Stage Manager Still Has Several Issues as iPadOS 16 Nears Release

[Lounge vibes 05]

Sounds like the next Apple Maps.

Apple Maps completely replaced an app with (for the first several months at least) absolutely no way to revert to the previous app, and was actually putting people in danger.
Stage manager is a setting that’s off by default and that’s completely and totally optional and not replacing anything.
Seems like a very strange comparison

 

[smulji]

Poor Craig.

Maybe Craig is part of the problem

 

[Mr. Awesome]

There's nothing promising about a broken feature / system

I vastly prefer using SM to SlideOver and Split View

 

[nvmls]

Another day at today's Apple, release broken apps/functionality, claim to delay it to polish it, still put it out half baked as they do with Safari, Music, Finder, etc.

 

[iStorm]

Wouldn't surprise me if they end up removing/disabling this feature and enabling it in a future update...just like last year's Universal Control, which was released with a beta label in iPadOS 15.4, and officially released without the beta label in iPadOS 15.5.

 

[nvmls]

Forget on iPadOS. Stage Manager still has issues on macOS Ventura as well. The fact only five windows can be tabbed with no way to scroll them, and special app notifications like Steam notifications are treated as tabbed windows, and the fact Preview doesn't work properly while Stage Manager is on. The feature should be delayed to the March update. It needs major changes

It's a gimmick which doesn't even come close to solving the elephant in the room, multi-desktop/fullscreen multi-tasking, they cant even get fullscreen working reliably in macOS with multi-monitors, this is just more bloat.

 

[symphony]

I hate how Stage Manager ****s with my workspace and won’t move windows to any place I want. This system is trash. Turn off the automated BS.

 

[Statcoder]

I’m liking it on my non-M1 large iPad Pro because it addresses some issues with trying to multitask on my main workplace web-based interface. If Apple had enabled this for my iPad Pro in on the initial beta then I wouldn’t have bought the M1 Air. The screen of the iPad and speakers are better.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

It's a gimmick which doesn't even come close to solving the elephant in the room, multi-desktop/fullscreen multi-tasking, they cant even get fullscreen working reliably in macOS with multi-monitors, this is just more bloat.

I wouldn't argue it's a gimmick, but an alternative window management system for those not a fan of the macOS default window management, like me. I find myself preferring Stage Manager, but it needs changes for it to be up to snuff.

 

[HiRez]

Main issue is the feeling of uselessness.
It doesn't look like it was conceived to be a compelling feature, at all.

I'm with you man, I just don't see why anyone would use this, ever. Now I guess if some people do have a use case (even if not me), it's good to have, but I don't the idea of something that few people will use taking massive amounts of developer resources (clearly, it has) that could better be utilized elsewhere. Stage Manager is the "touch bar" of software, a big feature no one was asking for, few people will actually use, costs R&D and developer resources, and will be silently killed off in a few years. Really feels like Ventura is going to need a "Snow Leopard" release just to clean everything up and fix all the bugs.

 

[nvmls]

I wouldn't argue it's a gimmick, but an alternative window management system for those not a fan of the macOS default window management, like me. I find myself preferring Stage Manager, but it needs changes for it to be up to snuff.

Windows-wise, how is it better/more efficient than mission control?

Fullscreen management is even worse than windows, and stage manager is useless in fullscreen. Their foundation is completely flawed, I wish they'd re-think & rewrite it as to be able to provide a unified solution for both windows & fullscreen scenarios, not these band-aid gimmicky features which solve nothing.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Windows-wise, how is it better/more efficient than mission control?

Fullscreen management is even worse than windows, and stage manager is useless in fullscreen. Their foundation is completely flawed, I wish they'd re-think & rewrite it as to be able to provide a unified solution for both windows & fullscreen scenarios, not these band-aid gimmicky features which solve nothing.

Well here's the thing: I don't use multiple displays on my Macbook Pro and the only app I fullscreen is Discord. I just have the one display, so Stage Manager is perfect for me. With Stage Manager all my windows are more neatly organized and easily switchable on the desktop, versus the old way of me having to move windows around looking for the one I want active like they were papers on a desk. I move faster, and work faster thanks to it. Having to do the Mission Control gesture or open Mission Control up everytime I wanted to switch windows got annoying after a while, when with Stage Manager it's faster since I just gotta click the window I want to make active.

 

[contacos]

Cancel it and take those three stupid dots on the top, which I only ever invoke by mistake from iPadOS 15 right with it (I still don’t understand what these are actually supposed to really do but never cared enough to investigate).

Honestly, it could be so easy.

„Tablet mode“ (no keyboard or/and mouse attached): the „old“ way of multitasking

But when you attach a keyboard and/or mouse, you get the option to open an app window from your dock or Home Screen just like on a Mac and if you don’t need it, you just minimize it to the dock 😱 or move the app window to a new „home screen space“ just like … on a Mac.

It’s like they tried SO hard to make sure it is not too close to a Mac just because

 

[brofkand]

iPad OS 16 should be a “tighten the screws” update like Mac OS Snow Leopard.

I’d welcome it. In my opinion macOS has largely been spinning its wheels since Snow Leopard.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

iPad OS 16 should be a “tighten the screws” update like Mac OS Snow Leopard.

Nah. iPadOS needs major changes. The OS is absolutely outdated for what they want the iPad to do. The iPad has the guts of a Mac, but does less than a Mac and is more expensive than a Mac. They keep advertising it as a laptop replacement yet it can't install software freely like the Mac can, barely has any pro apps compared to the Mac, and connecting it to a monitor or using keyboard and mouse is just worse than on the Mac, even with the Stage Manager changes.

We need a DeX mode for iPadOS when the Magic Keyboard is connected or if it's connected to a monitor. Stage Manager ain't it. For god's sake, cheap ass Android phones have a desktop mode, but not the $700-1000+ iPads!

 

[nvmls]

Well here's the thing: I don't use multiple displays on my Macbook Pro and the only app I fullscreen is Discord. I just have the one display, so Stage Manager is perfect for me. With Stage Manager all my windows are more neatly organized and easily switchable on the desktop, versus the old way of me having to move windows around looking for the one I want active like they were papers on a desk. I move faster, and work faster thanks to it. Having to do the Mission Control gesture or open Mission Control up everytime I wanted to switch windows got annoying after a while, when with Stage Manager it's faster since I just gotta click the window I want to make active.

Lol gesture? Bro, keyboard + mouse, mission control is literally 2 sec + more screen available + less resources consumed (or even spotlight with keyboard only - though it's been completely ruined since Monterey for us). I get the trackpad is nice, but for moderate productivity is significantly slower, not even arguing whether you "like it" better, that's completely subjective, I'm talking about efficiency.

If Stage Manager suits you that's great, but then, who is this for? tablet/laptop users or "Pros"? Having at least 1 external monitor is no mystery in 2022, is this a band-aid for people sticking to their laptop display only? If you designed a solution for multi-monitor & fullscreen, you'd have the window one as well. You can't even "show desktop" in fullscreen, something as basic as CTRL+D in Windows from anywhere, just taking you to a clean desktop view doesn't exist today, you have to resort to alt + cmd + H which minimizes all windows except an "active" one (and of course.. useless in fullscreen as well)

So yea, I see no benefits with this, but YMMV.

 

[nvmls]

Nah. iPadOS needs major changes. The OS is absolutely outdated for what they want the iPad to do. The iPad has the guts of a Mac, but does less than a Mac and is more expensive than a Mac. They keep advertising it as a laptop replacement yet it can't install software freely like the Mac can, barely has any pro apps compared to the Mac, and connecting it to a monitor or using keyboard and mouse is just worse than on the Mac, even with the Stage Manager changes.

We need a DeX mode for iPadOS when the Magic Keyboard is connected or if it's connected to a monitor. Stage Manager ain't it. For god's sake, cheap ass Android phones have a desktop mode, but not the $700-1000+ iPads!

Apple fans be like "the ecosystem".

Dex is, tap a button, and you've got your entire phone extended on any 3rd party machine, wireless. Also, you can just manage the phone's content like a conventional explorer which makes it a piece of cake, whether Apple is always adding BS to music, photos, the cloud, you have to sync first with the desired "section", then manipulate content, it's mind bending.

 

[abowlby]

I am generally an open minded person when it comes to Apple moving the software needle in ways that initially seem obtuse. However, in this case, I feel like Apple could do a fair bit of damage control/service to their most “Pro” iPad consumers here by letting Stage Manager bake fully and giving us extension for our displays. I just want more room to work on, I don’t care if it isn’t a touch screen. That’s my opinion, at least.

 

[The_Cynic]

I would pay MacBook Air + iPad Pro money combined for Apple to release a tablet that when you dock it with a keyboard, it becomes a MacBook.

I'd even be happy if I couldn't use some software because the devs didn't have a tablet UI for it. I would understand why it's not possible for some software.

However, devs could certainly provide a more basic version.

I'm thinking if I undock and go into tablet mode, then my version of Logic Pro, simply becomes the Logic Pro Controller App. Then I could use the touchscreen to automate the automations.

I certainly don't expect to have full on Logic Pro in tablet form. But they already have BOTH versions of the UI.

It would be perfect to be sat in the studio with my TabletMac docked, then head a coffee shop, and sit on a couch and carry on working, on the same project, but with a completely different interface that is suited to TOUCH!

For the love of all things Good, Apple, just make it so.

They could even do it in tiers. You could still buy a Tablet. You can still buy a MacBook. But you have a choice of buying a hybrid that functions as BOTH!

And if you're worried about the pricing. Just charge me full price for both of them for the one system.

I would happily pay, and you lose nothing!

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Just scrap the feature. We’ll take continuity camera and call it good.

Speak for yourself.

 

[Logan500]

Sounds like normal modern day Apple to me...

Today’s Apple feels an awful lot like John Sculley-led Apple from the 1980s. Every time Apple was without Steve Jobs they lost their way in spectacular fashion. In both cases, Apple went from being highly focused and detail-oriented under Jobs, to just drifting into run of the mill corporate foolishness. Sculley almost sank the company completely by switching from single, highly-designed products to a bewildering array of endless variations on the same product, and letting the core products languish without significant improvement. It’s a lot like what has happened to Hollywood: Endless boring, unimaginative sequels cranked out like a factory, instead of producing original and innovative ideas.

Those running Apple now should take a moment every day to be thankful that Steve Jobs isn’t there to witness this mess. The current group has forgotten what made Apple special and worthy of the price premium, and we can now clearly see why Jobs often had to go beast mode on these guys to push them to excellence. Apple today feels a little like a Beatles tribute band that while it is playing the same songs, ain’t the Beatles.

Apple should stop the marketing-driven push to release an entirely new version of iOS and iPadOS every year, and instead work on polishing what they already have. Every year we go through the same cycle: Initial bug-ridden release, followed by months of gradual improvement via updates, until the OS is finally close to what was originally promised, whereupon Apple scraps it and starts the progression all over again with a new bug-ridden release. It’s ridiculous to keep reinventing the wheel just because the marketing department wants a new OS number connected to the next iteration of iPhone.

 

[vodkaPT]

The lack of competition does not help.. apple became too complacent with ipadOS

 

[tim.rand]

I’ve reported several bugs through Feedback. One recurring issue is upside down screens.

 

[CarAnalogy]

They seem to have serious system level issues with 16 in general. For the first time in iPhone history my phone is unreliable when it comes to registering touches. And just had an app crash back to Home Screen for the first time since maybe the iPhone 5.

I really, really hope the headline feature next year is no new features (except for arbitrary Home Screen icon placement.)

 

[d5aqoëp]

Honestly, was the premise for this feature “we need to add better multitasking, but we can’t make it work like the Mac”? That’s the only reason I can think of as to why they created a convoluted new multitasking system.

Same reason how files app works in iOS….. in a convoluted way.