Problems, Issues, Annoyances in Lion

[johnmacward]

I'd like to compile a list of things thats pissing me off, things "I feel" about Lion. As you see fit add to it. I've found some pretty glaringly stupid things in Lion which probably shouldn't have made it out in stable release.

• iPhoto sideways scrolling with two fingers is disabled or gone
  This is actually extremely useful and it's gone. This is when you use two fingers left or right to jump between photos in an event or album. And depending whether you're in fullscreen mode or not the thumbnail viewer down the bottom may or may scroll left or right. An actual bug, not a refinement. Did the Lion team not actually test iPhoto before release?
  
• Safari still doesn't have a simple, logical way to have multiple tabs or windows
  I'm typically a Chrome user but lets give Safari a go. You open Safari and load Gmail, your checking mails. You also want to open Calendar to check the date of something and maybe MacRumours to see whats happening in the world of Lion. You look for new tab button as you want both open together - there isn't any. You think "Is this IE6?". You look for "New Window", it's in File menu ("I have to go into a menu to do this?"). It's also Option + N. If you do these things the tab way you can't jump between tabs with a gesture, you can with multiple Safari windows open but you still have that horrible "New Window" situation. You think, this isn't a modern browser. You can't wait for Chrome Lion edition.
  
• Launchpad seems a little pointless with the applications folder in the dock
  And the dock itself always being there. It's gesture is also difficult and because you'll use it so rarely you wont practice or remember.
  
• Re-open all windows on start is horribly cluttering, not very useful
  This in future could become a fact of life that I'll get over when I consider the way I use my iPhone, iPad and so on. On a laptop, PC, Mac I always get a fresh system on startup unless I put it to sleep. When I do restarts or shutdowns I don't expect a cluttered desktop on startup.
  
• Back / Forward swipe in Safari is implemented wrong - page reloads are a pain
  You'll notice this on certain pages that require a refresh or reload on going "back" to them. Manually using the back button seems to suit this situation more. It's like swipe is too efficient a gesture for such an inefficient design.
  
• Dock appearance in app fullscreen mode is very sketchy
  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Overall gives the feel of an incomplete system.
  
• Mission Control is more confusing than Expose
  The amount of elements has increased, my eyes are more confused, the lack of moving apps between different desktops, the inability to close apps from here, the pointlessness of MC on MBA's.
  
• Recovery partition requires download, what?
  I don't get this. You fire up recovery mode to reinstall Lion and it wants a net connection to re-download the entire 3.7GB package again. I have a 500GB drive and I don;t mind keeping a copy, even an early Lion.

Something tells me a lot of things are here to stay, they'll be implemented better in time or other technologies will catch up to utilise them better but for a supposedly stable beginning I'm actually finding Lion pretty annoying and buggy even though Apple tend to release on their own schedule, i.e when actually ready. I can't imagine all the Apple techs and heads are happy with all these features either.

 

[TheJing]

You can add a "New Tab" button to your toolbar.

 

[The Cat Empire]

Safari: CMD-T
Launch Pad: Don't use it. Remove it from your Dock.
Re-Open all windows on Startup: Uncheck the box, or quit all your apps before restarting. Also, to close all windows at once, option-click the close button.

 

[AndyMoore]

On the far right of the tab bar is a plus sign that also opens up a new tab so I think new tabs is properly covered.

 

[marc11]

Regarding Launch Pad, I see a lot of posts about it being pointless because you can have stacks and folders in the dock which is true, I had this set like that too. But, you couldn't access the applications folder with a gesture, which now you can. A simple gesture and you can open your applications as well as any folders you have under the applications, like Utilities. That is the key point I think behind Launch Pad, it isn't the icon on the dock, actually that isn't even needed, it is the gesture to open it. The more I use Lion the more I love it, it takes time and I use Mission Control and Launch Pad all the time and always using a gesture, it is pretty awesome once you adjust to using the gestures.

I feel the concept of the dock is now to show only the very most used applications, and even then, with the resume and reopen windows, I keep certain apps open all the time, so if I need a reboot, those apps open up again for me. I hardly use the dock now, where before Lion it was center to everything I did. The more I use Lion, the less I use the dock.

The back and forward swipe to change pages is very fast for me, no issues at all, so this is strange yours is slow.

 

[johnmacward]

You can add a "New Tab" button to your toolbar.

I know (and I probably should have said so in my post), why isn't this provided by default is what I'm asking. The default setup of Safari is notoriously difficult to use for someone who comes from every other browser (Firefox, Chrome, IE, Opera). They all have tabs by default and navigating and distinguishing is so much simpler than Safari. Maybe I'm just biased but I cannot get into Safari as much as I try.

Safari: CMD-T
Launch Pad: Don't use it. Remove it from your Dock.
Re-Open all windows on Startup: Uncheck the box, or quit all your apps before restarting. Also, to close all windows at once, option-click the close button.

In regards CMD + T, I know this as well. The question in general is why Safari is so Internet Explorer like (IE6 specifically), it's obsession with windows is unusual in this day of easy-to-use-tabs. The most popular browsers after IE (due to it's presence more than anything) are Firefox and Chrome, both widely liked for their intuitive tabbed browsing.

On the far right of the tab bar is a plus sign that also opens up a new tab so I think new tabs is properly covered.

I know, it's in a bloody awkward place and once again requires you to drop out a tab button to begin with which is difficult to find and not default practice.

Overall the design of Safari seems old fashioned to me, but because it's survived this long it leads me to believe there's method in their madness. Is there a logical reasoning behind the default window-vs-tab design. I can't really see it but maybe you out there have a reasonable argument.

That is the key point I think behind Launch Pad, it isn't the icon on the dock, actually that isn't even needed, it is the gesture to open it. The more I use Lion the more I love it, it takes time and I use Mission Control and Launch Pad all the time and always using a gesture, it is pretty awesome once you adjust to using the gestures.

Yeah, maybe I should give it more time. Some part of me even sees the dock going eventually and the Launchpad gesture to get to your apps, Mission Control will provide application access that the right of the dock used to give. I doubt everyone will be happy but the implementation will probably improve and the logic will be there.

 

[The Cat Empire]

In regards CMD + T, I know this as well. The question in general is why Safari is so Internet Explorer like (IE6 specifically), it's obsession with windows is unusual in this day of easy-to-use-tabs. The most popular browsers after IE (due to it's presence more than anything) are Firefox and Chrome, both widely liked for their intuitive tabbed browsing.

What is so intuitive about Chrome and Firefox tabs? I'd like to know. I have no issues with Safari's tabs or windows.

I know, it's in a bloody awkward place and once again requires you to drop out a tab button to begin with which is difficult to find and not default practice.

Overall the design of Safari seems old fashioned to me, but because it's survived this long it leads me to believe there's method in their madness. Is there a logical reasoning behind the default window-vs-tab design. I can't really see it but maybe you out there have a reasonable argument.

CMD-T makes a new tab
Clicking the (+) Plus icon makes a new tab
Double-clicking an empty tab area makes a new tab
Dragging a tab down, opens that tab in a new window
CMD-SHIFT-[ or ] cycles through your tabs left and right

What else do you need? Seems to me that you just need to complain about something. Also, if Firefox and Chrome are so much better, use those instead.

By the way, you can also change the preferences to make links (from outside of Safari) open in a new tab instead of a new window.

 

[johnmacward]

What is so intuitive about Chrome and Firefox tabs? I'd like to know. I have no issues with Safari's tabs or windows.

What else do you need? Seems to me that you just need to complain about something. Also, if Firefox and Chrome are so much better, use those instead.

Number 1, I don't want to turn this into a "I hate Safari" post because it isn't. There are many more issues discussed.

Number 2, In regards Firefox and Chrome, I just feel the flow is much better, I'm way more productive in those browsers (I think there browser share says a lot for that too) - and in regards tabs, they're a permanent feature and well implemented, in Safari you have to go searching for them which to newcomers leads to a bad experience. Once again, let market share say a lot about that and also consider that every other browser has a by default visible tab system in place, except Safari. That's Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera.

I like Safari in may ways and would like to use it, the fullscreen feature is great (Chrome hasn't got it yet), the speed is great, Reader and Reading List are also very nice new features I wish the others had. But for general navigation I'm utterly slowed down by it and on the basis that every other browser has adopted a good tab system, I'm surprised Safari hasn't.

 

[The Cat Empire]

Number 1, I don't want to turn this into a "I hate Safari" post because it isn't. There are many more issues discussed.

In regards Firefox and Chrome, I just feel the flow is much better, I'm way more productive in those browsers (I think there browser share says a lot for that too) - and in regards tabs, they're a permanent feature and well implemented, in Safari you have to go searching for them which to newcomers leads to a bad experience. Once again, let market share say a lot about that and discussions I've had with other Mac owners.

I like Safari in may ways, the fullscreen feature is great (Chrome hasn't got it yet), the speed is great, Reader and Reading List are also very nice new features I wish the others had. But for general navigation I'm utterly slowed down by it.

That didn't really explain a lot. What's wrong with having choices? Maybe some people want multiple windows or maybe they just want tabs. Like I said before, there's an option in Safari preferences to open new pages ALWAYS in TABS. You can do pure tabbed browsing in Safari. CMD-N makes a new window (which makes sense because the Finder is the same way) and CMD-T makes a new tab. It's not that hard to find OR understand.

With that being said... how is Safari possibly any slower for YOU to use than those other browsers?

 

[Beavix]

CMD-T makes a new tab
Clicking the (+) Plus icon makes a new tab
Double-clicking an empty tab area makes a new tab
Dragging a tab down, opens that tab in a new window
CMD-SHIFT-[ or ] cycles through your tabs left and right

Let me add to that list:
- Cmd-click on a link opens that link in a new tab behind the current one
- Cmd-Shift-click: open link in a new tab, in front of the current one
- Cmd-Alt-click: open link in a new window behind the current one
- Cmd-Shift-click: open link in a new window in front of the current one
- And you can also cycle through the tabs with Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab

 

[AndyMoore]

Is there a gesture for Launch Pad on the Magic Mouse?

 

[johnmacward]

That didn't really explain a lot. What's wrong with having choices? Maybe some people want multiple windows or maybe they just want tabs. Like I said before, there's an option in Safari preferences to open new pages ALWAYS in TABS. You can do pure tabbed browsing in Safari. CMD-N makes a new window (which makes sense because the Finder is the same way) and CMD-T makes a new tab. It's not that hard to find OR understand.

With that being said... how is Safari possibly any slower for YOU to use than those other browsers?

Can I ask you a simple question, do you use any browser other than Safari or do you find that it's suits all your purposes? And do you do tabbed or window browsing?

Is there a gesture for Launch Pad on the Magic Mouse?

I think you might find it in System Preferences, all the gestures available for the mouse. The gesture system was really designed for the trackpad though.

 

[HiRez]

I agree with most of the things you listed, there are a lot of bugs and flakey rendering glitches in Lion. But that's always the way it is with a 10.x.0 OS. I've got a bunch more things I could add to your list, but I'm not going to bother because many of them have probably already been fixed (just not available yet), or are in the process of being fixed (builds of 10.7.2 are already in the hands of developers). I think it's even worse with Lion because they were holding up major new hardware releases (MacBook Airs and Minis) waiting on Lion, so it's hard to believe that didn't contribute to Lion being rushed out even more than usual.

I'm not defending Apple for putting out an unfinished OS, because there really are some horrible and obvious issues, but waiting for 10.x.3 updates (or so) is never a bad idea unless you understand there's going to be problems and you're willing to live with them.

 

[f2tai]

Your gesture forward/backward bit about iPhoto is controlled in Preferences - you need to toggle/play around with Trackpad > More Gestures > Swipe Between Pages ... on the trackpad its three finger swipe, and on magic mouse its two finger swipe.

Playing around with it correctly enables forward/back in Chrome too. Oh and Finder. Anywhere really.

 

[johnmacward]

I agree with most of the things you listed, there are a lot of bugs and flakey rendering glitches in Lion. But that's always the way it is with a 10.x.0 OS. I've got a bunch more things I could add to your list, but I'm not going to bother because many of them have probably already been fixed (just not available yet), or are in the process of being fixed (builds of 10.7.2 are already in the hands of developers). I think it's even worse with Lion because they were holding up major new hardware releases (MacBook Airs and Minis) waiting on Lion, so it's hard to believe that didn't contribute to Lion being rushed out even more than usual.

I'm not defending Apple for putting out an unfinished OS, because there really are some horrible and obvious issues, but waiting for 10.x.3 updates (or so) is never a bad idea unless you understand there's going to be problems and you're willing to live with them.

You're absolutely right, a zero release is going to be glitchy but trying to stay away is difficult, curiosity gets me. And I want to make my points about what I think of it too.

At the end of day it ain't catastrophic so I'm not too peeved, lets hope for the best with the 10.7.2 or 3.

Fullscreen mode has its problems, feels unfinished:

• Closing unneeded windows is difficult - no X.
• Back at Mission control, very little ordering possible. Calendar, iTunes, iPhoto and Safari windows gets mixed up in one another and it seems chaotic. I'd prefer to keep similar things together.
• Difficult to distinguish Safari windows in M.C. as titles can often be similar and thumbnails are not detailed.

Before you all say "Try command and this and command and that" I'm coming from the point of view of not having to know the entire keyboard ecosystem of Mac. Perfect for advanced long time users, daunting for newcomers - which Lion is primarily aimed at.

Your gesture forward/backward bit about iPhoto is controlled in Preferences - you need to toggle/play around with Trackpad > More Gestures > Swipe Between Pages ... on the trackpad its three finger swipe, and on magic mouse its two finger swipe.

Playing around with it correctly enables forward/back in Chrome too. Oh and Finder. Anywhere really.

I'm one of those people who thinks it should work properly straight away, I shouldn't have to hack the system to get something fundamental to work. On top of that, within iPhoto nothing else uses that gesture to justify switching it off, hence it's clearly a bug. Also, in regards trackpad settings if you make the iPhoto gesture work, something else switches off, so I won't be doing that. I don't like chasing my tail to find out what I've broken.

 

[The Cat Empire]

Can I ask you a simple question, do you use any browser other than Safari or do you find that it's suits all your purposes? And do you do tabbed or window browsing?

I do not use any other browser than Safari. Safari suits all my purposes and yes, I do tabbed browsing exclusively.

 

[jman240]

• Back at Mission control, very little ordering possible. Calendar, iTunes, iPhoto and Safari windows gets mixed up in one another and it seems chaotic. I'd prefer to keep similar things together.
• Difficult to distinguish Safari windows in M.C. as titles can often be similar and thumbnails are not detailed.

Could you provide a screen shot. When I use MC all the windows I have open are grouped by application.

I know you don't want keyboard shortcuts but I think there is a way when you mouse over a group like safari to get it to show you just the safari windows you have open instead of the group while staying in MC. For instance, you have 3 apps open, multiple windows, you mouse over safari and it fades out or moves the other apps, splits the 3 stacked windows out so you can see each one fully. It's space. Hit the spacebar to "quicklook" a window of a particular application. Also, when you have an app selected, the opposite gesture of how you got into MC will take you into app expose for just that app.

Made you a video. May help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ4h6gaf6kw
Done uploading. Wow quality at the beginning is bad, maybe it will get better as it's processed.

 

[johnmacward]

Could you provide a screen shot. When I use MC all the windows I have open are grouped by application.

I know you don't want keyboard shortcuts but I think there is a way when you mouse over a group like safari to get it to show you just the safari windows you have open instead of the group while staying in MC. For instance, you have 3 apps open, multiple windows, you mouse over safari and it fades out or moves the other apps, splits the 3 stacked windows out so you can see each one fully. It's space. Hit the spacebar to "quicklook" a window of a particular application. Also, when you have an app selected, the opposite gesture of how you got into MC will take you into app expose for just that app.

Made you a video. May help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ4h6gaf6kw
Done uploading. Wow quality at the beginning is bad, maybe it will get better as it's processed.

