macOS Tahoe still terrible with bugs even with 26.2

[Red29359]

I’ve been running into some pretty frustrating bugs lately on macOS 26 Tahoe, and I’m curious if others are seeing the same thing. I got to say in terms of bugs, this is the worst macOS version Apple has ever released, worse than Ventura was three years ago! I have had it with macOS Tahoe. The speed of the OS is fine but not the stability. The fact that users do not report this stuff often is the main reason bugs like this don't get fixed quickly. Here are the apps I have been experiencing problems with.

Freeform: When I type in a text box, the sentence or a entire paragraph would keep duplicating whatever I type whenever I add a period or a slash. It makes even simple notes turn into a mess of repeated sentences. iOS 26 Freeform does not do that.
Journal: I type a long paragraph and sometimes the text switches sides of my typing cursor. But also, the app would sometimes freeze and become unresponsive, and when it does, entire paragraphs disappear. It’s happened enough times now that I can’t trust it for longer entries.
Menu Bar: The Menu Bar animations become choppy just because a app is on the right side of the line where the trash app is on the dock. So if there is a app next to trash before the line, the menu bar animations are more choppy. It's these little things that Tahoe has that makes no sense.

Seriously, why can't be even basic apps be functional to the user. I just want to create new ideas but these apps glitch too much. I want to downgrade back to Sequoia or even Sonoma which is my favorite macOS for Apple Silicon, how do I do it? Why doesn't Apple allow the user to downgrade easily like Windows? Has anybody else been having bugs in this new macOS? macOS 26.2 has not fixed much bugs for me in my experience.

 

[Bigwaff]

I want to downgrade back to Sequoia or even Sonoma which is my favorite macOS for Apple Silicon, how do I do it?

You need to DFU restore your Mac.

How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support

Rarely, a Mac with Apple silicon or the Apple T2 Security Chip might experience an issue that requires its firmware to be revived or restored by another Mac.

support.apple.com

 

[Genelec8341]

I'm stIll on Sequoia on my Mini M1 and will stay there as long as possible. The rounded off window corners are a no-go for me.
Did they fix the pointer bug that shows the wrong tool going back for how many MacOSes? No? Ok thanks. 😡

 

[hieubui]

I'm stIll on Sequoia on my Mini M1 and will stay there as long as possible. The rounded off window corners are a no-go for me.
Did they fix the pointer bug that shows the wrong tool going back for how many MacOSes? No? Ok thanks. 😡

Thisssss. It’s the single most annoying thing ever. And it’s not that hard to reproduce either. Do they even use what they created?

 

[jchap]

Freeform: When I type in a text box, the sentence or a entire paragraph would keep duplicating whatever I type whenever I add a period or a slash. It makes even simple notes turn into a mess of repeated sentences. iOS 26 Freeform does not do that.

I'm also on Tahoe 26.2 on my MacBook Air M2 model. I don't see this bug happening on my end when I type periods or slashes into text boxes in Freeform. Can you share the specific steps you use, so that we can try and duplicate this problem?

 

[Playfoot]

So, I thought, silly me, that 26.2 would have most of the bugs worked out. Or at least for relatively "normal" users, albeit heavy on Excel, data analytics, CAD.

Right out of the gate. No longer any ability to decide encrypt drive nor not. Then, need to make aFacetime call, ALL calls, missed calls, numbers, etc. did NOT transfer. And of course, no audio or mic. So FT is currently useless. First app tried as I had a group call this morning.

Second, Outlook is NOT opening. Can't wait to see how the rest of the day will go. Company IT is going to have a long Christmas and New Year's ahead of them.

Then the aesthetics. Not a fan of the rounded corners. Not a fan of of the lake image. These are annoying on the level of seeing the notch EVERY day. This is right up there with being saddled with a step down in port selection and being forced to have legacy ports that serve no purpose.

 

[Global_traveler]

Auuuuggghhh! Just updated today to latest Tahoe. I back up large numbers of files on my IPP to an M2 NVMe SSD which sits in a Satechi base, under my M2 Mini. I use Sharing (SMB) (over my WiFi) and tonight it stopped working. I did a full shutdown and restart of the iPad and the Mini, to no avail. In the iPad Files app I checked everything that was previously set up. It just wouldn’t connect. Ultimately, it turned out that this version of Tahoe CHANGED my ip address! How I truly HATE Apple for doing these things. User settings should NEVER be arbitrarily changed. If they are, there should be a notification. 100 points will be taken away from Slytherin!! And they still haven’t fixed Numbers functionality that they broke with Version 14.4 from March of this year.

