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Thoughts on upgrading to Tahoe

P

PhysicsClubReject

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 1, 2011
21
4
Hi,

Can I get some thoughts on Tahoe, I guess now OS 26.2?

So far, the bits and pieces I've heard haven't been too flattering, but I wanted to get thoughts for or against from users
who aren't necessarily looking for clicks.

Is it still too early to upgrade, or should I just stay with Sequoia?

I'm running a 2022 Mac Studio with an M1 Max processor, 32 GB of RAM.

Thanks!
Michael
 
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Same. I like it. The new spotlight is pretty cool. Everything works for me no issues. Sure the UI is a bit wonky in places but for normal day to day stuff it's no big deal. Yeah I preferred the UI of the Sequoia safari but you'll get use to the changees. If there is a specific thing in Tahoe that you want to use then upgrade.
 
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In my case I had terrible visibility issues with the 'Liquid Glass' perhaps because I was using a BenQ display monitor and had it set to use High Dynamic Range. See: poor contrast of text selection
Otherwise, there would appear to be a good chance you will be alright unless you are using any problematic applications mentioned in this forum. However, one cannot ever be certain and Tahoe 26.3 should be coming up...
 
It's fine. It's not great. It's not terrible. Its interface is a bit baby-ish to me. Everything a bit larger, wasting screen space really. Some people love it. Some people hate it.

If you have a pressing need for a feature it offers then fine. If not, you're not missing a lot by staying on Sequoia.

Doesn't seem that Apple are making much of an attempt to address people's concerns. Don't expect any significant change until v27, and then only a refinement. Your mileage may vary. Plenty of screenshots out there about how it looks.

26.4 expected to bring AI improvements. lol. Might be a factor for you if your Mac will support that.
 
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my experience a more vanilla system will lead to fewer (maybe none) issues, no real red lines encountered yet (then again I've only used it on a 13 "MBA without anything more exotic than a usb hdd attached)
 
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fisherking said:
i haven't once experienced an issue resizing a window in tahoe. but am impressed at how much time ppl discuss these things, put up detailed posts with diagrams and videos, and count pixels...
Click to expand...
Because we care about UX and you don't.
Have you read the article posted above? Clearly it's not about counting pixels but about SERIOUS USER EXPERIENCE.
 
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DON'T UPDATE - WAIT IT OUT.


I ran Tahoe on my main M4 MacBook Pro with 48 GB of RAM, upgrading from version 26.0 to 26.1 and 26.2 eventually. I really wanted to like it, but couple of weeks ago I gave up and reverted back to Sequoia.



I’ve been an avid Mac user since 2008 and have always upgraded to the newest macOS versions because they usually bring meaningful improvements in usability and features. I’m aware that the first few point releases often have bugs—but what happened with Tahoe is on another level. In my experience, this is the worst macOS release Apple has put out since 2008.



There are bugs everywhere: Photos, Finder, iCloud—you name it. Menus and toolbars floating on top of app windows are a mess. For me Preview and Photos, in particular, is painful to use; the toolbars feel chaotic and poorly thought out.



Search is another disaster. Try finding files or emails using Finder or Mail search—you often just won’t find them. It feels like Tahoe simply doesn’t “see” your content properly. Search reliability is seriously broken.



The menu design is incredibly cluttered. Icons are everywhere, often repeated for multiple menu items within the same menu. I never know whether I’m supposed to read the text or look at the icon. It’s confusing and visually noisy. It honestly reminds me of older versions of Windows where every menu item had an icon—except at least Windows used color. Tahoe’s black-only icons just look bad and often unrecognizable.



The obsession with rounded corners is completely over the top. App windows have such extreme rounding that your desktop wallpaper or other windows bleed through and distract from the content you’re actually working on. It’s visually exhausting. The windows look childish and poorly designed now. I genuinely don’t understand who approved this direction. Don't they use computers with bright desktop wallpapers? I used Tahoe for quite a while and never really got used to such rounded corners.



Desktop icons suffer too. If you have a lot of files on your Desktop, forget easily recognizing what’s behind each icon. Everything is now a sea of rounded “squircles,” making file contents harder to identify at a glance. I tried adjusting icon size and grid spacing in Finder’s View Options. While it helped a bit, I had to increase icon sizes to almost comical proportions—reducing how many files could fit on the Desktop in the process.



Another thing I hate are the floating toolbars and menus everywhere. Scrolling content obstructs menu and toolbar text. Toolbar icons are now circles, ovals, rounded rectangles and pill-shapes. And it differs from app to app. It's like right hand didn't know what left hand is doing. There is such inconsistency in the design elements that me, as a hobby designer, cannot unsee the inconsistencies.



Overall, Tahoe is slow, buggy, and ugly even on my M4. The Liquid Glass effect is the worst offender: it actively reduces readability of menus and toolbars. In apps like Preview or Photos, elements can become genuinely hard to see. You get a little control over toning it down, but not enough. It’s still stupidly implemented.



I'm was not happy with Tahoe and will stay on Sequoia until MacOS 27. I'm skipping Tahoe. Next system will be here in 8 months anyway.


I saw bunch of people got fired from Apple (or left "on their own" recently), especially from the design team, so I feel even Apple "knows" Tahoe is a dud. MacOS 27 will hopefully restore the balance in universe again.
 
