I've done every suggested thing I found here and on the web and from various AIs. Can't figure it out. I have to do a full OS reinstall probably but yeah no I don't want to do it. It's just too much stuff to reconfigure
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macOS Tahoe Transforms Launchpad Into App Library
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Yeah, I use launchpad extensively but I assume it's mostly people who use a trackpad. pinch in, type first letter of app or so and then enter or click it.
Don't think this change will impact me in the slightest, will look different but work the same.
If that works for you, that's great, I'm definitely not trying to tell anyone that the way they use a computer is wrong. To me, that just sounds like a dock with extra steps, although to be honest, I didn't even know you could rearrange the launchpad icons. I thought it was just like the App Library on iOS where you're stuck with whatever layout or grouping Apple gives you, so clearly I've spent almost no time using it.
Hopefully there's a third party replacement that can step in and fill the launchpad gap for the people who rely on it.
I'm someone who likes to keep my dock as minimalist as possible, meaning in my case, to show open apps. I have enough programs that I use frequently enough or semi-frequently that keeping them all in the dock would just completely clutter up the dock.
It's actually exactly like the iOS home screen. This new approach appears to be just like the iOS App Library.
I think we must seperate mouse or trackpad users from keyboard users.
For keyboard users the way "spotlight" is faster, for others launchpad is faster.
I´m a mouse user, using active corner and launchpad and no one will tell me that he is faster with spotlight, typing letters and so on.
And for the hint with application folder in dock: good idea, but e.g. I have a program with letter "S" in my lauchpad bottom left corner. 125 programs in applications. If I use the docktrick, I have to scroll down to "S". That is not really a replacement for my launchpad.
Perhaps I will create a folder with Aliases from my most used lauchpad apps and throwning that in the dock.
For keyboard users the way "spotlight" is faster, for others launchpad is faster.
I´m a mouse user, using active corner and launchpad and no one will tell me that he is faster with spotlight, typing letters and so on.
And for the hint with application folder in dock: good idea, but e.g. I have a program with letter "S" in my lauchpad bottom left corner. 125 programs in applications. If I use the docktrick, I have to scroll down to "S". That is not really a replacement for my launchpad.
Perhaps I will create a folder with Aliases from my most used lauchpad apps and throwning that in the dock.
I think you're drawing hard distinctions where they might not actually exist. I'm a trackpad user and a keyboard user. I mostly launch apps via spotlight, but I switch apps via the dock and manage windows by trackpad almost exclusively.
I actually think @tomtattoo does have a point and I've been thinking along similar lines upon reading the various comments, mostly due to all the "app folder in dock" comments. When I was still a Windows user back in what feels like a previous life (I grew up on Windows), I was a heavy short-cuts user. Still am, where possible. But Mac was inherently designed to be used with a mouse in mind. For me, it took quite a bit of changing my habits after I switched to Mac. And I have a feeling this is the case for many more recent Mac users, who probably almost all switched over from Windows (which for the longest time didn't even have such things as gestures)
For me, unless I'm actively writing long texts (emails, Macrumor forum replies, manuscripts, coding...), I always have one hand on the trackpad/mouse, one hand on the keyboard (or sometimes just nowhere near the keyboard, like holding a cup of tea). For me, someone who is a proficient two-handed typer, doing the spotlight shortcut one-handed is quite awkward and most definitely slower than using gestures/active corner, because it doesn't intuitively align with how my fingers are always positioned on the keyboard for two-handed blind typing. If that makes sense.
I don't know that I follow what you're saying at all. Or maybe I do and just don't agree. Unsure.
For context, in case it helps, I grew up with Windows machines and Macs and have pretty much always used both to some extent. I always used to be a keyboard and mouse person but back in the late 20-teens I gave up on a mouse on my MacBook and just use the keyboard and built-in trackpad. I switch between one-handed + trackpad and two-handed typing all the time. I don't really see a distinction between the two, I just use whatever I feel like using.
To me, it's like saying you're either a fork person or a spoon person, when in reality most people are both and it just depends on what they're eating.
I have Launchpad triggered by one of the side buttons on my Logitech mouse. I click once to bring up Launchpad and then once on the app I want. That's how I launch anything not in the dock. Most common apps in the dock, next most common apps right there on the (only) Launchpad page, less common apps in categorized -- by me -- folders in Launchpad.
I haven't regularly launched apps by typing any part of their name since the MS-DOS days. Apple knows best though, right?
I haven't regularly launched apps by typing any part of their name since the MS-DOS days. Apple knows best though, right?
That is me.
And some other thought: app library is not MY order, applications list is NOT my order, but launchpad is MY order. That´s the main point for me.
This is what I do.
I did once spend time arranging icons (with folders) in Launchpad, and I have it mapped to ⌥Z, but hardly used it afterwards.
What I've just learnt today, is that I can change the size of icons in a dock stack. ⌘+ or ⌘- while the stack is open (in icon/grid mode) will alter the size. I've just shrunk them down so that they all fit without needing a scrollbar.
Trying to figure out how I will manage this since I am a heavy LaunchPad user. (Appears that I am a rarity among Mac users...)
Some users suggest throwing the Applications folder in the dock. Nope. The whole point of LaunchPad is that I can put the apps on the grid (and in subfolders) how I want. I don't want an alphabetical list of apps, that's useless.
Wouldn't be surprised if a third-party replacement pops up. I would like to see some better customization options in LaunchPad. (I.e., the ability to place items on the grid freely as in iOS 18, rather than being constrained to the "left-to-right" ordering.)
Anyway, for the moment, I will make heavier use of XMenu.
apps.apple.com
It's a bit different, but there is a custom "user-defined" folder option that allows you to pick any folder, and it will make items in that folder available in tree-view from the menu bar. (I have disabled all of the other folders like Applications, Photos, etc.)
I can load that "user-defined" folder up with app aliases and sort them into folders, and that will allow for some mouse-based quick access to apps, set up in a categorization structure / order that I want.
Some users suggest throwing the Applications folder in the dock. Nope. The whole point of LaunchPad is that I can put the apps on the grid (and in subfolders) how I want. I don't want an alphabetical list of apps, that's useless.
Wouldn't be surprised if a third-party replacement pops up. I would like to see some better customization options in LaunchPad. (I.e., the ability to place items on the grid freely as in iOS 18, rather than being constrained to the "left-to-right" ordering.)
Anyway, for the moment, I will make heavier use of XMenu.
XMenu
XMenu adds one or more global menus to the right side of the menu bar. They give you access to your preferred applications, folders, documents, files, and text snippets. Launch any application with a single menu choice or insert text snippets into your documents. XMenu is a real app, no hack...
apps.apple.com
It's a bit different, but there is a custom "user-defined" folder option that allows you to pick any folder, and it will make items in that folder available in tree-view from the menu bar. (I have disabled all of the other folders like Applications, Photos, etc.)
I can load that "user-defined" folder up with app aliases and sort them into folders, and that will allow for some mouse-based quick access to apps, set up in a categorization structure / order that I want.
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This is a horrible change. So we can't manually organize apps or create app folders anymore? Imagine if Apple removed the Home Screen from iPhone & iPad, and restricted the user to launching apps from the App Library or Spotlight only, it would be comparable to this. The automatic categorization of apps in the App Library is less than ideal, and it puts apps in categories where they don't really belong, now we can enjoy this on Mac too.
I understand we can still have apps on the dock, but I don't like to have a hundred apps there. We can drag the Applications folder to the dock, but this isn't a great solution because we have two different Applications folders (the main one and the one inside the user folder). When I add a site as a web app in Safari it doesn't go to the main Applications folder, it goes to the one in my user folder. Can we combine them without breaking stuff?
On iOS & iPadOS, we have the App Library and the Home Screen, we aren't restricted to just having one of them, so I don't see why it can't be the same on macOS. There's no reason why we can't have the Launchpad and the App Library. Being able to manually organize apps in a way that makes sense for us is very important to most users.
Also, I'm wondering if the suggested apps at the top of the App Library/Spotlight hybrid are mostly going to be the apps we already have on the dock, since those are generally the most-used apps.
I understand we can still have apps on the dock, but I don't like to have a hundred apps there. We can drag the Applications folder to the dock, but this isn't a great solution because we have two different Applications folders (the main one and the one inside the user folder). When I add a site as a web app in Safari it doesn't go to the main Applications folder, it goes to the one in my user folder. Can we combine them without breaking stuff?
On iOS & iPadOS, we have the App Library and the Home Screen, we aren't restricted to just having one of them, so I don't see why it can't be the same on macOS. There's no reason why we can't have the Launchpad and the App Library. Being able to manually organize apps in a way that makes sense for us is very important to most users.
Also, I'm wondering if the suggested apps at the top of the App Library/Spotlight hybrid are mostly going to be the apps we already have on the dock, since those are generally the most-used apps.
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With the Launchpad I can organize apps in a way that makes sense to me, so most of the time there is no need to find an app because I already know where I put it. With the hot corner gesture to open Launchpad you don't need to click to open it, and it becomes a one click process to open most apps unless they're in a folder, then it's two clicks. For the apps that only require a single click to open (which are the majority of the apps I use regularly on my Mac), it is slightly faster and easier than pressing Cmd+Space, then typing the first letters of the app name and then pressing enter.
I keep about 15 of my most-used apps on the Dock, and everything else is on a single page on the Launchpad. Some apps I use less often are in folders. Most of the time I can launch an app with a single click and minimal time spent thinking where the app is located. It doesn't even take 2 seconds to open an app this way when you know where it's located and when you use the hot corner gesture. I almost never search for apps on my Mac. I only search for apps that I rarely use, that aren't immediately accessible from the Dock or the Launchpad, because maybe I put them in a folder or forget exactly where they are, but this isn't the case for 90% of the apps I use.
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You can (with great difficulty) show any apps in any order you like in a folder that's in the Dock:
- Create a new folder, for example "Apps", somewhere.
- While holding ⌘⌥ (Command & Option), drag any apps you want from, for example, /Applications, ~/Applications, and /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications folders to your "Apps" folder to create alias files that point to those apps. Actually, when dragging apps from /Applications without pressing any keys, macOS seems to create aliases automatically, but that's not generally the case.
- Drag your "Apps" folder to the Dock next to the Trash icon.
- Right-click your "Apps" folder in the Dock and choose View content as: Grid.
- Click your "Apps" folder in the Dock, and while it's showing you the grid of apps, press ⌘+ or ⌘- to change the size of the icons to your liking (which also changes the number of columns and rows of visible apps, but you can also scroll that view).
- Figure out the order you'd like your apps to be in the grid you're now looking at.
- Move all the alias files you created at step 2 out of your "Apps" folder.
- Move all the alias files you just moved out back to your "Apps" folder one by one in the reverse order you'd like your apps to be in the grid.
- Right-click your "Apps" folder in the Dock and choose Sort by: Date Added.
- Now, when you click the "Apps" folder in the Dock, the apps in the grid are in the reverse-chronological order based on the time you added each alias file to your "Apps" folder - in other words, the first alias file you added to your "Apps" folder is listed last in the grid, and the last alias file you added is listed first in the grid. The app icons in the grid will have the small arrow in their lower left corner to indicate that they are aliases, and they won't show any red notification badges.
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@NotPr0n and @AuronQuake: Exactly my case. Couldn´t agree more.
Since two years I get the feeling some Apple guy is standing behind me, looking for my normal ways of working with my Mac, iPhone, Watch and then cut this with a new IOS/MacOS version:
Watch: removing swipe gesture for changing watchfaces.
Fotoapp iPhone: removing buttom bar.
Maps on Mac: inventing Mediathek - many clicks more, unnecessary submenus and putting travel guides on the far right side of my 27" studio display. The most dumbest thing I saw in years!
Now: removing launchpad on the Mac.
Some will say: but they bring a few back! Apple listens to its customers!
No. They don´t. They have no! feel for the needs of their users and had to crawl back on their knees.
When I think of the past:
since 2013 ever year at least one new device, sometimes two, sometimes even three.
And when no new device was needed or planned: the whole summer this feeling of joyful expectation of new ios/MacOS version in autumn, because even with old phone and new ios you thought you had a new iPhone.
Last year: buying iPhone 16Pro? Nothing special in comparasion to my 15pro.
This year I was sure to buy iPhone 17pro, but with this glass nightmare? No way.
Updating my MacMiniM2? No way without launchpad.
Lot of money to save the next years. Thank you, Apple!
Since two years I get the feeling some Apple guy is standing behind me, looking for my normal ways of working with my Mac, iPhone, Watch and then cut this with a new IOS/MacOS version:
Watch: removing swipe gesture for changing watchfaces.
Fotoapp iPhone: removing buttom bar.
Maps on Mac: inventing Mediathek - many clicks more, unnecessary submenus and putting travel guides on the far right side of my 27" studio display. The most dumbest thing I saw in years!
Now: removing launchpad on the Mac.
Some will say: but they bring a few back! Apple listens to its customers!