 

[Bigwaff]

Ultimately, it turned out that this version of Tahoe CHANGED my ip address

Can you explain your networking setup? Are you using home router to create WiFi network? Did you have manually entered IP info when connecting to home network? Are connected via Ethernet and using macOS Internet Sharing? Typically, WiFi router networks use DHCP with lease reservations. IP address changes should be expected when lease expires. Tahoe update could be coincident, not bug.

 

[PotentPeas]

Tahoe update could be coincident, not bug.

Tahoe could have triggered a change of the private MAC address that the Mac uses for this Wi-Fi network? That would have forced an IP address change.

(I believe that the default setting is a "fixed" private MAC address, but I have observed that it *will* be changed sometimes, if you for example "forget" the network and then connect to it again.)

 

[coolfactor]

The OP listed several `rendering` issues, which is the type of bug that I experience on Tahoe. In a Finder window with many files, scrolling can cause several to overlap. When this happens, clicking is offset by about half an inch. Weirdest experience ever!

Resizing the window causes a re-rendering and that fixes the issue, but this type of issue never happened in any previous macOS version, so something related to graphics/window rendering has definitely changed in Tahoe to cause these types of visual bugs.

 

[Bigwaff]

Tahoe could have triggered a change of the private MAC address that the Mac uses for this Wi-Fi network? That would have forced an IP address change.

(I believe that the default setting is a "fixed" private MAC address, but I have observed that it *will* be changed sometimes, if you for example "forget" the network and then connect to it again.)

Good point. Tahoe default might be “Rotating” private WiFi MAC address.

 

[PotentPeas]

Good point. Tahoe default might be “Rotating” private WiFi MAC address.

Even if it is "fixed", there are cases where it could be different. For instance, my MBP connects with a different MAC address depending on whether I connect from my regular desktop session or from pre-boot / recovery mode, though it is consistent with what pair of MACs it uses in those two situations. I wonder if there are some cases which cause the "fixed" MAC to just change during/after an upgrade to Tahoe.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

It is simple really. Apple ****s us with its software, and has been doing so for decades. Apple treats _all_ users as beta testers, publicly releasing beta software as public releases (e.g. 26.0, etc.). I am an Apple fanboi, and it makes me sick.

Steve Jobs established the terrible routine of publicly releasing beta software to the public and Tim Cook has failed to fix Steve's corrupt ongoing con. IMO the one serious flaw in Cook's legacy.

Buyers of new hardware have no way to avoid the beta software Apple calls public X.0, X.1, etc. releases because Apple forces it on to new devices. That would be fine if Apple was honest about what constitutes a publicly released version. But decades of lazy/corrupt Apple Software top management have built a culture of forcing the public to perform beta testing by lying about the true nature of X.0, X.1, etc. releases. Apple Software top management knows what the bugs are, because we have told them.

 

[Global_traveler]

I use my home WiFi to connect and exchange files between IPP and Mac. I use this every day, using the SMB protocol via “Sharing”. I’ve used this through the numerous updates to Ventura, Sequoia, and Tahoe. Never had an issue until yesterday, immediately after the latest Tahoe update. After finding that my Mac ip address had been changed, I just needed to do the setup in the iPad Files app to reflect the new address. Never happened before, and been using Mac minis for years. My first Apple was a IIe. If Apple really really absolutely had to purposely change things, they should announce it. That’s my only gripe. Anyway, after I back up a few dozen spreadsheets from IPP to Mac, I can later transfer them to my iPhone using the same method. I have no need for a NAS, as this is a fairly fast and inexpensive solution. I’m in one room with my IPP and the Mac is in another. I don’t even need to get out of my recliner! There are good tutorials about this on U tube. Setup took me under a minute on each device. Further, I back up these files from my phone to 3 separate small SSD’s - carrying two with me, and keeping the 3rd locked up. I would not want to have to rebuild these spreadsheets, let alone manually enter all the data! Backups are your friend!

Merry Christmas!

 

[chama98]

The fact that users do not report this stuff often is the main reason bugs like this don't get fixed quickly. Here are the apps I have been experiencing problems with.

I don't think that's true. What Apple decide to do with fixing bugs is another matter for them.

I was watching a YouTube video and in the middle of it, it Kernal Paniced I was annoying. apparently its a bug in the PCI driver for my Ethernet. Not impressed. But if it happens again I will have to downgrade again.

Like I have said in previous threads on here. Apple really need to get a grip of the software they chuck out year on year. I don't understand and will understand why Apple are hell bent on chucking out new software year after year. They really need to spend a quiet of time in fixing the ongoing issues and bugs from previous versions.

like this for example:

Last Week on My Mac: Losing confidence

What was the key to successfully learning to drive, ride a bike, or speak a foreign language? Confidence, and it’s every bit as important in computing, and in macOS.

eclecticlight.co

 

[nekton1]

I don't think that's true. What Apple decide to do with fixing bugs is another matter for them.

I was watching a YouTube video and in the middle of it, it Kernal Paniced I was annoying. apparently its a bug in the PCI driver for my Ethernet. Not impressed. But if it happens again I will have to downgrade again.

Like I have said in previous threads on here. Apple really need to get a grip of the software they chuck out year on year. I don't understand and will understand why Apple are hell bent on chucking out new software year after year. They really need to spend a quiet of time in fixing the ongoing issues and bugs from previous versions.

like this for example:

Last Week on My Mac: Losing confidence

What was the key to successfully learning to drive, ride a bike, or speak a foreign language? Confidence, and it’s every bit as important in computing, and in macOS.

eclecticlight.co

And it will only get worse after Apple shutdown its Appleseed user group web portal where experienced beta testers provided feedback. I was one and reported perhaps 50 bugs a year to engineering but now I don't bother and I expect the other several hundred testers don't either — that's possibly >5000 bugs a year that engineering has little to no evidence about. We were never told why the portal was closed but my suspicion is that some of us got too vociferous about the quality of early Tahoe betas. The bug that annoys me most now is Finder freezes when some process grabs and won't release all the CPU resources for a minute or two.

 

[Andy_2341]

I hate to be that guy, but why do y’all have so many bugs and problems? I haven’t had any of these. I use my M4 MBA for 14 hours a day with no issues. I use tinted glass, and dark mode. I find the OS far more visually pleasing with rounded corners and much more “fun” to use instead of blocky and old feeling like Sequoia. I also run 26.2 on my iPhone 15 Pro with minimal issues and have an new iPad mini 7 on the way because of the hardware being able to handle the new OS. I had originally run the iPadOS betas back in the summer on my mini 6 before downgrading back and swearing the new multitasking was worse. I sold that mini and went to an OG iPad Air on 12.5.7. Now I see 26 is actually a great multitasking change. Single windowed for when you don’t want to multitask. More versatile for when you do. Don’t try to make it be a full blown Mac and the Mac-style multitasking actually makes more sense.

Anyways,

I'm stIll on Sequoia on my Mini M1 and will stay there as long as possible. The rounded off window corners are a no-go for me.
Did they fix the pointer bug that shows the wrong tool going back for how many MacOSes? No? Ok thanks. 😡

What pointer bug? When does this occur?

So, I thought, silly me, that 26.2 would have most of the bugs worked out. Or at least for relatively "normal" users, albeit heavy on Excel, data analytics, CAD.

Right out of the gate. No longer any ability to decide encrypt drive nor not. Then, need to make aFacetime call, ALL calls, missed calls, numbers, etc. did NOT transfer. And of course, no audio or mic. So FT is currently useless. First app tried as I had a group call this morning.

Second, Outlook is NOT opening. Can't wait to see how the rest of the day will go. Company IT is going to have a long Christmas and New Year's ahead of them.

Then the aesthetics. Not a fan of the rounded corners. Not a fan of of the lake image. These are annoying on the level of seeing the notch EVERY day. This is right up there with being saddled with a step down in port selection and being forced to have legacy ports that serve no purpose.

When you say encrypt drive to you mean FileVault or external drives?
Are you using a MacBook? FaceTime immediately worked for me and had everything synced. I use FaceTime almost constantly and the only bug I have is it random continuity cameras. As for the lake image, just swap the wallpaper. I use Sonoma’s wallpaper cause I find it cool.

 

[seek3r]

Auuuuggghhh! Just updated today to latest Tahoe. I back up large numbers of files on my IPP to an M2 NVMe SSD which sits in a Satechi base, under my M2 Mini. I use Sharing (SMB) (over my WiFi) and tonight it stopped working. I did a full shutdown and restart of the iPad and the Mini, to no avail. In the iPad Files app I checked everything that was previously set up. It just wouldn’t connect. Ultimately, it turned out that this version of Tahoe CHANGED my ip address! How I truly HATE Apple for doing these things. User settings should NEVER be arbitrarily changed. If they are, there should be a notification. 100 points will be taken away from Slytherin!! And they still haven’t fixed Numbers functionality that they broke with Version 14.4 from March of this year.

