Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Beachballs on M1
- Thread starter fumi2014
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This is an old thread with no replies for a while. Has the problem been sorted with OS / app updates and people are generally seeing less beach balls?
I’m considering picking up a used 8/512 Mac mini as an interim machine for a year or 2.
(Coming from a 2012 iMac with a fusion drive so anything is going to be a massive leap 😂)
I’m considering picking up a used 8/512 Mac mini as an interim machine for a year or 2.
(Coming from a 2012 iMac with a fusion drive so anything is going to be a massive leap 😂)
Last edited:
I get no beach balls on my M1 mini 16/512 and MBP M1 Max 32/1TB. Both running 12.4. After someone says ‘no duh’ The reason I’m posting is I used to get so many beachballs on my MBP until I did a clean install from USB and no imports of profiles. Not just an erase and recover. After I did that I have been flying, so I did it on my mini as well. Set them up literally from scratch and life’s been good.
Last edited:
I get them sometimes, but it's probably the software. I get weird issues with an App ruins the speed of desktop elements, it lags and then everything else is laggy until a restart. Like moving a picture in picture window will drop frames, and the cursor icon changes don't happen. It's mostly with catalyst apps I think.
Reporting back after picking up a used m1 Mac mini a few months back (8/512 = AUD$800).
This thing is nuts. I’ve been a Mac user since 1990. Heavy graphics user since 2000. I can’t believe how good this machine is. I can run photoshop with 6 massive psds open with 100+ layers in each, Firefox with 20 tabs open, a google meet, mail, 2 x 27 inch screens, an external 8TB SSD, and it just smashes it - no beach balls.
If I add Lightroom and chrome with 10 tabs I’ll start to notice it, but really, I just selectively quit something and I’m away again. (Memory pressure rarely in the red)
Now I want an m2 Mac Studio of course 😂 but as an interim machine - this thing is incredible.
This thing is nuts. I’ve been a Mac user since 1990. Heavy graphics user since 2000. I can’t believe how good this machine is. I can run photoshop with 6 massive psds open with 100+ layers in each, Firefox with 20 tabs open, a google meet, mail, 2 x 27 inch screens, an external 8TB SSD, and it just smashes it - no beach balls.
If I add Lightroom and chrome with 10 tabs I’ll start to notice it, but really, I just selectively quit something and I’m away again. (Memory pressure rarely in the red)
Now I want an m2 Mac Studio of course 😂 but as an interim machine - this thing is incredible.
Last edited:
Exactly how I felt about the M1 MacBook Air. Initially I just wanted one to see if Apple Silicon was as good as everyone was saying. I never liked the wedge design of the Air, but I figured I could ignore it for such a good price. I was never anything but blown away by that computer, so when my company sent me a 16" M1 Pro, I knew I was going to skip the M2 Air and just go for the 14" M1 Pro as my personal machine.
M1 Studio Ultra
This is most annoying and has been going on for years. You buy a new machine. It runs wonderful for a few months and then everything slows and slows. And slows more. This same story has repeated itself for several computers. I've had this Studio M1 Ultra since they came out and for too long now it is constantly spinning beach balls.
Final Cut is useless with all the micro and macro hangs. It's not just FCP. All apps including the Finder suffer the same challenge. Beachball party. Rebooting and running only one application doesn't solve it.
I tend to be abusive with too many apps running too many windows. If apples aren't meant to have a couple monitors and external drives then just say so and I'll move on to something that can. It's as if something is running major task in background but Activity monitors don't show it. Beachballs happening and 10% CPU load. I wish Linux was viable.
This is most annoying and has been going on for years. You buy a new machine. It runs wonderful for a few months and then everything slows and slows. And slows more. This same story has repeated itself for several computers. I've had this Studio M1 Ultra since they came out and for too long now it is constantly spinning beach balls.
Final Cut is useless with all the micro and macro hangs. It's not just FCP. All apps including the Finder suffer the same challenge. Beachball party. Rebooting and running only one application doesn't solve it.
I tend to be abusive with too many apps running too many windows. If apples aren't meant to have a couple monitors and external drives then just say so and I'll move on to something that can. It's as if something is running major task in background but Activity monitors don't show it. Beachballs happening and 10% CPU load. I wish Linux was viable.
When the summer is over, the beach balls will be gone.
What does your memory pressure look like when you're seeing the beachball?
I know it's a pain, but have you considered doing a clean install, i.e., wipe the thing clean, install a fresh OS, and install your apps by downoading fresh copies from the vendors (rather than using Migration Assistant)? When I do this, it takes me a weekend (which is why I haven't done it in a while!).
I get that you won't want to create all app profiles from scratch, and that you might want to copy over some of your old app profiles, but it would be best if, for the simpler profiles, if you copy down your preferences (maybe print out some screenshots) so that you can recreate them from scratch.
Though if you choose to do this, you might as well wait for Sequoia (and probably best to wait for at least 15.2, to give them time to fix the usual new-release bugs).
Last edited:
