macOS Tahoe Finder Bug Underscores Apple's Slipping UI Polish

[reno]

This is just one symptom of a serious, underlying disease at Apple: leadership that lacks focus on high-quality standards and poor vision for making the lives of their customers better.

 

[VulchR]

There are quite a few Finder alternative out there already! Might give them a shot

Namely? Not being facetious.

 

[VulchR]

That's a good point. Perhaps they're getting way too large, and as the years pass on so do the developers. Otherwise how can Apple explain this mess:

macOS Tahoe’s Rounded Corners Are Breaking Basic Window Resizing

macOS Tahoe’s rounded window corners shrink the resize area, making window resizing unreliable and forcing users to grab outside the window.

www.macobserver.com

New, youger devs come in, have no recollection on how things used to work, were designed, and don't learn the required history properly.

Apple used to have a guide that defined the user interface and they would get uppity if developers did not follow the guidelines. I wish that was still the case, for I am tired of a mishmash of GUI practices in different apps.

 

[Hank001]

I've noticed this with a lot of young designers.

Im a designer of 30 years. We studied fine art to learn about tone and contrast, photography for depth and composition, calligraphy & typography to learn about the minute subtle nuances and optical illusions that curves and straight edges can cause in certain situations, colour theory, print theory, architecture, product design, web design and others I've no doubt forgotten about. We learned about the design masters, the history of design, history of different styles etc. Deep theories on how the correct type size will influence the size of every other element on the page, but mostly we learned how to communicate effectively. The course was called 'Design Communications' not 'Graphic Design'. Design is all about communicating effectively via the use of graphics it's not simply about making things look good, that's just a by-product of good design. As Steve Jobs once said 'design is not about how it looks it's how it works'. So adding chintzy effects for the sake of it will only ever detract from a design hence the term 'less is more'.

I see many people today creating sheet after sheet of logos in Canva and calling themselves a designer when all they've done is learn how to use cookie cutter Canva to create nice looking symbols. They haven't learned how to apply them in the real world and apply accurate consistent colour over various mediums or why a design that might look great at one particular size is then illegible or looks completely different at a different size and all manner of other things. So many things are misunderstood or get overlooked these days - Tahoe being a perfect example. Chintzy effects that serve no other purpose than to distract, cause issues, bugs and general frustration because the design has now become less efficient in its role of communicating information.

The rounded corners thing you refer to is an issue but there is also a bug which I've highlighted in a few threads where the handle never appears or appears for a split second before disappearing so even on the straight edges of windows the grab handle doesn't work, its not just the misplacement of rounded corner 'hit states' that's the problem.

What an excellent post. Informative...and props to you for not only being a designer but understandign the history and the 'rules'. I respect people who study before working working on said subject.

A very interesting post. I agree with youtr points, Steve's view, and unfortunately also agree that Liquid Glass is a distracting design.

Your last paragraph is just, well, sad to read. I've left my 2 desktops alone, but did upgrade my laptop...but about 6 weeks later I formatted it and reinstalled 15.7 Just couldn't stand 26.

Oh, on Canva, I read this on Wikipedia and thought it was quite telling: it sounds like every designer would want this but the results are probably what you often see and dislike very much.

The platform uses a drag-and-drop interface designed for users without professional design training or experience.

 

[Hank001]

Apple used to have a guide that defined the user interface and they would get uppity if developers did not follow the guidelines. I wish that was still the case, for I am tired of a mishmash of GUI practices in different apps.

They still do. At least, it's on their website:

Human Interface Guidelines | Apple Developer Documentation

The HIG contains guidance and best practices that can help you design a great experience for any Apple platform.

developer.apple.com

 

[johnsawyercjs]

The rounded corners thing you refer to is an issue but there is also a bug which I've highlighted in a few threads where the handle never appears or appears for a split second before disappearing so even on the straight edges of windows the grab handle doesn't work, its not just the misplacement of rounded corner 'hit states' that's the problem.

Yup. The region around the edges of windows where a resize handle is supposed to appear when you hover the pointer over them is so thin that it can require more work to activate them than should be required. And when you finally see the handle appear, clicking to start the drag process often doesn't work--there's no response, and so no window resizing. When you do manage to start resizing a window, often it automatically locks into some size you don't want, and it takes extra effort to "break" the window edge away from that mystery default location.

I can't imagine these behaviors are somehow perceived as useful by the developers who created them, but maybe there are "tricks" they've also written into the code to work around all of this, but why not make window resizing work as reliably and intuitively as it used to, as the average user (and everyone else) would expect in the first place?

 

[turbineseaplane]

They still do. At least, it's on their website:

Human Interface Guidelines | Apple Developer Documentation

The HIG contains guidance and best practices that can help you design a great experience for any Apple platform.

developer.apple.com

Unfortunately Apple themselves fragrantly violate it all the time now.

It has become like an alcoholic having a big “no drinking” pamphlet guide on their coffee table.

 

[vantelimus]

QuickTime is another example, it feels like a relic from decades ago. Why hasn’t Apple replaced it with a modern, unified “Video Player” app? What person born after year 2000 knows what "Quicktime" is? There are still many legacy elements throughout macOS that make the system feel dated, especially when compared to the polish and cohesion of iPadOS.

Compatibility isn't legacy. A lot of the problem with MacOS software comes from the newer UI developers at Apple. These are people who grew up using Windows and Linux as well as Mac. They don't appreciate the concept of "design as function" which was essential to Macintosh software in its first couple of decades (and at Xerox) before it. They were born after (or not much before) Apple published "Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines". If they even know about the lengths to which Apple went to produce a consistent design language, they view it as "old-man quaint."

 

[Hank001]

Yup. The region around the edges of windows where a resize handle is supposed to appear when you hover the pointer over them is so thin that it can require more work to activate them than should be required. And when you finally see the handle appear, clicking to start the drag process often doesn't work--there's no response, and so no window resizing. When you do manage to start resizing a window, often it automatically locks into some size you don't want, and it takes extra effort to "break" the window edge away from that mystery default location.

I can't imagine these behaviors are somehow perceived as useful by the developers who created them, but maybe there are "tricks" they've also written into the code to work around all of this, but why not make window resizing work as reliably and intuitively as it used to, as the average user (and everyone else) would expect in the first place?

What I don't understand is that should annoy the developers themselves as well. Even if they don't dogfood, this must frustrate while at work, using the Mac.

If turned all the auto this auto that off in /Settings/Desktop & Dock/Windows

 

[johnsawyercjs]

What I don't understand is that should annoy the developers themselves as well. Even if they don't dogfood, this must frustrate while at work, using the Mac.

If turned all the auto this auto that off in /Settings/Desktop & Dock/Windows

View attachment 2605308

Thanks for showing the "Windows" settings. I hadn't looked at this for some time, so I didn't know about the setting "Drag windows to menu bar to fill screen". From what I've been seeing, I thought you dragged windows to the upper left corner of the screen to get them to fill the screen, but this behaved inconsistently when I'd try it, so this must be why. It would make more sense conceptually if a window filled the screen when it's dragged to the upper left corner, but dragging it to the menu bar is actually a little easier. "Drag windows to screen edges to tile" is a setting that's new to me, but I've seen it happen recently when I didn't want it to, which is essentially never, so I've turned this off. Apparently it debuted in macOS Sequoia.

 

[idmean]

That isn't the same as Group by. I want to group results by folder when searching.

So how is that different exactly?

 

[Hank001]

Thanks for showing the "Windows" settings. I hadn't looked at this for some time, so I didn't know about the setting "Drag windows to menu bar to fill screen". From what I've been seeing, I thought you dragged windows to the upper left corner of the screen to get them to fill the screen, but this behaved inconsistently when I'd try it, so this must be why. It would make more sense conceptually if a window filled the screen when it's dragged to the upper left corner, but dragging it to the menu bar is actually a little easier. "Drag windows to screen edges to tile" is a setting that's new to me, but I've seen it happen recently when I didn't want it to, which is essentially never, so I've turned this off. Apparently it debuted in macOS Sequoia.

