Spinning beach ball of death problem

We already did that Carol. Verified and repaired. Didn't help. When I verified it said the partition maps seems to be OK. I verified and repaired both the startup disk and also the solid state drive. Both said everything seems to be OK. So nothing there.

Also did the permissions thing and nothing there either.

My Mac is brand new mid 2012 (non retina) with top specs maxed out 2.7GHz and 512 solid state drive. 16 gig so not by any means low on memory and I've only got some iTunes songs on it. Only using about 34 gigs as of now. No othe files, documents, no pictures just music.

Thanks Rack,

It sound positive like it's going to work just by the way your talking and the page you referred me to. I'm currently not at home right now and on a library computer but (stay-tuned) till tonight when I get home and try this. Then I'll post back with the outcome!

And when I say the wallpapers all vanished I'm not talking about any wallpapers that I've chosen that I've added or choosed. These are the default wallpapers that you get with the Mac. I'm on Galaxy on my desktop now but the default Mac wallpapers are blank. I also have no photos in iPhoto so I don't know why that showed up in the pane. I guess if you had a photo you could use that as a wallpaper but the movie with Jimmy Page of Zepplin showed up (It Might Get Loud) and I thought whats this doing showing up in here? So right after I click on that I thought maybe it was going to bring up the artwork for the (It MIght Get Loud movie) that I have in iTunes.

But all it did was start the blank screen and the beach ball of death! Ha!

The only thing I've ever installed on it is Adobe Flash Player. I do have Time Machine Backups dating all the way back to November 4, 2012 Do you think if I went into Time Machine before the problem happened and clicked on that (com.apple.screensaver.plist) file before the problem happend and then restored from Time Machine that that would fix it?

I'm turned off by creating another user account as I'm afraid that's gong to mess something else up like I won't be able to log in to something. Isn't that where you have to create a new Apple ID?

In System Preferences under Users and Groups I have no items to automatically start up at login. This also slows the computer down. I have guest account sharing only but don't use a guest account. It's there but I don't use it. It was created by itself.

Hi Linc. It worked but there's a catch! It all started working again and the Mac default wallpapers all reappeared again and I could set any wallpaper.

Now here's what's triggering it. I set up iCloud and that set up photo stream and so on etc. In the left pane under the desktop tab with the wallpapers, now in the left pane iphoto shows up as a list and has everything like events, places, flagged, last 12 months (all the stuff you would see if you had iPhoto open)

I don't have anything (any pictures in iPhoto, Nothing!) There something showing up in that list which is one of the extras from one of the movies I have in my iTunes. I don't even have that in iPhoto. That doesn't belong there. I clicked on everything under iPhoto in the left desktop tab pane and the second I clicked on that (It Might Get Loud Extras) it started the ball spinning again. This started all over again. Like I said in the real iPhoto I have not any pictures under any heading and this movie doesn't even appear when iPhoto is opened. Why is this movie extra in iTunes showing up in the list in the desktop tab in preferences wallpapers?

I fixed it again then I clicked on that movie again and that screwed it up again. I have in that pane all the things that you would normally see in iPhoto but that movie I don't even have in iPhoto and it's showing up with the rest of the things like events, places, last 12 months (you get the picture)?

That doesn't belong there and I don't even have that iTunes movie extra even with iPhoto open so what is a movie extra doing mixed in with the iphoto source list in the preferences under desktop? I double click on everything iPhoto and since I have nothing in iPhoto nothing happened, when I clicked on that movie extra that doesn't belong there. That's when the ball started rolling again and the screen went blank. Right now it's fixed as long as I don't click on that one movie extra.

I can't delete it out of there either. Would you know what's up with this? The problem is fixed as long as I don't click on a movie extra that I have in my iTunes that is mixed in there. Once that's clicked the ball of death and blank screen returns.

I also tried Racko's method and it didn't work. See above post. The screensave file recreated and came back with (lockfile) after it. Before it wasn't a lockfile. just com.apple. screensaver plist. Now it's recreated as (com.apple.screensaver.plist lockfile. Don't know what happened there.

Hi Linc,

Thanks a lot for your help and support it's greatly much appreciated. I'll be away for the weekend but keep this e-mail notification open and I will get back to you probably by next Tue. or Wed.

It might take me a while to figure out how to use the screenshot because I've only used it once just to try it out but with the link to the screenshot page you gave I'm sure after I read it I'll have it figured out. So I'll get back to you next week and Thanks again. The movies extra that shows up in the source list was never added by me and doesn't show up as a photo that was added. This movie extra is just like a bold heading that part of the source list in iPhoto that somehow got there and doesn't belong there. We'll get back to you with the screenshot of that source list. Then I'll open up iPhoto as well and show you the source list and there's no movie extra in there. I never used iPhoto for anything. So naturally when I click on anything in that source list I get the (get started in faces), (get started in places), (get started in events) screens because I don't use iPhoto. Just trying to give you an example that iPhoto was never used. It there in the pref I guess if I had added pictures and wanted to use it as a desktop wallpaper but no, my iphoto is not part of my desktop backrounds and there's no picture in it. I will get back to you. Thanks for the help and your patience.

HI Linc,

Here's the part I don't get after reading that page.

Drag a folder or entire volume (your hard drive) to the list.

Exactly what folder is this? If it's my hard drive what's the name of it and is it the Solid State Drive or the startup drive where exactly is this and what's it called and how do I get there. I think now I need a screenshot to show me exactly what your referring to. Also what list? The spotlight search box?

Thanks.

Where are the volumes at? Are volumes the hard drives that show up in disk utility. What do you mean by volumes. Do you mean Macintosh SSD I don't know why it's labled SSD because this is just the startup disk not my regular SSD drive. I'm stuck! Not sure what you mean by volumes. Do you want another screenshot? Sorry don't quite understand the terminology here. I know a volume is like a partition, something like that but in this case don't quite comprehend.

Finder has to be opened first right?, before clicking on go in top menu bar right? Then it shows the volumes and then what click on each of those volumes and what drag it to spotlight? The better detail you give me the better I'll understand what you mean. I'm already understanding you better now because your being more detailed. I've never done this before. I'm not at home right now but maybe once I re-read your details tonight when I get at my computer and go through the paces I'll understand better what you mean because I'll be able to see it. I think by volumes you mean Macintosh SSD (which is startup disk) then I've seen the network one before so I think I know what your mean but I'll have to look at my computer tonight to know exactly what your talking about. I'm sure I've seen these before.

So all the volumes show up there and you what click or drag to spotlight search? and then what? How long does it take it to index like a night long?

If it take during the night I'd have to set my energy saver for computer to sleep (Never) right? But the display can be left at minimum defaults right? Also should never put drives to sleep be unchecked? I don't know if this pertains to a spinning platter but I have SSD. I think I know what you mean now by volumes I have Mac SSD (which is startup drive but I don't know why it's referred to as an SSD) because it's the startup drive and not my main internal SSD and then I showed Network so I would only have to index those 2 drives right unless I see in prefs that that movie is gone would I be good enough or do recommend indexing the 2 drives anyway?

The only disc to be found was Macintosh SSD startup disc outside of network in that box that's the only thing that indexed had a barber pole going only took about 5 minutes. Went back to system preferences movie is still there, did other folders that within where a box opens up under privacy tab and clicked choose only a couple folders indexed with barber pole otherwise other folders did not index at all.

Now here's iPhoto app open. No It Might Get Loud Extra! Goes from places to Last 12 months.