Just read the community thread elsewhere, where a community support person seemed to suggest that in order to have a basic function work, one had to do a clean install of one's entire system. Really? That's the answer? I shake my head in disbelief. That's the equivalent of telling someone to fix a leaky pipe by tearing out all the existing plumbing in one's house.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14
If all of your plumbing is rusting away, then you should probably replace it all of them before they all start leaking.
Try booting into Safe Mode. That will clear some system caches. While in there, see if Spring Loaded Folders works.
Restart normally and see if it works.
If it worked in Safe Mode, but not after restarting normally, you have some third-party software interfering with the OS.
If it works, it was likely some corrupted cache.
If all of your plumbing is rusting away, then you should probably replace it all of them before they all start leaking.
Try booting into Safe Mode. That will clear some system caches. While in there, see if Spring Loaded Folders works.
Restart normally and see if it works.
If it worked in Safe Mode, but not after restarting normally, you have some third-party software interfering with the OS.
If it works, it was likely some corrupted cache.
If someone who understands what's in the code that some third party software could logically cause the spring-load to only work intermittently, I'd love to learn.
Any third-party mouse or tablet software could cause issues like that, or anything that intercepts mouse events to provide some function the OS doesn’t provide.
Since it is working fine for most people - or else, I assure you, we'd have heard about it here in the forum, loudly! - it seems more likely that something in your setup could be causing a problem. Of course, we cannot say for sure that it is.
Testing in Safe Mode, as Barney suggested, is a great thing to do. If you determine that things work correctly in Safe Mode, then for sure some third party modification is at fault.
Spring loaded folders not working in Big … - Apple Community
This discussion was closed, the OP tried Safe Mode and it didn't resolve the problem.
From MacRumors forum
No folder springs for me either - accessibility
settings don't change it - except, with the spring loading checked, the
target folder icon flashes as if it was going to spring open. But does
not. Also, no difference iCloud or local. Same behavior.
OS 11.2.2 on MBA 2013, Mini 2014, Mini M1
Checked on a MBP 2019, and behaves as excpected - springs open. Also OS 11.2.2.
If someone who understands what's in the code that some third party software could logically cause the spring-load to only work intermittently, I'd love to learn. I'm not grasping how Photoshop or Figma, for example, would cause an issue, and as I already indicated, I haven't installed any new 3rd party software between the time the spring-loading worked and stopped working.
As you can see in the MacRumors thread, they've only experienced the problem in Big Sur, not older OSes. On my older Mac Air on an older OS than Big Sur, spring loading works just fine.
Barney-15E wrote:
If I don’t see the flaw on either of my two Macs, one Intel and one M1, I don’t assume it is a problem with the OS. And, when coupled with the knowledge that I have not seen hundreds of people posting the same problem, I assume it isn’t a problem with the OS
The spring loaded function works intermittently. Today it is working. Yesterday it wasn't. Yet, I have not changed any 3rd party software. Did corrupted cache magically uncorrupt itself overnight? I think not. Perhaps, maybe, there is a software bug. I know, hard to believe, but it would be nice if folks entertained the possibility of a flaw in an Apple product.
Thank you.
If I don’t see the flaw on either of my two Macs, one Intel and one M1, I don’t assume it is a problem with the OS. And, when coupled with the knowledge that I have not seen hundreds of people posting the same problem, I assume it isn’t a problem with the OS
Thank you! That makes perfect sense, though I'm not sure why the problem seems to occur intermittently. I will pay more attention to what app I might have open when the spring-load stops working.
Spring loaded folders not working