Cheers for the video man, I'll check it later definitely. I think you're primarily talking about non-fullscreen apps. Have a look at this picture I've sent you. Notice the Safari windows in a crazy order at the top depending on how you open other applications like iTunes, Mail and so on. When you three-finger scroll them it's difficult to know where you're going - I think the implementation is just bad.

I do not use any other browser than Safari. Safari suits all my purposes and yes, I do tabbed browsing exclusively.

Personally I think this proves my point, I'd love for you to give Chrome a go for a while and see what you think - especially ask yourself how much set up you need to do to get it into tabbed browsing mode - none.

I think you'll find efficiency is way up on Chrome.

 

[johnmacward]

Go outside, the graphics are amazing!

I love it by the way.

 

[bencnorden]

The dock.

I have had numerous problems with the dock freezing/lagging/refusing to disappear or magnify.

Don't know if anyone is having these problems? I trust these issues will be addressed in 10.7.1...

 

[johnmacward]

I have had numerous problems with the dock freezing/lagging/refusing to disappear or magnify.

Don't know if anyone is having these problems? I trust these issues will be addressed in 10.7.1...

Yeah same here, sometimes it evens stays up and magnified when you don't want it. But a few problems with accessing the dock from fullscreen apps. It's all a little "thrown together" feeling. I wonder if Craig Federighi at WWDC we're happily suffering these issues.

 

[plasticphyte]

I don't care what some people say about UI design & how the user can deal with changes, simply screwing around with gestures that have been entrenched since ever is not good. Took me ages to get my two finger swipes to act as back/forward like they used to and they still don't always get recognized properly.

Grayer left/right arrows are useless - hard to see which is active or not. Ugh.

I'm also pretty cheesed off with Finder - yeah it's never worked the way it really should and neither is it all that powerful, but cmon - at least make sure the damn thing remembers it's view settings instead of randomly changing size of the app window & views. *Sigh*.

I'm simply sticking with Lion due to certain changes to security in the OS. If I could rip the fluff & other crap out I'd be happy.

 

[hakr100]

How to REALLY turn off RESTORE?

"Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps."

I've turned this damned "restore" off in preferences, and yet when I turn my iMac on, there are the Windows of open programs.

Is there a secret handshake one has to make to turn off restore so that it actually turns off?

 

[AdeFowler]

• Launchpad seems a little pointless with the applications folder in the dock
  And the dock itself always being there. It's gesture is also difficult and because you'll use it so rarely you wont practice or remember.

I've removed the app folder from my dock and now use Launchpad. Why? Because I can customise it. For example, try launching any CS5 app from the app folder stack. That said, I rarely close apps and normally use Spotlight or the Dock to launch them in the first instance, but I prefer Launchpad to the app folder stack.

Oh, and I've set up a keyboard shortcut to launch it… not a fan of gestures

 

[sportdan31]

I wasn't expecting the transition to Lion to be so "Meh". Unfortunately, I think I rather wished I had waited before making the decision to upgrade. Here are my main issues are this and hopefully they will soon be resolved:

When you have "full screen" utilized, I'm only sometimes able to pull up the dock (is that the list of programs at the bottom of the screen?). I'll move the mouse to the bottom of the screen and it's hit or miss whether or not the dock will appear. Is there anyway to keep the dock showing at the bottom of the screen even in full screen mode?

Where's the minimize button when you are in full screen mode? If I take it out of full screen mode, it'll shrink the web page to a quarter size of what it was. Then I have to drag it to open to the size I desire. ???????

It just seems very convoluted with how Safari keeps all these web pages open. It creates this chaotic mess in which I'm finding myself confused with where it's going to take me if I hit the back button. I never had these problems with Leopard.

Freezes and pauses are quite common place now. I almost feel sometimes as if I'm running an old Windows operating system.

Mission control, launch pad, seem like add-ons that don't necessarily have any rhyme or reason for being there other than it being another cool feature.

Dont' get me wrong. I love my new iMac. I even have found a lot to like about Lion, but whomever designed this OS sure seemed to throw a bunch of crap against the wall to see if it would stick.....and I suppose it did. I'm very much looking forward to future updates. I'm hopeful they'll rectify many of my problems.