It’s another design thing they copied from Microsoft. Some like it, I don’t. Therefore I laughed at your

…which is essentially never…

 

[nursers]

Yes hate this too. To add to this the audio scrubbing timeline is hidden and you have to mouseover to reveal it. I would’ve thought that this was a pretty important part of an audio UI to expose.

Could not possibly agree more with this - the combination of moving the controls to the bottom, mouseover scrubbing and two clicks to chain volume makes the Music app changes one of the most nonsensical I've seen since picking up my LC II in 1992. Seriously.

 

[adrianlondon]

Could not possibly agree more with this - the combination of moving the controls to the bottom, mouseover scrubbing and two clicks to chain volume makes the Music app changes one of the most nonsensical I've seen since picking up my LC II in 1992. Seriously.

Agreed. The Music app is awful. Really bad.

I currently have a decent offer on my monthly Apple Music subscription, but once that ends, the Music app is bad enough that I'll cancel it.

It's full of issues:

Music - Missing Features, Bugs, Issues & Troubleshooting (Tahoe)

macOS 26.3 Tahoe - Music 1.6.3.2 Missing Features Status bar is gone: It's still in the view menu with a brand new icon no less, but showing or hiding it does nothing. Timed (karaoke) lyrics Sing Album/song view: Can't view albums in place. Music has a separate page for every album. Artist...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[zemoleman]

After investigating the issue of not being able to specify a folder of pictures to be used as Desktop pics I found a workaround (it is not an all encompassing solution) in the Apple Forums-simply open Photos and pick any picture, select the "share" menu and set that pic to be the Desktop picture. Eventually once the pic changes to what you have selected it will filter through to the Wallpaper setting and you should be able to then select a folder of pics. One of the things I found was buried in my Home Library Folder, a HUGE Wallpaper folder in "Containers" that was screwing up my available free space on a 1TB drive. I've been at this with the Mac since 1984 and cannot believe how bad Tahoe is overall and how disappointed I am with Tim Cook and Apple that they allowed this festering pile of OS crap out the door. Tim Apple needs to focus on stability and functionality as opposed to introducing a gazillion features that less than 1% of Mac Users want or need, addition by subtraction is a losing strategy.

 

[TumbleDryer]

After investigating the issue of not being able to specify a folder of pictures to be used as Desktop pics I found a workaround (it is not an all encompassing solution) in the Apple Forums-simply open Photos and pick any picture, select the "share" menu and set that pic to be the Desktop picture. Eventually once the pic changes to what you have selected it will filter through to the Wallpaper setting and you should be able to then select a folder of pics. One of the things I found was buried in my Home Library Folder, a HUGE Wallpaper folder in "Containers" that was screwing up my available free space on a 1TB drive. I've been at this with the Mac since 1984 and cannot believe how bad Tahoe is overall and how disappointed I am with Tim Cook and Apple that they allowed this festering pile of OS crap out the door. Tim Apple needs to focus on stability and functionality as opposed to introducing a gazillion features that less than 1% of Mac Users want or need, addition by subtraction is a losing strategy.

Ive just had a look in that containers folder! Why are all my JPEG wallpapers duplicated as BMPs?! That's 6GB of wasted space! Why isn't the system just using the JPEGs from the folder I have set?

 

[Jordan Klein]

I completely agree. Liquid Glass on macOS Tahoe looks quite unfinished…

It’s like they focused mainly on iOS, as well as iPadOS, but macOS was rushed without a clear concept…

Let’s hope they focus a bit more on Mac’s Liquid Glass for macOS 27. The UI needs a lot of fixes and polish.

Let's also hope that they include Intel Macs that currently can run macOS 26. They owe us a usable system before dropping support for the CPU.