Unless you have the IP set as static that wasnt tahoe changing your IP, that was your DHCP lease expiring and your router handing the machine a new address, exactly as it’s supposed to do

Either set your router to always hand your mini the same IP via MAC address mapping or set the IP manually on the mini

If you did have it set manually that’s a pretty bad bug, please report it

 

[Playfoot]

I hate to be that guy, but why do y’all have so many bugs and problems? I haven’t had any of these. I use my M4 MBA for 14 hours a day with no issues. I use tinted glass, and dark mode. I find the OS far more visually pleasing with rounded corners and much more “fun” to use instead of blocky and old feeling like Sequoia. I also run 26.2 on my iPhone 15 Pro with minimal issues and have an new iPad mini 7 on the way because of the hardware being able to handle the new OS. I had originally run the iPadOS betas back in the summer on my mini 6 before downgrading back and swearing the new multitasking was worse. I sold that mini and went to an OG iPad Air on 12.5.7. Now I see 26 is actually a great multitasking change. Single windowed for when you don’t want to multitask. More versatile for when you do. Don’t try to make it be a full blown Mac and the Mac-style multitasking actually makes more sense.

Anyways,

What pointer bug? When does this occur?

When you say encrypt drive to you mean FileVault or external drives?
Are you using a MacBook? FaceTime immediately worked for me and had everything synced. I use FaceTime almost constantly and the only bug I have is it random continuity cameras. As for the lake image, just swap the wallpaper. I use Sonoma’s wallpaper cause I find it cool.

There in lies the challenges with Tahoe, it is so glitchy, or perhaps underdeveloped / tested that there are too many bugs. Have now discovered on three of the machines that favorites, and bookmarks did not transfer in the update. Albeit minor, but I take as a portent of things to come, of more things that go "bump in the night".

Another bump is the terrible placement of playback controls in Apple Music. What "muppet" thought that was a good idea?

 

[bmark]

MacOS 26 is an epic failure!

 

[nekton1]

And it will only get worse after Apple shutdown its Appleseed user group web portal where experienced beta testers provided feedback. I was one and reported perhaps 50 bugs a year to engineering but now I don't bother and I expect the other several hundred testers don't either — that's possibly >5000 bugs a year that engineering has little to no evidence about. We were never told why the portal was closed but my suspicion is that some of us got too vociferous about the quality of early Tahoe betas. The bug that annoys me most now is Finder freezes when some process grabs and won't release all the CPU resources for a minute or two.

And found a doozy if you are an Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display (ATD) user, because MacOS 26.2 FAILS to find the built-in display camera. I know the ATD is an ancient display but it IS an Apple product and still has many fans, so there is no excuse for this omission.

 

[jchap]

Second, Outlook is NOT opening. Can't wait to see how the rest of the day will go. Company IT is going to have a long Christmas and New Year's ahead of them.

Outlook not opening? Sounds like Microsoft didn't do their homework and didn't get ready for the new OS with the betas. I feel your pain, but this one's not necessarily an Apple problem.

Then the aesthetics. Not a fan of the rounded corners. Not a fan of of the lake image. These are annoying on the level of seeing the notch EVERY day. This is right up there with being saddled with a step down in port selection and being forced to have legacy ports that serve no purpose.

The rounded corners aren't a favorite with many people, although some people don't seem to mind, as evidenced by the threads of this forum. Please complain to Apple—they have a feedback form.

You can easily change the wallpaper, so no need to complain about that. I don't find the default wallpaper so great, either, but that's why users are given settings to change things. You have options.

As for the notch, that's not an OS problem—it's a hardware matter. It shouldn't affect your daily use of the machine. I'm not sure why you are complaining about ports, either.

When it comes to tech stuff, there are things you can change, things you can learn to live with, and things you can complain about to the manufacturer. Of course, you can gripe about it here, and you'll find company—there are plenty of people who are very vocal about the new OS. It won't help your situation, though. Good luck.

 

[jchap]

Another bump is the terrible placement of playback controls in Apple Music. What "muppet" thought that was a good idea?

Please complain to Apple.

 

[Cape Dave]

Outlook not opening? Sounds like Microsoft didn't do their homework and didn't get ready for the new OS with the betas. I feel your pain, but this one's not necessarily an Apple problem.


The rounded corners aren't a favorite with many people, although some people don't seem to mind, as evidenced by the threads of this forum. Please complain to Apple—they have a feedback form.

You can easily change the wallpaper, so no need to complain about that. I don't find the default wallpaper so great, either, but that's why users are given settings to change things. You have options.

As for the notch, that's not an OS problem—it's a hardware matter. It shouldn't affect your daily use of the machine. I'm not sure why you are complaining about ports, either.

When it comes to tech stuff, there are things you can change, things you can learn to live with, and things you can complain about to the manufacturer. Of course, you can gripe about it here, and you'll find company—there are plenty of people who are very vocal about the new OS. It won't help your situation, though. Good luck.

Rounded corners are for three year olds! Kindergarten approved. So effing sad!

 

[jchap]

Rounded corners are for three year olds! Kindergarten approved. So effing sad!

Complain to Apple.