Messages (on MacOS) has constant spinning beach ball

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Level 1

9 points

Messages (on MacOS) has constant spinning beach ball

Greetings,

For the past few years I have noticed that the messages application constantly has a spinning beach ball when launching and/or going back to it after using other apps. Specifically, the app may be opened but if you go to reply to someone it will go to a spinning beach ball where the app is locked up for 20+ seconds often upwards of an entire minute.

To resolve this, I have tried to log out of iMessage on all devices. This includes an iMac, MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and iPhone. After deleting all messages and logging out of all devices, I logged back in and both Macs continue to have the problem.

We then tried to wipe both computers (iMac and MacBook Pro); however, a clean installation and setup on the computer still yields the same result.

From there, we have purchased two new computers currently running the 2015 MacBook Pro 15" with Sierra 10.12.1 and a 2015 iMac with Sierra 10.12.1. The iMac has 32GB of RAM and the MacBook Pro has 16GB of RAM. It does not matter if other apps are open or not open.

The iPhone and iPad Pro associated with the same account work fine. I believe there is an issue where there is a server side corruption in working with the Macs.

Any ideas on how to correct?

Thank you,

David

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015), macOS Sierra (10.12.1), Also occurring on 2015 MacBook Pro.

Posted on Oct 28, 2016 10:27 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Ralph-Johns-UK

Level 9

76,789 points

Oct 29, 2016 2:16 PM in response to Avical

Hi,

In System Preferences > Internet Accounts reduce the number of Service trying to sync any Contacts app info.

In the Contacts App > Preferences > Accounts make sure only one account is being used (preferably the one being used by the iPhone and other iOS devices).

Obviously iCloud could also be a choice in this set up.

It is not an iMessages or iMessages server issue as such.

10:16 pm Saturday; October 29, 2016

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Sierra)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone 6 iOS 10.x and an iPad (2)

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Answer 2

Avical Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 29, 2016 2:38 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hi Ralph,

Thank you for the thorough reply, it is greatly appreciated! I checked the settings that you mentioned and there are only two accounts that are accessing contacts both cases.

1. iCloud - Used for personal contacts (family, friends, ect.)

2. Microsoft Exchange Server - Used for company contacts, clients, ect. The Exchange is based off of Exchange 2016 that is running the latest update and hosted in the cloud.

While it would be nice to turn off Exchange contacts, it isn't something I'm able to do as it makes working significantly difficult. 😟 Perhaps it is an issue with Microsoft Exchange Server being integrated? Do you think there may be any way to keep both connected to contacts, but alleviate the issue?

Thank you,

David

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Answer 3

Oct 30, 2016 2:09 PM in response to Avical

Hi,

I have an AIM name from Netscape days that I have also converted to an Email account.

I have My Apple ID email from a NON Apple source from when I had a dial up account.

I also have the @me.and @iCloud.com names linked to that that are being Used under one name in Mail.

I have Google and Yahoo accounts.

Sierra tried to turn all of these On for Contacts without asking me which is how I discovered the issue.

I don't have Exchange.

However I have not found a way to run more than one Account in Contacts.

Hasn't running the two moved all the Contacts to both your lists anyway ?

That appears to be the issue - in simple terms iCloud gets all the Exchange names then because iCloud was Updated they feed back to all the Devices and then Exchange needs updating cause the list now includes th Family followed by a round robin of an endless loop of checking.

9:09 pm Sunday; October 30, 2016

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Sierra)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone 6 iOS 10.x and an iPad (2)

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Answer 4

Avical Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 30, 2016 3:43 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hi Ralph,

Actually, they don't mix at all which is why we use Exchange. We found that with things like Google Apps they mixed them altogether. If my personal contacts uploaded to my companies Exchange Server it would sync to all of our employee devices and that would be really bad. Vice versa, the company doesn't want our client lists moving to our personal phone lists either. This is why having an iCloud for personal and an Exchange for business works well... Well, minus the would "messages beach ball issue." 😉

Best,

David

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Answer 5

Nov 2, 2016 7:55 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

I'm having the same trouble as Avical. I can not use Messages as there's a constant spinning beach ball. This started happening when I upgraded from OSX El Capitan to MacOS Sierra.

So I followed Ralph's good advice to shut off Contacts sync in iCloud. That worked! Thanks Ralph. I can now use Messages.

This is the only sync for the Contacts database so I now have to leave it off all the time in order to use Messages. I have a few other Internet Accounts but none are synching Contacts. I guess every few days I will shut down Messenger and turn on my iCloud Contacts sync so my iMac address book gets updated.

Feels like a bug to me. I am thinking of reformatting my HD and installing a fresh copy of Sierra to see if that fixes things.

Thanks again,

Dave

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Answer 6

Avical Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 2, 2016 12:22 PM in response to Spine-Man

Hi Dave,

I have both Exchange and iCloud set to Automatically "Fetch" in Address Book. I am going to change the sync to every hour as I don't seem to have a "disable" unless I am turning iCloud Contacts completely off. I'll let you know if that helps the situation.

I've wiped my computers and done clean installs on MacOS Sierra and that didn't fix it for me, but maybe you will have better luck.

Thanks for the feedback! 🙂

Dave

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Answer 7

Nov 2, 2016 2:42 PM in response to Spine-Man

Hi,

I have now seen several threads on this.

Whilst I have nothing concrete that are hints that very large numbers seem to be playing a part for some.

One person stated that reduced a 4,300 list down to 900 or so but noticed a change as the number was dropped below about 3000.

Mine is around 200.

9:42 pm Wednesday; November 2, 2016

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Sierra)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone 6 iOS 10.x and an iPad (2)

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Answer 8

Nov 3, 2016 8:28 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Dave: I adjusted my Contacts account settings to Fetch every hour. Rebooted the iMac, launched Messages and still got the spinning beach ball. I had to force quit the app again.

Ralph: I have about 2,500+ records in Contacts. I'd have to cull through my list one at a time and weed out the obsolete entries in order to get it below 1,000. But honestly, I might not be able to do that. It would take a long time. And why should I? Messages worked just fine until I upgraded to Sierra.

I'm still running Contacts without an active account enabled. It's the only way I can get Messages to work at this time. At least I have a workaround.

Thanks,

Dave from NJ

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Answer 9

Nov 3, 2016 1:15 PM in response to Spine-Man

Hi,

Report it http://www.apple.com/feedback/messages.html

You will not get any reply and if enough people also mention it, it will also be a while before we see any change via an update.

8:15 pm Thursday; November 3, 2016

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Sierra)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone 6 iOS 10.x and an iPad (2)

Reply