What Does The Spinning Rainbow Circle Symbol Mean On A MacBook?

While the MacBook Pro has changed in the last five years, one thing remains the same: No matter what model you have, you will at some point encounter what MacBook users not so affectionately refer to as the "spinning wheel of death." This rainbow circle, also called the spinning wait cursor, pinwheel, or beach ball (also of death), always seems to pop up at the worst times, interrupting your flow. It's a frustrating annoyance, but what does it actually mean?

The rainbow circle taking over for your mouse cursor basically means that the computer is overloaded in the moment. It's a way of telling you to give it a minute to process everything. You have placed too many demands on the MacBook, whether that's via multiple applications running or an application that is using a lot of resources. It may also be that you are running low on memory or disk space. 

Whatever the reason, the only thing you can really do is wait until it's done spinning and disappears. If it only comes up for a few seconds, the computer is just processing slowly and it's nothing to worry about. More often than that, however, could mean you have a memory, CPU, or storage issue. And if it spins for more than several minutes with no end in sight, there's something more serious going on. Thankfully, there are things you can do to figure out why it popped up in the first place and address it.

The spinning wheel is typically triggered if an app takes more than four seconds to handle a task. If the spinning rainbow wheel has been going so long that you feel dizzy staring at it, something may be seriously wrong with an app you have open. This is when it's a good idea to Force Quit the offending app. Hold down Command + Option + Escape and a dialogue box will appear showing all the apps you currently have open. Find the one that says it's not responding, select it, and choose Force Quit. Alternatively, select the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, choose Force Quit, and follow the same steps from there. If it keeps happening with the same app, you may need to reinstall it, or it's possible that your MacBook doesn't have the resources to support it.

If you observe that the wheel keeps coming back and persists no matter what you do, it's possible that you need a hardware upgrade because the Mac simply can't handle your usual demands. But before resorting to that, there are a few things you can try. 

If the spinning wheel comes up more often than you'd like, there are steps you can take to make your MacBook perform better. First, check your disk space. Running low can slow down the hard drive and cause this spinning wheel to surface. Go to System Settings > General > Storage to see how much disk space you have left and what is taking up the bulk of it. Remove apps you no longer need nor use and delete large files or offload them to an external hard drive or iCloud. Use the Optimize Storage tool to help clear up unneeded files automatically.

Also check the Activity Monitor (Finder > Applications > Utilities) to see which apps are using the most resources and quit them if they aren't needed. If the System load is higher than 50%, you'll need to shut down apps to give the processor room to breathe. Scan your Dock as well — click and hold on apps you aren't using and choose Quit to shut them down. We've found that if a Mac has been powered on and running for weeks, it starts to run out of system resources. The quickest and easiest fix is to close everything and reboot the computer. The spinning rainbow circle (or beach ball) comes for every Mac user at one point or another, but it 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.