Beach Ball keeps appearing when using Text Editor

Text Editor Beach Ball After Upgrading macOS: Troubleshooting Guide

Since the beach ball began appearing immediately after upgrading from Tahoe to macOS 27.0.1, I would investigate software compatibility, document-specific issues, and background processes before assuming your MacBook Pro has a hardware problem.

Reducing your document from 60+ MB to 13 MB without improvement suggests that file size alone may not be responsible. Formatting, fonts, text layout, background utilities, or a macOS issue could be contributing.

1. Test a Blank Document

1. Back up your original document.
2. Create a new, blank document in Text Editor.
3. Type, highlight text, move the insertion point, press Return, and switch away from and back to the app.

Blank document works normally: The original document or its formatting may be responsible.

• Blank document also freezes: Investigate the app, macOS, background software, and your user account.

If only the original document freezes, test a copy converted to plain text, if appropriate. This removes formatting, so preserve the original.

Apple's TextEdit guide: TextEdit User Guide for Mac - Apple Support (CA)

2. Test in Safe Mode

Safe Mode helps determine whether software loaded during normal startup contributes to the problem.

Apple silicon: Shut down, hold the power button until startup options appear, select your startup disk, hold Shift, and choose Continue in Safe Mode.

Apple's instructions: Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Open Text Editor and test both your large document and a blank document. Repeat the actions that trigger the beach ball.

• Works normally in Safe Mode: Investigate login items, third-party utilities, fonts, or background software.

Still freezes: Continue with the remaining tests.

• Only the large document freezes: Investigate its contents and formatting.

Restart normally to exit Safe Mode.

3. Test a Second macOS User Account

This helps determine whether the issue is specific to your usual account.

1. Open System Settings >> Users & Groups.
2. Add a temporary Standard user account, if available.
3. Log out and sign in to the new account.
4. Test Text Editor with a blank document, then a copy of your original document.

Apple's instructions: Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support

Interpretation:

• Works in the new account: Your usual account's preferences, fonts, login items, or user-specific resources may be involved.
• Freezes in both accounts: A document, application, system-wide software, or macOS issue becomes more likely.
• Only the original document freezes in both accounts: Investigate the document itself.

Safe Mode tests a reduced startup environment; a second account tests different user-level settings. The two tests complement each other.

4. Check for macOS Updates

Open Apple menu >> System Settings >> General >> Software Update. Back up your Mac before installing any available update.

Apple's update guide: Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support (CA)

Check the exact macOS version and build number in About This Mac.

5. Inspect Activity Monitor During a Freeze

1. Open Applications >> Utilities >> Activity Monitor.
2. Select CPU and locate Text Editor.
3. Reproduce the beach ball and observe CPU usage.
4. Check whether another process is consuming substantial CPU.

High CPU usage may indicate intensive processing; low CPU usage may indicate the app is waiting for another operation. Neither observation alone identifies the cause.

If available, select Text Editor and choose Sample Process while it is frozen. Save the report for Apple Support.

Apple's guide: Run system diagnostics in Activity Monitor on Mac - Apple Support (IE)

6. Check Fonts and Background Utilities

On a copy of the document, try a common font and temporarily disable automatic spelling and grammar checking.

Also temporarily quit clipboard managers, text expanders, keyboard utilities, and third-party writing assistants. Change one thing at a time.

Apple's TextEdit spelling and grammar guide: Check spelling and grammar in TextEdit on Mac - Apple Support

7. Do not Assume 13 MB Is Too Large

A document's complexity can matter as much as its size. Extensive rich-text formatting, embedded objects, and complex text layout may contribute to delays. Keep your original document intact while experimenting with copies.

My Recommendation

Start with these four tests:

1. A blank document.
2. Safe Mode.
3. A second user account.
4. Activity Monitor during a freeze.

If every document freezes in both Safe Mode and a fresh account, investigate a system-wide or application issue and contact Apple Support:

Contact - Official Apple Support (CA)

Three Questions to Narrow It Down

1. Is this Apple's built-in TextEdit app or another application called Text Editor?
2. Does a brand-new blank document also trigger the beach ball?
3. Is your 13 MB document .txt, .rtf, or .rtfd?

