Escape The Spinning Beach Ball Of Death

The Spinning Beach Ball Of Death can mean many things:

• An App has frozen as the Mac is trying to process too many tasks at the same time.
• The App is damaged.
• You have a hardware problem.
• You are about to die in some bizarre unexpected way.

What Should You Do:

Nothing.

Sit back and relax for a minute or two. If the Mac is trying to process several tasks, it will eventually free up enough processing power to handle your App. This option is preferable as you lose no data.

If the ball won’t stop bouncing, the only option is to Force Quit the App.

• Go to the black Apple in the top left hand corner of the toolbar.
• Choose Force Quit . . .
• The “Force Quit Applications” box will appear.
• Scroll to find the frozen App. You will probably see a message in red stating the App is (not responding).
• Click on the App. Click the Force Quit button.
• You’ll be asked to verify your choice. Click Force Quit.

And That’s It?

It’s possible that when you relaunch the App, it will freeze again.

If this occurs you need to close all your Apps and restart the machine. This pretty much always resolves the problem.

Other Possibilities:

If the App crashes on a consistent basis, it is either damaged or you have a hardware problem.

To fix a damaged App:

• Uninstall the App. Download a clean copy and re-install it.
• If the above does not work, it may be worth re-installing the operating system. It’s a simple process.

If none of these options work your Mac may be suffering hardware problems:

• Run Disk Utility to verify the integrity of your hard drive,
• Bring the Mac to Apple or an Apple Certified third-party repair shop. Remember to make a backup first.

That’s it. Have a fun week.

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