macOS Tahoe Finder Bug Underscores Apple's Slipping UI Polish

[Hank001]

I haven't read all the 5 pages of posts, so forgive me if I am repeating this:

For heaven's sake why are we manually having to expand and contract columns to see file names in the Finder in 2026? Why hasn't Apple hired some college intern for a few weeks, which is all it would take, to provide a System Preferences setting that automatically adjusts column width so complete filenames are shown? Ellipses (...) in file names in the Finder column view suck, and they are evidence of supremely languid GUI standards. I have a 27" iMac with enough screen real estate to see full columns, but every time I open a Finder window I have to mouse around to see full filenames. This is true even if the columns don't even fill the width of the Finder window. You can see examples of this in screenshots MR users have posted above. I can't count the number of times I have tried to contact Apple to request they change this. I even wrote Cook once a short e-mail, and all of it was ignored.

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXEnableColumnAutoSizing -bool YES; killall Finder

 

[TumbleDryer]

Don't forget this window resize grab icon bug too Apple...

Do you like Liquid Glass on Mac?

Also captured the crappy window grabber in action too. So there's definitely a bug here and it's not us going mad!

forums.macrumors.com

 

[adrianlondon]

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXEnableColumnAutoSizing -bool YES; killall Finder

I believe that's only for Sequoia and doesn't work in Tahoe. No harm to try, though!

However, Tahoe has an option which should do the same thing: In a Finder window showing as Column View, open View Options (⌘J) and tick the "Resize columns to fit filenames" option.

 

[Hank001]

I believe that's only for Sequoia and doesn't work in Tahoe. No harm to try, though!

However, Tahoe has an option which should do the same thing: In a Finder window showing as Column View, open View Options (⌘J) and tick the "Resize columns to fit filenames" option.

Sorry, had no idea. Just read it here:

Auto-resizing columns in Finder

One thing that’s always annoyed me about Finder is that in Column view, the columns didn’t automatically resize based on the filename. You could manually resize all the columns by sliding each column divider left or right, or right-clicking (control clicking) the divider icon and...

forums.realmacsoftware.com

I tried 26 (Tahoe) but didn't like it. Had to format the entire SSD to reinstall 15.7 and double clicking on the vertical scroll bar grabber while pressing Option down makes all columns auto-fit.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Literally on the way to replying to this, I encountered this graphical UI bug in Safari:
View attachment 2604490

What you're supposed to see here to the right of where it says CP (a google doc) are two more tabs. One I opened to reply to you, the other I opened as a second attempt. Above are my Favorites Bar bookmarks to Headfi Forums and my Synology surveillance cameras. There should be two active page tabs in that blank space. If I minimize and then bring the window back, they finally appear. I have seen this since 26.0. For Apple in their flagship browser, thats insane.

I do lots of work with file sharing over SMB. My network is rock solid. The number of times Finder has some kind of fit over a connected server's mount status, how it responds (or simply doesn't) to volume ejection commands (back through Sequoia) is embarrassing.

If you have multiple spaces and your Calendar app is on one space and you double click a.ics file, you aren't brought to the calendar where a new window has popped up to ask you what calendar you want to pin the event to, and if you really meant to add this even to your calendar. Instead, everything in your active space becomes unresponsive until you figure out that you have to manually skip over to the space with the calendar app open.

Messages does not reliably tell you a message was delivered. It often just leaves it blank on iMessage. Did it deliver or didn't it? Why no readout? Has been like this for many generations of macOS even after Messages got its little overhaul. They dont even reliably change the version number on the Apple Apps anymore.

In the Music app, sometimes the search just stops working and you have to quit the app and reopen it.

Contacts app is design wise the most cluster****ed overlap of UI of nearly any app on the Mac.

In the Finder, find a video file, right click it, go to Services and select Encode Video File. Then try to uncheck the box that says "same as source file" for the save location. Notice you both cannot uncheck the ticker box but you also cannot see the words because they overlap.

If you want more, listen to Gruber's last two episodes of the Talk Show with John Gruber.

Im really not here to be a jerk and say Im a better more Mac-ier user than you are and if you are really using all aspects of the OS I dont know how anybody can say things are fine. There is not a single pundit (ATP.fm, Gruber, Snell, etc) who says anything other than this. John Siracusa who wrote macOS reviews for like a decade for ArsTechnica wont even upgrade because it's so rough and riddled with bugs. Sorry. Facts.

I’m definitely not doubting you; unreliable SMB mounts and unresponsive Spaces are objectively bad. My point was narrower: my specific workflow hasn't hit those walls. I don't use all possible features of macOS (although I do use SMB to connect to my NAS and have had no issues in macOS 26), but I'm not sure who does. No one is using everything. It’s not that your experience isn't real; it's just that we’re stressing different parts of the OS.

However, I disagree with you "universal facts" angle. Anecdotes and commentator opinions demonstrate these bugs exist, but they don't prove that everyone is having a bad time or that people who don't experience them or are not bugged by them are somehow lesser Mac users than those who do. Just because I don't have bugs or issues that affect my work (neuroscience research, but also a lot of personal use of my computers) doesn't mean others are having bug-free experiences. I don't doubt their experiences or say mine are more valid. In turn I ask the same courtesy.

If you want to dive deeper, share your build and hardware for the Safari or Calendar bugs. I’m happy to try reproducing them on my end to see if I can match your results.

 

[mystery hill]

Finder does have an option to keep folders at the top though. It’s in the Finder Settings

View attachment 2604776

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

 

[lifeinhd]

This is actually extremely common for devs (not just apple) to forget about the always show scroll bars settings. Because most trackpad users don't use this setting. Even if you use a mouse, chances are if you have a scroll wheel or anything like that, you don't use this setting. It is meant for old school mouses, or people who still prefer the workflow associated with an old school mouse. I've been at more than one company where this oversight has caused UI bugs.

Apple absolutely SHOULD fix this. But I'm not surprised this tripped them up too.

Why would anyone NOT use this setting? How else are you supposed to know at a glance how far down the page you are?

 

[turbineseaplane]

The music app is on macOS is insane half baked… it still chugs and has hiccups the longer it is left open during the day without restarting it.
Sometimes simple actions like add to a playlist doesn’t work.
Sometimes it’s possible to add a song twice and sometimes it does ask for the “song was already there, want to add it or skip adding this second instance” prompt.
The have concepts like “play next”, “play last”, “add to queue”… the last two are redundant but they appear in different instances.
Sometimes I’m listening to a song and just can’t restart it from the beginning with the “rewind” button (depends on the type of playback if it entered infinite mode or in station mode). I drag the time slider to the beginning.
The “next/history” songs panel just overlaps over the right side of the UI (if browsing album tiles, some of them will get half occluded)
Sometimes I can’t tap the the shuffle songs or the infinite songs buttons, can’t remember what happens exactly, but “they get gone”.

Annoying because on iOS it seems to work so much better and so much more pleasing to the eyes. Apple Music on macOS still feels and looks just like iTunes of the yesteryears.

Never thought we’d miss iTunes, and yet here we are…

 

[VulchR]

Hear me out .. I think I have the fix...

Finder+, now included with iCloud Premium Plus Pro Max subscription.

Please don't give Apple ideas....

 

[VulchR]

You don't have to. I'm still on Sequoia and I have column autosize on. You can turn it on in Terminal or with utilities like OnyX (in screenshot below) or similiar... I'm sure Tahoe has it too.

It should be part of macOS. I am certain Sequoia does not (but I have not used Tahoe). Indeed, this omission has been present for at least a decade. Thanks for the tip though - I can't help but think how little effort it would take from Apple to set up a System Settings checkbox to do this.

 

[blicked]

The music app is on macOS is insane half baked… it still chugs and has hiccups the longer it is left open during the day without restarting it.
Sometimes simple actions like add to a playlist doesn’t work.
Sometimes it’s possible to add a song twice and sometimes it does ask for the “song was already there, want to add it or skip adding this second instance” prompt.
The have concepts like “play next”, “play last”, “add to queue”… the last two are redundant but they appear in different instances.
Sometimes I’m listening to a song and just can’t restart it from the beginning with the “rewind” button (depends on the type of playback if it entered infinite mode or in station mode). I drag the time slider to the beginning.
The “next/history” songs panel just overlaps over the right side of the UI (if browsing album tiles, some of them will get half occluded)
Sometimes I can’t tap the the shuffle songs or the infinite songs buttons, can’t remember what happens exactly, but “they get gone”.

Annoying because on iOS it seems to work so much better and so much more pleasing to the eyes. Apple Music on macOS still feels and looks just like iTunes of the yesteryears.

I find it infuriating that Music can't be deleted. I don't use it, and I don't want to use it. But if the music app I DO use (Swinsian) is closed, if I hit any of the play/pause forward/backward buttons on the keyboard, Music pops up with a user agreement. Ridiculous, backwards, infuriating.

 

[RandomConstant]

I'm sure I'll get flamed here, but Finder is rubbish. I really like macOS Sequoia but Finder just drags the rest of the experience down. I also use a Linux machine and file managers like Caja run rings around Finder. Finder has the worst conflict-management I've seen in a modern operating system. Even Windows (yuck) has decent conflict management compared to Finder. Anyone run across the 'file already exists' issue in Finder? If I wasn't so dumb, I'd write a Finder alternative, but my brain just can't deal with Swift and Cocoa.

 

[grammatica]

Records profits though!

 

[maxoakland]

apple doesn't have a public bug tracker like almost every big tech company, there's no proof they know of any issues.

So people report these bugs on apples feedback app yet Apple somehow doesn’t know about them? How do you think that makes sense?

 

[maxoakland]

I'm sure I'll get flamed here, but Finder is rubbish. I really like macOS Sequoia but Finder just drags the rest of the experience down. I also use a Linux machine and file managers like Caja run rings around Finder. Finder has the worst conflict-management I've seen in a modern operating system. Even Windows (yuck) has decent conflict management compared to Finder. Anyone run across the 'file already exists' issue in Finder? If I wasn't so dumb, I'd write a Finder alternative, but my brain just can't deal with Swift and Cocoa.

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

 

[macfacts]

So people report these bugs on apples feedback app yet Apple somehow doesn’t know about them? How do you think that makes sense?

only you know you and apple know you sent the feedback, no one else knows, cause apple doesn't have a public bug tracker. Apple doesn't publicly acknowledge receipt of bug reports. it's all secret.

 

[Hank001]

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

Ah, ok.


Seems to do that on my 15.7.3

 

[Hank001]

I find it infuriating that Music can't be deleted. I don't use it, and I don't want to use it. But if the music app I DO use (Swinsian) is closed, if I hit any of the play/pause forward/backward buttons on the keyboard, Music pops up with a user agreement. Ridiculous, backwards, infuriating.

I'm on the 30 day trial for Swinsian. Seems to be really good. You enjoy it too? Worth buying?

What infuriates me the most is searching for a song (track name), see some results, tick on Show All and not seeing all the album names for the search results. Swinsian does it like iTunes used to do it, but the Music app doesn't. You can't change the view, so I need to create a Smart Playlist in order to see the album names.

 

[TumbleDryer]

Never thought we’d miss iTunes, and yet here we are…

The earliest iterations of iTunes and iPhoto were great. They marketed them as 'so simple to use' etc and they were. Now all they've done is move away from that with every update ever since.

 

[Hank001]

The earliest iterations of iTunes and iPhoto were great. They marketed them as 'so simple to use' etc and they were. Now all they've done is move away from that with every update ever since.

Full;y agree. And they made it better by integrating more and more into iTunes. A single app for sharing music at home, listening to radio, podcasts, music you own, preview what can be puchased, books, (music)video's, sync stuff to iPod, iPhone.

And then for some bizarre reason they broke it all up, seperate apps for everything! No idea why they thought that was better.

 

[TumbleDryer]

In fairness when they started to add all that extra stuff that's when it started getting messy. They then attempted to break it all up to get back to simplicity but created separate apps with convoluted interfaces which defeated the purpose so we now have loads of different apps all with terrible UIs. It's very rare I use any of them now because of it.

 

[Hank001]

In fairness when they started to add all that extra stuff that's when it started getting messy. They then attempted to break it all up to get back to simplicity but created separate apps with convoluted interfaces which defeated the purpose so we now have loads of different apps all with terrible UIs. It's very rare I use any of them now because of it.

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.

 

[TumbleDryer]

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.

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.

 

[Roberto1234]

Former Windows user. I am on Macos for one year now and it's windows system is light years behind Microsoft Windows. It's just bad and I don't understand how Apple don't fire all their stuff who is responsible for this.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

I was on Sequoia and clicked the wrong thing and now everything looks like its been drawn in crayon 😞