I’m not sure if it’s a bug or if they removed this feature, but in macOS 26, minimized windows were shown in App Exposé, so we didn’t have to right-click the app icon to access them. Now, in macOS 27, this feature seems to be gone, and we have to right-click the app icon to see the minimized windows.

Left: macOS 26, Right: macOS 27.

Sorry for the noise 🙃

M3 MacBook Air (Clamshell with 2 monitors) – It is actually driving me insane how slow things are now, the OS constantly stutters with switching windows and going back into the Desktop screen. Apps crash sometimes, screen turns black. It is genuinely unstable is there any solution or should we just wait for an update?

my free space kept bouncing around for no obvious reason and it turned out swap was sitting at about 16 gb. swap is where macos parks memory on disk when ram runs out, and it doesnt really shrink on its own while youre working

you can check it in terminal with sysctl vm.swapusage, the used number is whats on disk right now. the files live in /private/var/vm and you shouldnt touch them directly. a restart clears most of it, and quitting the apps that eat memory (browsers with 80 tabs, docker, electron apps) keeps it from coming back as fast

storage settings doesnt show swap as its own category, which is part of why that storage bar is so confusing. anyone else seen it get way bigger than 16?

What if your wallpaper was a museum?

I made Gallery, a macOS app that hangs original works from the open collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and The Cleveland Museum of Art on your desktop, each with its own museum label.

Would you use it? 👇

I'm thinking of holding off the upgrade to the latest OS, as I am assuming more and more software will be deprecated and eventually incompatible with future updates. I am also considering my hardware (M2 chip, 16 gigs, 1 TB of storage) that may eventually degrade in performance because of battery condition due to wear and software dependency to high-spec Macbooks in the future.

Asking because of curiosity here. How many years can i get my Macbook to last before deciding to buy a newer model? I got this one at release year and never had any complaints on it. But, i got minor problems due to OS upgrades (reinstalling softwares, removing unsupported drives, adjusting bla bla bla) that made me decide to hold major upgrade to a minimum 6 months after release, waiting to see the patches rolled and fix bugs that may be encountered on day one.

Hi all,

I’m not technical at all, so apologies if I’m missing something obvious. Apple offered me the latest, fastest and richest macOS, and nothing told me it was still in development, so I upgraded from Tahoe. I now regret it bitterly.

Right after a restart everything is fine. A few hours later the Mac becomes sluggish:

• Apps freeze or lag
• The Dock magnification animation (the wave effect) stutters
• Everything freezes for a moment when I press Cmd+Tab
• The cursor often disappears for a few seconds

It ran smoothly on Tahoe.

My setup

• MacBook Air M4, 24 GB RAM
• About 25% storage free (377 GB used of 494 GB)
• Previous macOS: Tahoe
• Time Machine backups from before the upgrade
• Open apps: Outlook, Chrome (10 tabs), Notion (4 tabs), Claude, WhatsApp, Preview

Activity Monitor, sorted by % CPU, while the Mac is slow (screenshot attached)

1. Google Chrome Helper (Aperitif Renderer): 326.3%
2. kernel_task: 268.5% (52 h of CPU time)
3. WindowServer: 93.8%
4. OneDrive: 56.1%
5. Google Chrome Helper (Aperitif Renderer): 7.9%

Memory looks fine: about 70% used, memory pressure around 36%, 6.8 GB compressed.

My questions

1. Has anyone else seen this on 27.0.1, and is there a known cause? kernel_task and WindowServer seem very high to me.
2. Is there a simple fix a beginner can try?
3. Since I have a Time Machine backup from before the upgrade, what is the safest way to go back to Tahoe without losing recent files?
4. Does anyone know if a fix is likely in the next update?

Thanks a lot!

[MacOS 27 M1 Air]: That purple dot (next to the clock) pops us and disappears randomly. It shows/ does nothing when I click on it. Any ideas?

Can someone explain how the OS rendering is done on macOS? It's definitely unlike Windows for sure.

I recently noticed something interesting. When I'm using my MacBook as is, the battery seems to be draining a bit faster but when I have the machine connected to a monitor, battery drain is significantly lesser.

I would've thought rendering two screens would require more power but it seems to be the opposite. The external display I have runs at 1440@100hz while the MacBook runs at its standard resolution (it's a 14" M5 Pro) with ProMotion.

Using Adobe Illustrator on the MacBook's screen itself for like 1 hour drains around 12-14% while with the external monitor, just 9% drops in like 2 hours.

So I'm guessing the battery power consumption has something to do with the GPU rendering? The external monitor having a little lower resolution and its display + refresh rate depending on its power supply, it doesn't affect the machine that heavily.

Correct me if I'm wrong tho.

Our Entra Mac users, running macOS 27, are unable to login after connecting to new a Wi-Fi network.

The affected users' passwords successfully unlock their Macs at startup, but the subsequent login screen displays:

Network is unavailable. Please check your connection and try again.

The user is now locked out of their Mac, even if they attempt to connect to a previously known Wi-Fi network. The Mac becomes completely unusable to the user.

The local admin account can still sign in on the affected Mac.

Sequence:

1. Existing Entra SSO user has (had) a working account.
2. The Mac connects to a new Wi-Fi network.
3. The affected user attempts to sign in.
4. Startup disk unlocks successfully, but desktop login fails with the "network-unavailable" message.

Only workaround we've found:

Signed in as local admin and delete the affected account profile. When the user signs in again, macOS automatically recreates their SSO account and access is restored.

This restores access but requires backing-up and recovering the user's local data. It does not identify the root cause.

The issue appears to be very similar to what Okta users have reported:
https://support.okta.com/help/s/article/okta-platform-sso-authentication-failures-occur-after-upgrading-to-macos-27

The new app launcher is simply asinine. There's no way to build a muscle memory, because it's an alphabetical list. And some applications are showing multiple times, taking the entire screen, and there's no way to hide or remove them. And also, why why is the search so slow? I would like to launch an app, not chat with a bot, it's constantly resisting the user at every turn.

Charge times do not align with the current time of the day, but maybe bar graph isn't supposed to show the time of day, I really don't know what supposed to happen. I am more and more confident that there is a bug because times were aligning properly before the update but I wanted to ask you as well. Much appreciated.

I actually think this is probably an intentional behavior for some godforsaken reason, but it seems like they removed the feature where, if you hold down the button that invokes Siri, it will keep listening until you release it. For some reason, on Mac OS 27, that is just not the case, and if you pause for even a fraction of a second in your train of thought, Siri will cut you off.

Absolutely vomit-inducing, and it genuinely makes me wonder if they even dogfooded their own product. I'm guessing virtually not a single soul at Apple ever once spoke to their Siri on their Mac because this just makes it completely unusable unless you are saying simply commands. Good luck ever sending a message to someone with it.

Hi

As title says

It seems that randomly, though often with a screenshot, a short time later I notice my "Macintosh HD" icon, that sits top right on the desktop, moves to somewhere else in the desktop icon collection.

I am not 100% sure about the screenshot, because of course if I take one right now, it doesn't move. But when it DOES move, it's often a screenshot that has taken it's place.

I also really only notice it after I "show desktop" or hide some windows, which was covering it up.

This is really starting to tick me off. It's a recent thing, happening the past couple of weeks, where I've been running 15.6.1 for about a year now. This is new behaviour. I don't know what could have changed, I haven't updated, or changed my desktop icons sorting etc.
Currently Sort By > Snap to Grid because I have everything else arranged in a way that makes sense to me.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks

If I have an app in full screen and no condensed window screen on Home Screen, im unable to open it.
here's a video kind of showcasing this

how do I fix this? also im on macOS Golden Gate 27.2

i tried to download app, but it’s just show this and do nothing. idk what to do. i though it want fingerprint, but it done nothing

Running 27.0.1 and just noticed this today. The date field in Apple Calendar is not editable. Tried restarting and rebooting the calendar, no go. I can edit event dates on my iPhone but not on desktop.

Also on desktop, when I create an event, I can click into all fields except the dates: Start and End.

Anyone else seeing this?

I'm looking for some advice on setting up my home workspace and could use some recommendations. I'm fairly new to docking stations and USB-C hubs, so I'm not entirely sure what I should be looking for.

Here's my situation:

• I have a MacBook Pro (M2) and an HP Windows laptop (zBook).
• I only use one laptop at a time, never both simultaneously.
• I have an external monitor that I'd like to use with either laptop.
• Ideally, I'd like a docking station that can charge whichever laptop is connected while also sending video to my external monitor.
• I'd love to have a simple setup where I can unplug one laptop, plug in the other, and have everything work without switching multiple cables.

What I'm hoping to accomplish:

I'd like a clean, simple setup with as few cables as possible. Ideally, one USB-C or Thunderbolt cable would connect my laptop to the dock, power the laptop, and connect it to my external display.

A few questions:

1. Is a USB-C docking station what I should be looking for, or would a Thunderbolt dock be better?
2. Are there docking stations that work well with both macOS and Windows?
3. Can one docking station provide enough power to charge both laptops (one at a time)?
4. Are there any brands or specific models you'd recommend?
5. Is there anything I should watch out for regarding compatibility?

I'm not looking for anything overly complicated or expensive, just something reliable that makes switching between my two laptops easy using the external display.

I bought vintage MacBook last night and opened iTunes, it worked perfectly. But there's no usable charger to get it charge so the battery was dead. I think the problem is I didn't shut off the iTunes before it went dead. The result is goddamm itunes is not working! When I click icon to open it, the icon pops off then disappear. Please give advice.

*Pardon my English because it’s not my first language.

I recently upgraded my mac to Golden gate 27.0.1 but it’s still pretty sluggish after some time using (not quite sure how long). At first I thought it needed some time to “indexing” so I left it over night and the following morning it’s still fine. But after I use Mozilla firefox, spotify and Adobe photoshop, it lagged like no tomorrow and the Adobe window froze, some brush strokes couldn’t perform well.

I wanted to downgrade it to earlier version but it will cost deleting everything and I need to backup a lot, so I wonder is it a normal thing and should I wait for the next patch? I’d love to hear what others are experiencing. Thanks all!

