Mission Control on MacOS27

On macOS 27 Golden Gate, I find that Mission Control and Spaces behave mostly as it did on prior versions of macOS, and as expected based on Apple's information:

View open windows and spaces in Mission Control on Mac – Apple Support

Work in multiple spaces on Mac – Apple Support

There is one difference I see between my two Macs with one on Golden Gate and the other on Tahoe with a window made full screen then a three-finder swipe. On Golden Gate, the Space that is selected is the 'last' one before the full screen window, and that's also the one that's shown occupying most of the screen (top panel, which is a 5K;2K display). On Tahoe, the full screen window is the one that is selected, and the 'first' Space is the one that is shown (bottom panel).

However, clicking on another Space goes to that Space, and there is no 'glitching' when switching Spaces or selecting other apps/windown in Mission Control that I see on Golden Gate.

Have you rebooted your Mac? If not, that's the first step. If that does not help, then see if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode. That process performs some system cleanup and clears caches, and also disables 3rd party extensions that may cause problems.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

If that does not correct the issue, test in a new user account. A newly-created user account will have all settings at default, and if the issue does not occur in that new account then it provides guidance on what may need to be changed to correct the issue.

Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support

Once the testing is complete, the new account can easily be deleted.

Delete a user or group on Mac – Apple Support

Those steps will help to isolate the problem.

If the problem you are seeing remains, then bugs can be reported to Apple here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

My keyboard shortcuts to switch desktops were not working, and this fixed it (from an old post):

"Recreate the spaces: Open Mission Control (Control + Up Arrow), add a new desktop space using the +icon, and then delete it. This resets the internal cache for space switching."

tstm wrote:

Now only F1 works. The other buttons do nothing. I've tried to reset the shortcuts to something else and back, rebooting, etc, nothing works. This is seriously annoying. =/

I found the issue! I'm using two displays.

The other display only has one workspace (and this was the same in previous MacOS). If I add more workspaces to the secondary display, the shortcuts start working again. And it still switches only the active display, as I want it to. So, some kind of bug, but at least there's a workaround.

I wasn't asking if you knew about it. I asked if it worked to determine if there was a deeper issue.

Regardless, I can't replicate your problem. Mission Control works as it always has.

You could try starting up in Safe Mode, check operation there, then restart normally. Safe Mode will clear some system caches and disable any third-party system extensions.

… or mouse.

Are you using an external Mouse? Does it have software to provide special features? Safe Mode check should rule that out.

I had few issues with the workspaces switching and the shortcuts to switch spaces,

I tried to delete all the existing spaces and create new ones. That seems to have solved the issue for me.

Maybe after the upgrade some configurations of the workspaces have gotten corrupted / outdated.

I came across many of the same problems with MI27. For last few days I spent hours fixing or rather trying to fix the problems with no fix. This morning I decided to start in safe mode, reinstall the OS, after some 60 minutes all came up running. Mission Impossible(27) problems gone. My remaining problem is with the apps that used to remember open window size and location when you safe and reopen it - is still busted. As long ago I had that problem with Numbers - eventually Apple fixed it. Hope new bugs will be fixed sooner then later.

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

Perhaps you would like to enlighten us all... I'm not at level 10, but I have been using Macs since 1985, and Mission Control since it was introduced about a decade and a half ago.

I may be obtuse, but I do not see what has changed in Mission Control from Tahoe to Golden Gate.

Well, I did point out the one change that I can replicate (in the 'top rated' reply in this thread), but it's functionally inconsequential.

Otherwise, Mission Control is fine on Golden Gate (and I've been using it just as long as you have – I multitask heavily, and have been doing so since Multifinder came out for my first Mac...and that was 39 years ago). I certainly cannot replicate the 'click the Desktop does nothing' and 'glitches out really badly' that the OP sees.

IMO, the real issue is that some people would rather blame Apple than actually troubleshoot their Mac, refusing to acknowledge that in many cases, the issue is being caused by a 3rd party tool/extension they chose to install, even one that is apparently unrelated.

Case in point, a user experiencing black preview screens in Mission Control traced the issue to LanguageTool, an AI-based grammar checker. What that has to do with Mission Control, I have no idea. But disabling it fixed the user's issue with Mission Control.

While I agree with a lot of what you say, sometimes it is Apple, either a bug or sometimes they can't be bothered to keep supporting a feature (recovering emails using Time Machine, anyone??). In this case my keyboard shortcuts for Mission Control are very flaky, sometimes they work and sometimes not. I changed nothing on my Mac when moving to MacOS 27, so it would most likely be something Apple has done.

