macOS Tahoe 26.1: Slow 'Save As' and 'Open' dialogs

Question

Level 1

15 points

macOS Tahoe 26.1: Slow 'Save As' and 'Open' dialogs

After updating to macOS Tahoe 26.1, I started noticing a strange issue: the Finder and all applications run normally, but whenever any program needs to open a window — such as “Save As”, “Open”, choosing a folder, selecting a file, etc. — everything becomes extremely slow. The window takes a long time to appear and to load its contents. This happens in every application, not just Adobe software.

In the videos I recorded, you can clearly see this behaviour.

To try to resolve the situation, I entered macOS Recovery to reinstall the system. However, in the reinstall option only macOS Sequoia appears, not Tahoe. I’m not sure if this is normal or if Recovery should show the latest version installed on the Mac.

Even so, I manually reinstalled macOS Tahoe 26.1 hoping it would fix the issue. Unfortunately, nothing changed: the Finder and the apps themselves work fine, but any window that needs to be opened from within an application makes the system almost unusable.

At this point, I don’t know what might be causing this.

Should I proceed with a completely clean installation of macOS Tahoe, including formatting the entire drive of my MacBook Pro?

Thanks you for the attention

Videos

Posted on Nov 19, 2025 5:10 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Juuggo Author

Level 1

15 points

Nov 23, 2025 11:30 AM in response to Explorerguy

I finally managed to fix the issue. I had already tried this process before, but for some reason it didn’t work — it only worked on the fourth attempt, while my friend got it right on the first try.

Here’s what I did: opened Finder → Finder Settings, and under Sync Desktop and Documents folders, I unchecked that option. As soon as I turned it off, I noticed a difference. Then I restarted the Mac into Recovery Mode, opened Disk Utility, and ran First Aid on all the disks listed. It found and corrected two path errors (don’t ask me which ones!). After that, everything went back to normal.

I also noticed that, with that option enabled, I had lost automatic syncing between devices, and even my photo wasn’t showing in the App Store. Now that everything is back to normal, syncing is working again… but I no longer have access to the Desktop files from other devices.

This is probably something Apple will fix in a future update.

Reply

Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

125,822 points

Dec 2, 2025 7:24 PM in response to Juuggo

Here’s what I did: opened Finder → Finder Settings, and under Sync Desktop and Documents folders, I unchecked that option. As soon as I turned it off, I noticed a difference.

Makes little sense. There aren’t few similar reports and many more people use Desktop & Documents in iCloud Drive without any issues.

Did you try Re-enabling it after repairing the drives?

Reply

Answer 3

newsdude

Level 1

58 points

Dec 10, 2025 8:28 PM in response to Juuggo

It's not third-party software. I downloaded 26.0 the day it was available, and had zero issues. The first time I tried to "save-as" a file from my web browser to my (iCloud synced) Documents folder after 26.1, it took nearly five minutes for a 1MB pdf just to start downloading over my gigabit fiber connection -- most of that time waiting for the already clicked "Save" button to actually save and close the dialog. It's not about how fast the data moves. It's about how long it takes to start the moving.

For comparison, in my browser, I can download a 3GB video file to my Movies folder (not iCloud synced) in a minute or so, often less. I can download a 1GB software package to my Downloads folder (also not iCloud synced) in less than half a minute. There are no delays in the start. If I try to save the exact same downloaded files to my synced Documents folder, it takes 1-4 minutes just to start, then downloads the actual file at normal speed.

Essentially, if I save to my iCloud Drive synced Desktop or Downloads, there's a long delay to start. Any other non-iCloud folder on my Mac, and it performs normally and as expected.

And it's not just save-as. I just tried copying, in Finder, an 18MB file from my Movies folder to Documents, and the "Preparing to move" dialog window was up for nearly two minutes before that file moved. Same for a 89KB image file. I copied either file to Downloads (again, not in iCloud) it was instant.

If third-party malware or virus detection was causing an issue for someone, it wouldn't care where it was being saved. It'd slow everything going anywhere while it inspected it, not just to iCloud Drive synced folders. This really feels like some communication issue with iCloud.

Reply