Ever since updating from Tahoe to Golden Gate, my M1 Macbook Air has a bug where CMD + SPACE just stops working within minutes of booting. Usually it breaks right after I launch an application... Any application... Even settings. The only way I can get it to work again is to restart the computer.

I don't use my dock or my desktop, and exclusively access apps through Spotlight Search, so I basically need to restart my computer every time I want to launch a new application.

Reinstalling MacOS from recovery didn't help.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I’m a long-time Windows user (like 30 years), and also use Linux.I’m trying to get my workflow in Mac for over a year, and it’s not that easy at all to manage application windows.

The main issue I’m facing is restoring discarded windows.

My usual way to do it was to minimise a window when it’s not in use, and to pull it back when needed.

On Windows and Linux I pull back the app window with either alt+tab, or by clicking the icon in the taskbar. It’s a very simple task, requires a single key or click action, and became muscle memory.

However, MacOS will not allow that.

To bring back a minimized window I need to either right click the dock and select the window with the diamond symbol, or to select the app from cmd+tab or the dock, and go to the menu bar and pick window to restore the window.

This is a tree-step action instead of one that gets me confused every time. I feel like fumbling every time I switch windows, which is the most common action done on a computer.

What is the expected window management in macOS ?
What am I supposed to do to put aside a window and bring it back when I need it ?

Real world analogy feels like taking a pile of papers on my desk (app), put it on a shelf (minimise), and bring it back in 10 minutes (restore).

It seems like macOS won’t allow that, which doesn't makes sense since mac is supposed to be the most used friendly and polished experience.

I’m sure I’m missing something.
What am I expected to do in that case ?

Is there a secret shortcut to restore minimized windows ? A shortcut to move a window to another virtual desktop ? A place to put and find all minimized windows ?

I'm really confused (I know an app like alt-tab could add that functionality but I'd rather to do it the MacOS way)

That new left sidebar takes up a massive amount of your screen. Here’s how to get rid of it.

Important: This only works with the Mac App Store version of WhatsApp. If you installed WhatsApp from whatsapp.com, uninstall it and reinstall from the Mac App Store first.

Prerequisites

• Terminal needs Full Disk Access: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access → enable Terminal
• WhatsApp must be the Mac App Store version

Steps

1. Open WhatsApp and let it fully load (this creates the preferences file), then quit it completely with Cmd+Q — not just close the window.
2. Open Terminal and run:

​

WAPLIST="$HOME/Library/Containers/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp/Data/Library/Preferences/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp.plist"

1. Back up the file:

​

cp "$WAPLIST" "$HOME/Desktop/WAPLIST.backup"

1. Disable the sidebar:

​

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :com.apple.UIKit.UITabSidebar:com.whatsapp.sidebar.tabs:preferredVisibility integer 1' "$WAPLIST"

If you get “Entry Already Exists”, use Set instead of Add:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Set :com.apple.UIKit.UITabSidebar:com.whatsapp.sidebar.tabs:preferredVisibility 1' "$WAPLIST"

1. Open WhatsApp. The sidebar should be gone.

To re-enable the sidebar

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Set :com.apple.UIKit.UITabSidebar:com.whatsapp.sidebar.tabs:preferredVisibility 0' "$WAPLIST"

Notes

• If a WhatsApp update brings the sidebar back, just re-run step 4.
• If you installed WhatsApp from whatsapp.com (the Electron/direct download version), this won’t work — the required plist file doesn’t exist. Switch to the Mac App Store version.

Troubleshooting

• “No such file or directory” — Make sure WhatsApp is the Mac App Store version and that you’ve opened it at least once. Also confirm Terminal has Full Disk Access.
• “Does Not Exist” — You’re using Set but the key hasn’t been created yet. Use the Add command instead.
• “Entry Already Exists” — You’re using Add but the key is already there. Use the Set command instead.
• Sidebar came back after update — Quit WhatsApp and re-run step 4. Updates can reset the plist.
• Not sure which version you have — Check the WhatsApp app in Finder. Right-click → Get Info. If the source says “Mac App Store” you’re good. If not, reinstall from the App Store.
• Changes not taking effect — Make sure you fully quit WhatsApp with Cmd+Q before running the command. Check Activity Monitor for any lingering WhatsApp processes and force quit them.

No matter what I do, restart, close settings, turn location services completely off or on, my desktop just switches over to this window in settings. Its like a persistent bug that I cant stop. Never had this happen before until yesterday.

I can close this window and go back to chrome, safari, doesnt matter. This window just reopens and switches my desktop over. Very annoying, anyone dealt with this before?

I'm trying to open GarageBand on Mac:

"GarageBand cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer to make sure GarageBand works with this version of macOS. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install any available updates for the application and macOS. Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple."

I am on an Apple M4, 16 GB, macOS Golden Gate 27—2025 laptop. I am on a school laptop, and I need this for my assessment. I have it fully updated, and I don't want to reinstall the application in case I lose anything. I might not even be able to reinstall it, as it says:

"This app is managed and updated by your organization."

Is there anything I can do in Terminal? Just tell me if I need my password/serial number, etc.