What does the spinning rainbow circle symbol mean on a MacBook?

Although the MacBook Pro has changed over the past five years, one thing remains the same: No matter which model you own, you will at some point encounter what MacBook users less affectionately call the “wheel of death.” This rainbow circle, also called a spinning wait cursor, pinwheel, or beach ball (also of death), always seems to appear at the worst times, interrupting your flow. It’s a frustrating inconvenience, but what does it actually mean?

The rainbow circle taking over your mouse cursor basically means the computer is overloaded at the moment. It’s a way of telling you to give him a minute to process everything. You’ve put too many demands on the MacBook, whether through multiple running apps or an app that’s using a lot of resources. You may also be running out of memory or disk space.

Whatever the reason, the only thing you can really do is wait until it finishes spinning and disappears. If this only appears for a few seconds, the computer is just processing slowly and there is nothing to worry about. However, more often than not, it could mean that you are experiencing a memory, CPU, or storage problem. And if it spins for several minutes with no end in sight, something more serious is going on. Fortunately, there are things you can do to understand why this problem appeared in the first place and fix it.

The spinning wheel typically triggers if an app takes more than four seconds to handle a task. If the rainbow wheel has been spinning for so long that you get dizzy just looking at it, there may be something seriously wrong with an app you have open. This is when it makes sense to force close the offending application. Hold down Order + Option + Escape and a dialog box will appear showing all the applications you currently have open. Find the one that says not responding, select it and choose Force quit. Alternatively, select the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, choose Force quitand follow the same steps from there. If the problem persists with the same app, you may need to reinstall it or your MacBook may not have the resources to support it.

If you find that the wheel keeps coming back and persists no matter what you do, you may need a hardware upgrade because the Mac simply can’t keep up with your usual demands. But before resorting to this, there are some things you can try.

If the spinning wheel appears more often than you would like, there are steps you can take to improve your MacBook’s performance. First, check your disk space. Low operation can slow down the hard drive and cause this spinning wheel to spin up. Go to System Settings > General > Storage to see how much disk space you have left and what is taking up most of it. Delete apps you no longer need or use and delete large files or transfer them to an external hard drive or iCloud. Use the Optimize Storage tool to automatically delete unnecessary files.

Also check the activity monitor (Researcher > Applications > Utilities) to see which applications are using the most resources and quit them if they are not needed. If the system load is above 50%, you will need to close applications to give the processor a chance to breathe. Also scan your Dock: click and hold on apps you don’t use and choose To leave to close them. We’ve found that if a Mac is on and running for weeks, it starts to run out of system resources. The quickest and easiest solution is to close everything and restart the computer. The spinning rainbow circle (or beach ball) appeals to every Mac user at one time or another, but that doesn’t always mean you need to upgrade your MacBook. With these tips, you can bounce it right off your screen and get back to work.