 

[sunman42]

LOL. What? Apple's entire reputation as a business has been built on design starting when the original Mac rolled off the assembly line 42 years ago. It's a tent pole of the brand's value proposition. The product looks good, the UI looks good and is friendly. Go back to the launch of the original iMac, the first presentation of Aqua and OS X. Trust me, there was more effort put into the design of OS X 10.0 than engineering effort. The iPod clickwheel didn't just naturally come into being. Watch those Steve Jobs presentations and you can tell the level of obsessiveness that went into design of all those things. A good deal is showmanship, sure. But it's their Why, it's their brand promise, it's their very definition of a "Superlative Product."

Saying that Apple isn't a design studio is like saying Mercedes isn't a design studio, can make cars that look just like Toyotas and the only thing that matters is that they drive ok and still sell for a luxury price...

Consumer's (and shareholders) have brand expectations that are built over years and decades. No corporation can just decide to not care about one of their biggest differentiators and expect their customers to just wait patiently until they stumble onto the next hit.

Liquid Glass either does or doesn't live up to consumer expectations for a product from Apple. A company the consumer expects to have a design studio philosophy and refined attention to detail. It's as simple as that.

I think you misunderstood my simple sentence, so I apologize for not making simpler. Apple _has_ a design studio, and hopefully one that will keep producing items that customers consider delightful to look at, hold, &c, but its sole business is not design. As a result, it will undoubtedly produce products that you or I or any of the other billion or so happy Apple customers like, and others that they're not so enthusiastic about. As an example, a lot of people in China appear to really like the iPhone 17 family design, at least to the point of buying one or more of the members of the family. I'm not so excited about the design. Each of us is entitled to {insert possessive pronoun here} view.

 

[VulchR]

They still do. At least, it's on their website:

Human Interface Guidelines | Apple Developer Documentation

The HIG contains guidance and best practices that can help you design a great experience for any Apple platform.

developer.apple.com

Often ignored, then. Adobe *cough*. IBM *cough* ....

 

[Populus]

Let's also hope that they include Intel Macs that currently can run macOS 26. They owe us a usable system before dropping support for the CPU.

To be fair, that’s what they should do. But I don’t think that’s their plan, so let’s hope that at least they fix Tahoe in the following months.

 

[steve333]

Is anyone having this issue on Facebook after upgrading to Tahoe 26.3?

I no longer see the drop down menu on comments, listing Newest Comments, All Comments or the ridiculous Most Relevant Comments.
I just see the comments, and I have no idea if it is on all comments or most relevant.
It's making it really annoying to navigate the comments.

It's not even a Safari issue, it's happening on Firefox as well and I tried turning off the adblocker and that didn't work either, nor did emptying the cache and logging out then back in.
Nothing is working.

 

[jonnysods]

Hmm … been resisting Tahoe, since if it's anything like ios26, I'm not interested. But the column width adjusting to file names? That's a loooong overdue and welcome fix. Hopefully it'll also happen within apps like FCP.

Its insane how long its taken hasn't it? I use FCP but I didn't notice it was dynamic.

 

[MacFarmer]

Mac OS Tahoe is disgusting. It will never be installed on any of my macs! My main mac is back on Monterey, and m1 air on Sequoia, but I hate it's control panel. And I'm surprised how often I need to open it. I conciser going back to Monterey on that one too.

 

[TumbleDryer]

Ive just had a look in that containers folder! Why are all my JPEG wallpapers duplicated as BMPs?! That's 6GB of wasted space! Why isn't the system just using the JPEGs from the folder I have set?

Mr GPT says it uses BMPs as they are read quicker by the system and they are cached so MacOS doesn't have to keep uncompressing the JPEG each time it rotates onto screen. So you end up with triple file size but faster loading. 🤷‍♂️

Shame though that in Tahoe the fade in out effect is horrendously bad so faster loading is moot. Anyone else have slow jerky transitions and/or none at all and it just instantly swaps to a new desktop pic?

 

[Hank001]

Anyone else have slow jerky transitions and/or none at all and it just instantly swaps to a new desktop pic?

Didn't take the time to try all that out:
formatted the SSD and installen 15.7 because:
"Tahow can it be this bad?"