In all my years using MacOS I've never used Launchpad. Hence don't miss it at all. I have my Applications in a folder on the dock and access from there, or use Spotlight.
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6 reasons the loss of Launchpad sucks
- Thread starter KES3059A3
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Hopefully future version they add variables into apps/spotlight.
Its a wreck for me. Organized gimped.
This is like Launchpad but a mess. Like throw it all in a pile.
I hate being a keyboard athlete too just to make things easier.
Create a group then drag icons into and done.
Folder operations is not the same.
It should be easier to start with.
Its a wreck for me. Organized gimped.
This is like Launchpad but a mess. Like throw it all in a pile.
I hate being a keyboard athlete too just to make things easier.
Create a group then drag icons into and done.
Folder operations is not the same.
It should be easier to start with.
Have you tried clicking the button in the top right corner?
Same here.
Cmd - spacebar works just fine along with open Apps and press 1st letter of app name to locate it.
I never was a fan, so I'm happy to see it go. Useless feature imo.
What seems even more useless, to me at least, is having two swipe gestures that bring up a search function. They should have just made Spotlight better.
I hit cmd-space, type the first couple of letters of the app i want and hit enter.
I rarely go into the applications folder, spotlight search, using cmd-space is such a killer feature, I use it an app on windows that basically mimics the same functionality.
(Hopefully temporary) workaround took some time this morning. Created a desktop folder, and then created shortcuts to apps and placed them within the folder in pretty much the order of my old Launchpad - with sub-folders as needed.
Benefit here over old Launchpad is I didn't include the apps I rarely touch (and usually kept in a folder I called Junk Drawer), while they still exist for use in Mac HD > Applications.
(I get some folks like various Spotlight or keyboard shortcuts to pull up an app, but sometimes I may lapse on the name of an app, or which would be best for the task. Without having to go through all the Apps alphabetically - because, let's face it, some apps' names don't immediately tell you what they do...)
I have tried this folder in Dock, but - typical Apple - it screws with the order, regardless of Settings - so I may just leave it as desktop folder. It's hardly perfect, but dealing with a company that continues it's nanny behaviour - 'We know what you really want'.
Current Apps replacement to Launchpad very much like iOS Apple Library - which I never use. It's all part of the apparent dumb'ifying of MacOS to better reflect iOS - when it really should be the other way around.
Photo below - albeit with the current 'Dark' (not Glass 'Clear') setting for icons on a black Desktop.
Benefit here over old Launchpad is I didn't include the apps I rarely touch (and usually kept in a folder I called Junk Drawer), while they still exist for use in Mac HD > Applications.
(I get some folks like various Spotlight or keyboard shortcuts to pull up an app, but sometimes I may lapse on the name of an app, or which would be best for the task. Without having to go through all the Apps alphabetically - because, let's face it, some apps' names don't immediately tell you what they do...)
I have tried this folder in Dock, but - typical Apple - it screws with the order, regardless of Settings - so I may just leave it as desktop folder. It's hardly perfect, but dealing with a company that continues it's nanny behaviour - 'We know what you really want'.
Current Apps replacement to Launchpad very much like iOS Apple Library - which I never use. It's all part of the apparent dumb'ifying of MacOS to better reflect iOS - when it really should be the other way around.
Photo below - albeit with the current 'Dark' (not Glass 'Clear') setting for icons on a black Desktop.
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So you remove LaunchPad from the dock, to add the Applications folder to the dock, thus replicating much of LaunchPad's functionality?
Maybe I'm just a newer MacOS user (went all Mac in 2014) but I don't see what that gains you.
I don't have this issue at all. No iPhone apps are showing up for me. I also only ever had LaunchPad reorder apps once.
2024 M4 Mac Mini, base chip, extra RAM and storage.
at this point in time, not so much perhaps about 'gain', as about an alternative for ppl who miss launchpad.
I've never used LaunchPad as I always found it redundant to the 'grid' view of apps in the Applications Folder in the Dock, which I've been using since day one. I also keep most of my most frequently used apps in the Dock, and use the Apps folder or Spotlight to quickly open less commonly used apps. But if you like to organize apps and or sort them differently than alphabetical, then I can see why this would be missed.
i think that would be confusing, as i imagine most people go to one place or the other without over-thinking it, to open a recently-used app; it's just different paths to the same thing.
I loved Launchpad, and I sorted my apps beautifully. I use Spotlight almost exclusively on my iPhone to go to apps, even with the massive long-lasting bug that still displays "Files" content, despite it being turned OFF. Perhaps with the logic of people in this thread, we should be removing the Home Screen apps, folders etc on iOS.
I posted this in another forum, but it's also pertinent here: I'm firmly in the "this app drawer/spotlight thing sucks" camp. I had my apps on 5 Launchpad pages organized by function. I could get to any app with a trackpad four finger squeeze and a swipe or two. It worked perfectly for over a decade.
Now I not only have to know the exact name of the app and/or the exact spelling, I have to scroll past dozens of app I don't need to find the one I want. It's a frustratingly needless time suck, and in no way more efficient than Launchpad.
And to those saying, "why not just put your app folder in the dock?"... I have, for decades... never use it because of the "endless scrolling past unneeded apps" issue. That's not the same as Launchpad. I actually used Launchpad waaay more than I use my dock.
I understand trying to "innovate" and progress, but this app drawer isn't that. And just because you "never used it" doesn't mean millions of Mac users didn't use Launchpad everyday, several times a day. We should have at least been given a choice to toggle off this app drawer crap and use Launchpad instead.
Now I not only have to know the exact name of the app and/or the exact spelling, I have to scroll past dozens of app I don't need to find the one I want. It's a frustratingly needless time suck, and in no way more efficient than Launchpad.
And to those saying, "why not just put your app folder in the dock?"... I have, for decades... never use it because of the "endless scrolling past unneeded apps" issue. That's not the same as Launchpad. I actually used Launchpad waaay more than I use my dock.
I understand trying to "innovate" and progress, but this app drawer isn't that. And just because you "never used it" doesn't mean millions of Mac users didn't use Launchpad everyday, several times a day. We should have at least been given a choice to toggle off this app drawer crap and use Launchpad instead.
perhaps, but that's not what happened. so you have to make a choice: adapt, or find a workaround, or a 3rd-party app. what else is there? 🤔
I like many use Spotlight a lot, but I also enjoyed Launchpad - it required one hand, not two, to very easily get an app. I also use Spotlight 99% of the time on my iPhone to open apps. With the same logic people have here, we should scrap the iOS home screen and app folders too, and just give people that list thing on the far right 'page' on iOS.
I'm actively doing all three. But first comes denial, then anger, then griping and moaning about it on macrumumors...
another plus to the launchpad: it does not depend on spotlight to work. Spotlight can be buggy, the index can get corrupted, it can have a runaway problem where it eats up all your disk space. Some people even turn off spotlight.
Spotlight stopped indexing my internal drive for some reason. I've spent the whole morning trying to fix the problem and it looks like it's finally working. It still can't find Safari for some reason, even though it can find my other apps in /Applications
Spotlight stopped indexing my internal drive for some reason. I've spent the whole morning trying to fix the problem and it looks like it's finally working. It still can't find Safari for some reason, even though it can find my other apps in /Applications
Seriously--It's crazy how little effort people put into checking to see if there are options/features available, like turning off the iPhone app view 😄
The option to disable that showed for me, but for many other users it isn't for some reason. I've had people show me screenshots of their Spotlight "App" view, and they do not have the three dots in the top-right to enable/disable iPhone app view. A bug, once again.