Help with a 2017 iMac that is giving the spinning beach ball frequently.

First NEVER EVER use ANY of the following types of third party apps unless you want an unstable system.

• Antivirus
• Cleaning
• VPN
• Security
• Maintenance

If you have any of these apps installed or if you have ever had them installed they must be removed. To see if you have any of the following installed please do the following.

It will help us get a good idea of what is causing your problem if you provide a report of your system, that way we do not have to play 20 questions with you. The report we are requesting does NOT provide any personal information and is extremely safe to use. Please navigate to www.Etrecheck.com and download the free version of EtreCheck. Once you have you downloaded the app and installed it, please run the report and save it. This report will help us get a good idea what has been installed on your system and help us be able to diagnose what may be wrong.

When you have your report, you can attach it when you reply to this message and we can then review it and help you determine what is needed to get your system running well again. 

For instructions on how to download your EtreCheck report and attach it to your reply to this message please click How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community It is helpful to us if you download the report to your Desktop.

Last, please never post personal information on a public forum. Personal information are items such as:

• Serial Numbers
• Physical Addresses
• E-Mail Addresses
• Phone Numbers
• etc..

I have asked the moderator to remove the serial number information you posted.

Never ever install or run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac. Uninstall CleanMyMac according to the developer's instructions.

Please download and run Etrecheck.  The free version is sufficient.

Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and after clicking on the Reply button use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Check Etrecheck's Privacy settings and make sure the checkbox for full disk access before running:

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This documents describe what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community and Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support.  

There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs.  There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.   

Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear.  They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware.  Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.

There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is designed solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it.  The free version is more than adequate for most users.  (Keep this App)

You have two apps that are using lots of system resources: CleanMyMac and Carbonite. CMM has no redeeming value and should be removed.

2025-07-24 09:31:29 CleanMyMac_5.app Hang (2 times)

2025-07-23 19:30:07 CleanMyMac_5.app High CPU Use

Carbonite.app High CPU Use

You would be best served by getting an external drive from OWC (MacSales.com) and do your backup to it rather than Carbonite. It'll be safer and help your system performance. You would be in charge of your backups and it would save you money in the long run.

If you have any concerns on what you'd need in the way of an external driver contact OWC's Customer Support and they will give you their best match for you iMac model, workflow requirements and budget.

If you need online backup I'd go with Apple's iCloud Drive which would be more secure. Here's a breakdown of the pricing:

Free: 5GB of storage

50GB: $0.99 per month

200GB: $2.99 per month

2TB: $9.99 per month

6TB: $29.99 per month

12TB: $59.99 per month 

You could get an external SSD, clone your current slow HDD boot drive to it and boot and run from the SSD to at least double your read and write speed. Again, OWC would be the best source for that. OWC is considered to be the premier 3rd party hardware supplier for Macs.

casondoesstuufz wrote:

cleanmymac and PayPal Honey are scams btw

CleanMyMac is not a scam, It's considered akin to malware by most of the experienced contributors to these forums.

Haven't heard of PayPal Honey but have tried to be scammed with a PayPal text and email.

cleanmymac and PayPal Honey are scams btw