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318iphone said:
Back to that UI! I've been having problems resizing windows and just thought it was me... but there is a reason for the struggle... Read this! https://noheger.at/blog/2026/01/11/the-struggle-of-resizing-windows-on-macos-tahoe/
Click to expand...

Wow—this explains everything. I’ve had the same issue and couldn’t understand why resizing felt so broken until now. Your animations nail it.

Apple:

“Muscle memory is legacy behavior. To resize a window, grab the invisible corner outside the window. You’re welcome.”
 
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fisherking said:
i haven't once experienced an issue resizing a window in tahoe. but am impressed at how much time ppl discuss these things, put up detailed posts with diagrams and videos, and count pixels...
Click to expand...
Did you actually analyze the linked post? It's a design flaw. I don't think that's even a subjective statement, they rounded the corners but did not move the area in which you resize the window, with only 25% of that area actually falling inside the viewable window, which is less than 5x5 pixels.

You can moan about people 'counting pixels' but a 4.5x4.5 area in a window that is sometimes over 3000 pixels wide or 2000 pixels tall is a gnat in size. I have never in 47 years seen an operating system or program that allows you to resize the window from outside the window. It is simply bad design. Just because your muscle memory has served you well in Tahoe doesn't excuse glaring oversights. If it doesn't bother you then great, but you're one of millions using the OS.

FWIW I submitted feedback to Apple on this issue and recommend anyone else bothered to do so; though I know MR is a drop in the bucket. Probably won't get fixed till 27, but we can hope.
 
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Here's my two cents.
I was one who was very critical of Tahoe, but after upgrading my iPad and iPhone, and was pleasently surprised I took the plunge with my M4 Max Studio. The result? Its been fine. The computer is just as fast, no slow downs, no instability, no crashes - It just works

1768218307987.png


Some of the complaints
The corners are too rounded. After 5 minutes of using, I stopped noticing.
The transparency is horrible and you cannot get your work done - its largely a muted affect at this point with apple toning it down, and you can also largely turn it off as well
Inconsistent application of the UI - this is true, either because of third party apps or even apple apps
Spotlight changes, made it feel less efficient. True to a degree, but minor tweaking of spotlight in the settings app, will dial in the search the way you want it to work

In sort, Tahoe allows me to work, and play the way I want it too, the OS doesn't get in the way, like Windows does.

To summarize, its a good upgrade
 
Last edited:
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PhysicsClubReject said:
Hi,

Can I get some thoughts on Tahoe, I guess now OS 26.2?

So far, the bits and pieces I've heard haven't been too flattering, but I wanted to get thoughts for or against from users
who aren't necessarily looking for clicks.

Is it still too early to upgrade, or should I just stay with Sequoia?

I'm running a 2022 Mac Studio with an M1 Max processor, 32 GB of RAM.

Thanks!
Michael
Click to expand...

Upgrade runs fine on my 2022 M1 Max, 64gb Mac Studio – it just looks fugly! Change settings to mute the Liquid Glass to help.
 
vindasal said:
Did you actually analyze the linked post? It's a design flaw. I don't think that's even a subjective statement, they rounded the corners but did not move the area in which you resize the window, with only 25% of that area actually falling inside the viewable window, which is less than 5x5 pixels.

You can moan about people 'counting pixels' but a 4.5x4.5 area in a window that is sometimes over 3000 pixels wide or 2000 pixels tall is a gnat in size. I have never in 47 years seen an operating system or program that allows you to resize the window from outside the window. It is simply bad design. Just because your muscle memory has served you well in Tahoe doesn't excuse glaring oversights. If it doesn't bother you then great, but you're one of millions using the OS.

FWIW I submitted feedback to Apple on this issue and recommend anyone else bothered to do so; though I know MR is a drop in the bucket. Probably won't get fixed till 27, but we can hope.
Click to expand...
on my mac, if i click, for example, the lower right corner of a finder window, or safari (etc), i can resize the window. so i am clicking exactly where i'd expect to click, and all is well.
 
SaMMyS said:
Because we care about UX and you don't.
Have you read the article posted above? Clearly it's not about counting pixels but about SERIOUS USER EXPERIENCE.
Click to expand...
that's completely untrue; the aesthetic (of everything, really) matters a great deal to me.

what is true: we have different opinions. and that's just fine.
 
PhysicsClubReject said:
Hi,

Can I get some thoughts on Tahoe, I guess now OS 26.2?

So far, the bits and pieces I've heard haven't been too flattering, but I wanted to get thoughts for or against from users
who aren't necessarily looking for clicks.

Is it still too early to upgrade, or should I just stay with Sequoia?

I'm running a 2022 Mac Studio with an M1 Max processor, 32 GB of RAM.

Thanks!
Michael
Click to expand...
No structurally bad issues, main complaint is Finder UI design, esp. real estate losses with bad corner and border design decisions.
 
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SaMMyS said:
Because we care about UX and you don't.
Have you read the article posted above? Clearly it's not about counting pixels but about SERIOUS USER EXPERIENCE.
Click to expand...
I have to disagree, while there are rough patches in the OS, to be sure, my workflow has not been hindered negatively. I think casting dispersions that someone doesn't care about user experience is unnecessarily inflammatory and does not add to the dialog
 
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