Is there a correct way to handle a Beach Ball hang?
At present I am using Force Quit, this then Reports to Apple. I don’t use Apples’s Re-Open as the file presented is usually not as expected e.g. it goes back to the last manual save. Restarting SU from the Dock icon directly opens the last file as Read Only from what looks like the last manual save. I have to do a reboot of the macOS and then launch SU for the much hoped for Recovered file to appear in the start up menu. The Reboot option is rather time consuming!
BugSplat doesn’t always appear, but I do submit when it turns up.
The spinning beach ball simply indicates that the system is processing a task. In SketchUp, this often happens when an operation takes a long time to complete.
For example, autosaving can cause delays, especially for users working with large files. models with high edge counts or entitie counts may find that certain extensions run and take a long time to work their way through the data in the model.
The best approach is to wait until the system finishes the task and becomes responsive again.
However, if you are force quitting SketchUp and macOS still reports the file as “in use,” only allowing you to open it as read-only, this suggests that another application or the operating system is still holding onto the file. This could also be a contributing factor to the performance issues you’re experiencing.
If macOS is still holding onto the file after force-quitting SketchUp, it might indicate that a background process (like a sync service, disk indexing, or even SketchUp’s autosave mechanism) hasn’t properly released it.
A few things you could check:
Activity Monitor:
See if SketchUp or related processes (like Trimble-related services) are still running.
Console logs
Check if macOS is logging any file access or system resource issues.
Cloud Sync Services
If the file is in a Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud folder, the sync process might be causing delays in releasing the file.
Permissions Issues:
Try moving the file to another location (e.g., Desktop) and see if the behaviour persists.
Very similar here too. (also similar profile but Apple Silicon)
Beachballs forever, lots more crashes in 2025.
This is different behaviour to 2024
It seems to be related to file services as crashes are almost predictable, I pretty much expect a crash trying to open a second file but it sometimes surprises me by opening successfully. Tens of Splats reported.
Because there is no actual indicator in SU of progress for any task (apart from within the UI of some notable plugins) it’s impossible to tell if SU has hung or not, Activity Monitor will just be pegged at 97 or 100% forever.
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Thanks for your input Adam. Next “hang” I will review the areas you have highlighted, although my files are all local without cloud backup and I have full admin rights so I don’t see a reason for it to be a sync issue on my part.
Those are usually the causes - there must be another service or part of the OS that is doing something or perhaps SketchUp itself has a permissions issue.
Is it showing in your application folder?
Yes. With Read & Write access enabled.
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