No. They don´t. They have no! feel for the needs of their users and had to crawl back on their knees.
When I think of the past:
since 2013 ever year at least one new device, sometimes two, sometimes even three.
And when no new device was needed or planned: the whole summer this feeling of joyful expectation of new ios/MacOS version in autumn, because even with old phone and new ios you thought you had a new iPhone.
Last year: buying iPhone 16Pro? Nothing special in comparasion to my 15pro.
This year I was sure to buy iPhone 17pro, but with this glass nightmare? No way.
Updating my MacMiniM2? No way without launchpad.
Lot of money to save the next years. Thank you, Apple!
To make using the alias-trick nicer, you'd probably want to:
- Create a script file like "update-dock-apps-folder.sh".
- Edit the script file with a text editor to give it content like:
Bash:
#!/bin/zsh
# Delete all files in your "Apps" folder
rm "/Users/yourname/Your Dock Apps Folder/"*
# Create aliases to apps in reverse order
osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to make alias file to (POSIX file "/System/Applications/System Settings.app") at (POSIX file "/Users/yourname/Your Dock Apps Folder")'
osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to make alias file to (POSIX file "/System/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app") at (POSIX file "/Users/yourname/Your Dock Apps Folder")'
osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to make alias file to (POSIX file "/Applications/Xcode.app") at (POSIX file "/Users/yourname/Your Dock Apps Folder")'
# Rename aliases to give them nicer names
mv "/Users/yourname/Your Dock Apps Folder/System Settings.app" "/Users/yourname/Your Dock Apps Folder/System Settings"
mv "/Users/yourname/Your Dock Apps Folder/Terminal.app" "/Users/yourname/Your Dock Apps Folder/Terminal"
mv "/Users/yourname/Your Dock Apps Folder/Xcode.app" "/Users/yourname/Your Dock Apps Folder/Xcode"- To make the script file executable, open Terminal, navigate to the script file's folder, and run the following command:
Bash:
chmod +x ./update-dock-apps-folder.shThen, if you want to add, remove, or reorder any apps in your "Apps" folder in the Dock, you only need to add, remove, or reorder the appropriate lines in the alias-creating section of the script file (and also change the corresponding lines at the last section if you want to rename the aliases), open Terminal, navigate to the script file's folder, and execute the script by running the following command:
Bash:
./update-dock-apps-folder.sh
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This is a helpful comment. You're helping people attempt to salvage a very poor decision from Apple.
That being said, even with this implementation:
1) The "grid" is still much smaller than the launchpad.
2) The sub-folders are not transparent so you cannot see what's in them.
3) You can't really organize them in the order you want, you can only have them ordered by name or chronologically.
I agree with most of the comments here that this change is equivalent forcing everyone on to use the App Library on iOS with no ability to create your own folders or drag + drop apps wherever you want them.
You can organize them in any order you want by using the Dock folder setting Sort by: Date Added and then controlling the order (in time) in which you move/create the aliases into your "Apps" folder.
Even though the setting is named "Date Added", it is not based on the date but rather the exact point in time each file was added to the folder (I don't know exactly how small the granularity of those time point values is, but it's small enough for our purposes). In this post I describe a better way of controlling the order of the apps in the Dock folder grid/list view by simply controlling the order of some lines in a text file (who knew I would one day miss the relative ease of reordering apps in the Launchpad).
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That's a good point. Deleting an app via Launchpad (by long-clicking the app icon, and then clicking the X-button at the corner of the app icon) allowed apps to properly clean up after themselves (source). What's the correct way to uninstall Mac App Store apps (and even other apps if they used the empty MAS receipt trick described in the link above) now that Launchpad is gone?
Just offensive move by Apple. My apps used to be in specific folders so I didn't have to deal with stuff like TextEdit all the time. Now you see "random apps" in their Apple-chosen categories, or even worse, have them all sorted by A to Z. I often have to remember what important app I have, since I cannot see it right away, scroll through a number of useless apps, and then press enter twice (once just won't do). I have to say it loud: as a bonus you get to see the despicable Quicktime for the thousand time, though if you're a normal person, you'd rather just delete it. Tahoe is just dumb as f-----, there are now too many app icons with extra depth, which no one asked for, and more importantly, a simply bar list on the right in Finder now "floats" in the menu, for some stupid reason. You can say, oh, would you rather have Windows? No, I think MacOS has been very good for a long time, but presently it feels bloated with irrelevant things (like widgets), and each year it adds to the crime.