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iMac late 2015 27" Retina beach-balling after Big Sur upgrade

Hi Apple Community,


Since 11/27 after upgrading to Big Sur, my iMac has been beach balling, maybe every two to three minutes sometimes, for about 30 seconds or more. I see no pattern to the behaviour - it can do it anytime, even when shutting down, running the Etrecheck etc.


So I am in "try the Internet" mode.

  1. Got and ran EtreCheck (report attached).
  2. Rebooted into safe mode (and it beach balled there too!)
  3. Tried disabling this and that - but no matter what it try, the beach balling is there. Sometimes very frequently, sometimes I can edit a 50 minute movie in iMovie with no issue.
  4. The system does not actually crash - just beach balls.


Anyone with similar beach balling after the upgrade? I have seen several issues after the upgrade in here, but none specifically with just beach balling.


Thanks for any assistance!!


Bill



iMac 27″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Dec 25, 2020 7:51 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 26, 2020 8:57 AM

2020-12-23 22:11:41 AntivirusforMac.app High CPU Use

Executable: /Library/Bitdefender/*/AntivirusforMac.app


is still showing up in the report, please download the free version of FindAnyFile and then search for anything with the word "Bitdefender" in it and if anything is found please move it to the Trash and empty your Trash. I'm assuming you emptied your Trash after uninstalling BitDefender.


Also, please restart in Safe Mode and then restart normally and re-test. Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

15 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 26, 2020 8:57 AM in response to BronteBill555

2020-12-23 22:11:41 AntivirusforMac.app High CPU Use

Executable: /Library/Bitdefender/*/AntivirusforMac.app


is still showing up in the report, please download the free version of FindAnyFile and then search for anything with the word "Bitdefender" in it and if anything is found please move it to the Trash and empty your Trash. I'm assuming you emptied your Trash after uninstalling BitDefender.


Also, please restart in Safe Mode and then restart normally and re-test. Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

Dec 26, 2020 10:18 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Okay did everting you suggested:

  1. Used Find Any File and found a few lurking left overs of BitFender as you
  2. Emptied trash
  3. restarted in safe mode
  4. restarted
  5. ran Etrecheck again - attached.


I'm still checking, but after this last reboot, I have not had a beach-ball incident yet! Fingers crossed. Will continue to stress the system for a while. The only "non-Apple" utility left on the system now is OneDrive.


Hope this is it. And if it is, let me know where to send the case of beers!!



Dec 26, 2020 12:32 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I think I am okay. I re-ran FindAnyFile - this time with correct string you asked me to find : "Bitdefender" and it found loads more which I deleted, restarted in safe mode, and restarted again. Report attached. Even from before, based on your previous contribution, the system had settled down nicely; don't think I am going to re-install Bitdefender unless of course, this comes up again.


Kind of apprehensive not running an AV on ANY computer in today's Internet, and BitDefender came highly recommended and worked fine pre-Big Sur?


But very grateful for all your help and patience. Hopefully you find no more evidence of BitFender in that report other than the historical high CPU and the report description.


Dec 26, 2020 8:51 AM in response to rkaufmann87

That was from the 23rd - I have only removed Bitfender today, so it seems to be picking up "history"? (Diagnostics Information (past 7-30 days))


~ % ls -l /Library/Bitdefender/*


zsh: no matches found: /Library/Bitdefender/*


I have since removed lastpass too. Trying to see if it is now down to freezing on password/username entries, but still the issue persists - maybe a bit less frequent or that is my imagination.



Dec 26, 2020 1:32 PM in response to BronteBill555

https://www.apple.com/macos/security/Executable: Executable: /Library/Bitdefender/*/AntivirusforMac.app


Is still there, please open Finder and Go - Go to folder and copy and paste:

/Library/Bitdefender/*/AntivirusforMac.app


Once you are there, Trash everything in the Bitdefender folder including the Bitdefender folder and empty the trash.


Then to ease your mind please studyhttps://www.apple.com/macos/security/


Dec 26, 2020 2:06 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I am not able to find any more files on the system related to Bitdefender.


Even an "ls -l /Library/Bitdefender/* reveals :

zsh: no matches found: /Library/Bitdefender/*


I tried:

% sudo find / -name "AntivirusforMac*.*" -print


and got:


/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/AntivirusforMac_6514A439-1AB5-518C-B307-9067FF5DB69B.plist (deleted this now)


/System/Volumes/Data/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/AntivirusforMac_6514A439-1AB5-518C-B307-9067FF5DB69B.plist. (cannot find:  ls -l /System/Volumes/Data/Library/Application\ Support/CrashReporter/Anti*


zsh: no matches found: /System/Volumes/Data/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/Anti*) - maybe was symbolic link?



Attached screenshot shows there is no Bitdefender in /Library at all. What in the last report is telling you it is still installed or has components still present?



Regarding MacOS safety - hmmm, they also said the Titanic won't sink :). The article here at least tells me I am not totally naked at the moment (I am on the i7, not M1), so will stay this way to make sure the fix is permanent for the new few days.





iMac late 2015 27" Retina beach-balling after Big Sur upgrade

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