The results of the Safe Mode and second-account tests will be especially helpful in determining the next step.

Runaway processes and low free storage space are common reasons for Macs to run slow / beachball. 

It is possible there are processes running in the background that are using significant resources. Check Activity Monitor, CPU tab (sort by % CPU) and Memory tab (sort by Memory) to see what's running hard. Make sure that View menu > All Processes is selected, so you are seeing everything.

Activity Monitor User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Confirm that you have sufficient free space on your internal storage. The absolute minimum is ~30-40 GB free space, and as a rule of thumb you should aim to have 15-20% of your total internal storage as free space. You can check the amount of free space you have on your Mac in a variety of ways:

Select your internal drive then click File menu > Get Info, check Available space

Go to System Settings > General > Storage, check the graphical display at the top of the settings pane

In Disk Utility (in Applications > Utilities), by selecting the main container disk below the drive itself (you may need to select View menu > Show all devices to see it)

In the System Report – hold the Option key and click the Apple menu > System Information (the top menu item), look for the name of your internal drive (Macintosh HD, unless you have renamed it as I did)

Note that on versions of macOS prior to Golden Gate, the ‘available’ space reported with the first two methods above was greater than the ‘free’ space reported by the second two methods. Apple corrected that confusion with Golden Gate, and as shown in the above screenshot, the available/free space is consistent across the different methods. For more details, see this User Tip.

Some steps to take to safely free up space:

Free up storage space on Mac - Apple Support

Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

How to free up ‘System Data’ and other st… - Apple Community

If nothing in the above reveals an obvious culprit, then appropriate troubleshooting steps are Safe Mode and creating a new user account to test. 

See if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode. That process performs some system cleanup and clears caches, and also disables 3rd party extensions that may cause problems.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

If that does not correct the issue, test in a new user account. A newly-created user account will have all settings at default, and if the issue does not occur in that new account then it provides guidance on what may need to be changed to correct the issue.

Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support

Once the testing is complete, the new account can easily be deleted.

Delete a user or group on Mac – Apple Support

If you have 3rd party ‘protection’ software installed, that may be the problem. That includes:

Cleaners (software claiming to automatically free up space)

Optimizers (software claiming to make your Mac run faster)

Antivirus software

VPN software (unless provided by a school/employer to enable access to internal resources from a remote location)

Such 3rd party system ‘helpers’, ‘cleaners’ and ‘protectors’ do more harm than good. In fact, such products are completely unnecessary for macOS and the only ‘good’ (if you want to call it that) they do is to put money in the developers’ pockets. Cleaners and protectors cause compatibility issues, often after macOS updates. Commercial VPNs claim to hide your browsing activity from websites, and while that may be true those VPN providers just sell your browsing data to others. For the user, all of these types of software offer only harm…and if that is limited to harm to your bank account, then count yourself lucky. If you have installed such software, follow the developer’s instructions to completely uninstall it (note that some developers fail to provide instructions and their software installs can be pervasive, meaning the only way to truly remove it is to erase your Mac, reinstall macOS then restore your user files from a backup).

It might help to download and run EtreCheck, written by a long-time forum member. The free version is fine. Post the full report using the Additional Text button. No personal information is revealed. 

Thank you, Owl-53.

Your first step already helped me to establish that it might be the formatting or maybe the file size. Perhaps Golden Gate's inner workings do have conflict with the old ways the Text Editor handles formatting. For now, I will start a fresh copy and will do the diagnostics for the issues along the way.

mook73 wrote:

Thank you, Owl-53.

Your first step already helped me to establish that it might be the formatting or maybe the file size. Perhaps Golden Gate's inner workings do have conflict with the old ways the Text Editor handles formatting. For now, I will start a fresh copy and will do the diagnostics for the issues along the way.

You are welcome and thank you for the feedback

🦉-53