I recently upgraded to OS X 10.11 and Scrivener 2.7. After opening a 2.6 document and letting it upgrade the format, I’m getting beach balls (can we still call them that in El Capitan?) often. I’ve checked multiple Scrivener projects, and it happens on any of them, but only for documents with more than a few comments. (I tend to use them heavily, but it’s happening on documents with only a dozen or so, too.)
I’ve checked the console logs; sometimes I get this:
10/3/15 12:10:45.859 PM Scrivener[7283]: NSSoftLinking - The ShareKit framework's library couldn't be loaded from /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ShareKit.framework/Versions/A/ShareKit.
But usually it’s just the usual UI warnings:
10/3/15 12:10:40.535 PM WindowServer[179]: disable_update_timeout: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "Scrivener" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.
10/3/15 12:10:46.079 PM WindowServer[179]: common_reenable_update: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Scrivener" after 6.55 seconds [0.15fps] (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds [1.00fps])
As you can see, this is several seconds per freeze, and it happens every time I navigate to a new document, even if I was just there, so it’s slowing me down quite a bit.
This also occurs when selecting a document in the Outliner view, even without opening it for editing, so I’m guessing it’s happening when loading the Inspector. Maybe related to the recent change in the file format?
Probably not, as that refers to a real-world object, and Apple has declared that nobody should be using real-world objects as metaphors any longer, but furthermore, the Spinning Disc Shaped User Indicator Apparatus seems to be indicating that Mac OS X 10.11 is running normally. Ahem…
More seriously, since you mention this happens primarily when switching documents, you may have a somewhat obscure issue with Contacts that needs to be resolved. We don’t quite know what is wrong with it, but for systems suffering this problem, routine attempts to access your address (which Scrivener uses to fill in Comment placeholder text and use your name when you print) cause hangs. Try disabling access to Contacts for Scrivener, in the System Preferences “Security & Privacy” panel, under the “Privacy” tab.
You were right; disabling contacts access got rid of the non-skeuomorphic spinning thing, which is a relief. Thanks, and let me know if you’d like any help in tracking down the bug.
Glad to hear things are usable again! One thing you could try is creating a test Mac account and run Scrivener from there (demo mode is fine), making sure to give it access to Contacts when requested. I’d copy one of the projects you were working with over to this account for testing, and see if the problem persists there. That would help track down whether this is a system-wide problem or just something in the user account.