The MacBook spinning wheel shows your computer is processing tasks that it cannot handle at the same time. When there are too many applications running, they might become unresponsive and slow the system. As Mac waits for processes to respond or complete, that’s when the rainbow spinning wheel Mac is triggered. There are several ways to fix this.
Restart Mac
The color wheel on Mac continues to spin due to system processes hanging in the background. You can stabilize the system by rebooting it. Follow these steps to stop spinning wheel on Mac.
- In the menu bar, open the Apple icon
- Click Restart
- Confirm that you want to restart by clicking Restart again
You might get worried when the spinning wheel of death appears on your Mac. It doesn’t however mean that your computer has crashed. The spinning wheel is triggered by too many apps running in the background. There are different methods on how to stop spinning wheel on Mac that you can choose on SetApp. You can use iStat Menus to solve cursor Mac problems or uninstall apps or extensions. You can also use Reindex on CleanMyMac X.
Force apps to close
Another method on how to stop color wheel on Mac is to force stop running apps.
- Open the Apple icon and then click Force Quit to display active apps
- Click to select the apps that are not responding
- Click Force Quit to force them to close
- Another option is to press Command – Option – Esc on the keyboard. It will open the force quit window. Close the unresponsive apps to fix the spinning color wheel Mac
Free up RAM
If your RAM is full of cache, it creates limited space for apps to run. It will eventually cause the rainbow wheel Mac to start spinning. Delete the cache to free up RAM and stop some system processes.
- Open the Launchpad or Spotlight to launch the Activity Monitor
- Open the Memory icon to view the system processes running in the background
- The processes marked red is to show they are putting high pressure on the RAM
- Click to select them and then Force Quit.
To free the RAM cache on Mac and solve the Apple loading wheel issue, follow these steps
- Open Mac Finder and select the Go icon
- Click Go to Folder
- In the dialogue box that opens, type the command -/Library/Caches/
- Click Go to display the cache
- Open one folder at a time, select cache, and drag and drop them in the Trash
Reinstall or reset Mac apps
The Mac rainbow wheel could be spinning due to conflicting apps. The solution is to reset them or reinstall them to repair them. Mac apps uninstallers do not work perfectly. They often leave a lot of app shells that still occupy space on Mac. You might need a third-party app to perform this task.
- Choose the third-party app you want to use, download, and launch it. One of the commonly used apps is CleanMyMac X.
- Ounce launched, open the Uninstaller icon
- Click the apps that need uninstalled or reset
- Check the small arrow next to each app and click on it
- Select Reset. This should solve the Mac spinner issue
Conclusion
The Mac spinning wheel is triggered by several issues that can be fixed. It mainly happens due to too many open programs in the background. You fix the spinning wheel of death by restarting your Mac. Free up RAM by cleaning the cache and closing programs running in it. You may choose to reinstall apps to help solve the cursor Mac problem.
