. I'm on a Mac Desktop with Tahoe 26.3 with a 3.8 GHz 8-core intel core i7 processor, graphics AMD Radeon Pro 500 XT 8 GB and memory of 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4. Is it my computer (too old? too slow?) or Freeform as a program? Any suggestions? I can't put less content on each board. I've already cut a project up into 4 separate boards to try to fix this problem. If I have to divide the project any further, the boards becomes pointless.

iMac 27″, macOS 26.3

Posted on Feb 25, 2026 8:22 AM

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Answer 1

ACZG Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 28, 2026 6:39 AM in response to ACZG

I took most of the fill colors (the whole shape has a color) off my board and simplified the variety of shapes and border types. That helped CONSIDERABLY. I was able to recombine the project into one board and the hang ups have almost completely stopped. A bummer I can't color code shapes. I hope Apple finds a way to fix this.

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Answer 2

May 4, 2026 4:03 PM in response to ACZG

Team

I have found that if i wait for Freeform to fully load before attempting to paste an item I am less likely to induce a fright, flight, fight, freeze response from the program. It will then run seamlessly for a while and conk out later in the day. It seem to happen after a wake up - like any 3 yo from a nap - that look they get until the frontal lobe kicks in. It seems like a glitch at start up - especially if open overnight/for sometime. I will be closing it routinely after use now and see if that helps. Mike

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Answer 3

Apr 27, 2026 7:47 PM in response to ACZG

ACZG

I have had the same issues since Tahoe 26.4.1 (or thereabouts). New AIR M5 with 32G so nothing should be slow

Freeform occasionally will not start or it will freeze when I am pasting an image. I have to Force Quit and reopen. It was not a problem 3 months ago. I have stopped submitting reports to Apple - 20 should be enough. Thansk for the post. Mike

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Freeform slow/unresponsive on Mac, requires force quit

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