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Tozovac

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 12, 2014
3,034
3,233
Has anyone with a 1st gen MacBook Air (or similar M1) experienced system "freezing" with the pinwheel more often than not? Even before just updating to Sonoma 14.6.1, and now after updating today, my M1 MBA has been "halting/freezing" with the pinwheel way more often than ever before. I'm going to keep Activity Monitor going to see if I see anything of interest. But this is very unlike my M1 since first using it.

It almost feels like that line your iPhone crosses overnight randomly one day when the battery health is in the 80's and suddenly the iPhone stutters and pauses frequently and gets hot more often than before.

A few other symptoms:
- I try searching using Finder and although the search window/box appears, it won't let me type anything in it
- When I finally do get to enter into the search window, nothing gets searched (the search "freezes" and doesn't search)

Has anyone else been experiencing (or experienced) anything similar?
 
Last edited:

Tozovac

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 12, 2014
3,034
3,233
Nobody's M1 MBA acts funny with seeing the spinning pinwheel more often than not all of a sudden?

I questioned if maybe things were reindexing, but that should have been straightened out after a few days.

I did try some File Manager 1st aid, but still, it seems like when I try to search anything via spotlight, I get the pinwheel.
 

MBAir2010

macrumors 604
May 30, 2018
6,975
6,354
there
My macbook air M1 is great working as normal last Friday
but sitting in a box since monetrey-sonoma is terribly boring.

i guess you could have a accidental screen saver video logging the system,
as I last year recorded a 56GB (i had 57 GB free) one and
forgot to stop that, shut down then turn on the next day
to weirdness and spinning balls!
 

Adora

macrumors 6502a
Jun 30, 2024
581
224
Maybe you should run some maintenance scrips by an app built for that, it's cleaning caches and doing much more.

You could use Onyx for this, it's free and never did any harm to my Mac since I started using it many years ago. But better read the warning before using it.

There is also an App what is just called Maintenance on that site, what only includes that section from Onyx. It should only include the harmless functions.



Another good one is Tinker Tool System, it's not free, but has a Trial version and also can do much more.



Clean my Mac can also do those things, it's available in the AppStore as direct download and in Setapp. And also has a free trial.



Those all exist since many years.
 

Adora

macrumors 6502a
Jun 30, 2024
581
224
Also Disk Utility can help by running "First Aid" on every section in that list on the left side separately can fix errors in the file system. This would be one of the tasks what the other apps also do.

Screen Shot 2024-08-25 at 02.25.24.png
 

Tozovac

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 12, 2014
3,034
3,233
Also Disk Utility can help by running "First Aid" on every section in that list on the left side separately can fix errors in the file system. This would be one of the tasks what the other apps also do.

View attachment 2409070
Thanks I did this very thing the other day. No help.
 

Adora

macrumors 6502a
Jun 30, 2024
581
224
Thanks I did this very thing the other day. No help.

I would try the Onyx Maintenance. But recommend to do a backup before. Normally nothing bad should happen. I have done this so often with so many macOS versions. The warning the app gives always at launch is more about other stuff in it than just maintenance. There are some settings you have to be very careful with.

You can leave Internet out for Cleaning, if you don't want to lose your history and cookies. The things with exclamation mark can be specified if you click on them. This is also not the default setting in my screenshots. I would try the default setting first.

Your Mac will reboot after this.


Screen Shot 2024-08-25 at 10.49.49.png


Screen Shot 2024-08-25 at 11.01.31.png

Screen Shot 2024-08-25 at 10.48.03.png

Screen Shot 2024-08-25 at 10.57.02.png

Screen Shot 2024-08-25 at 10.57.10.png
 

MBAir2010

macrumors 604
May 30, 2018
6,975
6,354
there
there is obviously something clogging the (are these silicon processor still called hard drives anymore?) HARD DRIVE
because that would cause any computer to slow down that much.
 
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Honza1

macrumors 6502a
Nov 30, 2013
940
441
US
Every time I had macOS do spinning wheels on me, it turned out to be disk issue. Applications today are unlikely to cause these issues since any App can bog down one or two, may be three cores, but you have 8 I think. So hanging down whole computer with single app is unlikely.
Obviously, there could be hardware issue...
Try running BlackMagic Disk Speed test and see, if the read/write speeds look OK for your SSD. Not sure what the SSD speed should be in this machine, but if you do not have 2000-4000 MBYTES/sec something is not right.
I know you run the Disk utility - did it report any problems? In my experience, it is not able to fix many disk issues and in that case Apple suggestion is - backup, erase, restore. Pain to do, but to be fair, it fixed case you describe when I had such issue.
However, I also had case on my MacBook Pro where my SSD was much slower than expected and erase did not fix it. Apple had to replace system board as SSD is soldered and not replaceable.
 

Tozovac

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 12, 2014
3,034
3,233
You could use Onyx for this, it's free and never did any harm to my Mac since I started using it many years ago. But better read the warning before using it.

I would try the Onyx Maintenance.

I would try the default setting first.

Your Mac will reboot after this.

I ran Onyx with the default settings and so far it worked! Thanks! Immediately after running Onyx, no more pinwheel/stalling when using spotlight. So...so far so good.
 

HDFan

Contributor
Jun 30, 2007
7,257
3,315
Do you have the slowdowns:

1. Logging is as a test user?
2. When booted to Safe Mode?

Do you have any external disks or network drives mounted?
 
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Adora

macrumors 6502a
Jun 30, 2024
581
224
This tool was recommended very often in a German forum years ago, don't know if it's still good.

But when the output protocol was posted to the forum there had been always someone who knew the cause of the problem.


Seems it still can be used for free. I thought you have to pay for it now.

How to use EtreCheckPro for free:​

  1. First, download EtreCheckPro and run it
  2. Pick a problem, enter a description, and start your report
  3. Wait about 3 minutes for EtreCheck to run...
  4. Look for Major problems
  5. Look for Minor problems
  6. Fix security settings - find and remove malware
  7. If you need more help, share your report on the internet
  8. Find and fix Storage problems
 

halledise

macrumors 68020
1. unplug all peripherals, restart and see if that fixes it.
2. you could have a 3rd party application(s) that is (are) causing your issue.
have a look-see in activity monitor as to what's actually running in the background.
3. radical option is to fully erase your HDD and then do a clean install of macOS.
add back in your home folder contents manually.
all your essential stuff should be in iCloud anyway.
(i personally avoid time machine for backups as one could be re-importing the same issues as before)
 
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