I came here, not to criticise Apple but to see if anyone else had the same problem and had they figured out a fix.

I have also noted that all of my apps are now set to no specific desktop, so I can only assume Apple has overwritten some Finder/Mission Control settings. I am happy to be proved wrong, just so long as I can get my keyboard shortcuts back. Currently, I have deleted all of my desktops and recreated them and all is well ( for the last ten minutes).

BTW, I am a very loyal Apple customer having exclusively owned Macs for private use since 1989 and my first IIci

It's quite appalling that everyone seems to be bringing down the experience of the poster. I have the exact same issue they are having as does friends of mine after upgrading to Mac OS 27.

Tahoe: Open at least 4 full screen app tabs (same app or different doesn't matter) > Use three fingers to swipe away so mission control is in top view with all open full app tabs showing and the desktop tab as well > tap on desktop screen showing under mission control (not the desktop tab within mission control) > desktop fully opens with mission control closed

Golden Gate: Open at least 4 full screen app tabs (same app or different doesn't matter) > Use three fingers to swipe away so mission control is in top view with all open full app tabs showing and the desktop tab as well > tap on desktop screen under mission control (not the desktop tab within mission control) > FULL SCREEN GOES BACK TO THE APP YOU JUST SWIPED AWAY FROM INSTEAD OF FULLY OPENING THE DESKTOP SCREEN. To go back to full desktop, while mission control is open with all the tabs in view you have the click 'the desktop tab within mission control'.

This is just an undesirable and backwards workflow and it does actually happen. As the original poster said. I don't understand why an issue as simple and basic as this was not caught. It's okay, we all make mistakes as well as Apple. We would really appreciate a fix, please and thanks if anyone has come to it.

I feel the same experience like yours bro. It sucks. However i turned ON "reduce motion" in Motion Accessibility to "temporary cured" the glitch.

I have another problem: Search function in "Setting" is unable to find anything. So i have to find the menu manually.

😞

dyrckfromchristchurch wrote:

For clarity it is only the ctrl number shortcuts that don't work, ctrl left/right arrow works fine for switching between desktops.

Are those shortcuts enabled on your Mac? They are off by default. When I turn them on they work as expected. i.e., when working normally and not in Mission Control, pressing Control-1 switches to Desktop 1, Control-2 to Desktop 2, etc., for each enabled shortcut. The Control-left and -right shortcuts are enabled by default.

Go to System Settings > Keyboard > Mission Control, click the expansion caret (>) next to the lower listing of Mission Control, then tick the boxes.

I'm also having a multitude of issues with Mission Control/Spaces on macOS 27 and have filed various bug report. I agree that it feels like some people are minimizing this, when it is a serious usability issue. I'm adding my two cents for more data points.

My setup:

M3 Pro 14" MBP

Dell HDMI monitor placed "above" the built in display in Displays.

LG Displayport monitor(via Dell thunderbolt dock) placed next to the Dell monitor in Displays(it is not touching the built in display, I go up and over to get to that area). ChatGPT(s) own the Dell monitor at full screen. Xcode owns the LG monitor with one or two full screen windows.

Safari is everywhere(minimized, windowed and fullscreen)

Issues:

1. Menubar disappears when hidden, and it does not come back. I now have it set to show all the time.
2. Traffic lights disappear and I cannot close or minimize the windows. Sometimes I can go to the apps menu(Like Xcode or ChatGPT) to get them back, but if I do not move directly to them they will disappear. I used to be able to hover near where they should be, not go to the menubar.
3. If I use the app switcher(cmd-tab) to switch to safari I get "No available windows" which is soooo not true. I don't even want a window, necessarily, I just want to bring Safari to the front, which is expected behavior, so that I can CMD-N yet another window from the keyboard.
4. Sometimes I can't app-switcher to an app to quit it(CMD-Tab, but keep the CMD held down and hit Q to quit and app-switcher back to the OG app). I get a beep.
5. If I have to move an app from a space from one monitor to another, I might leave a black space behind and I have to show all spaces then click on another space in that monitor to make that go away.
6. The HUDs(app switching panel, volume etc) come up on whichever display they want with no rhyme or reason.
7. CTRL-Arrows and swipe to move between spaces stops working for no reason. It also starts working again for no reason.
8. That's not even including all the Split View bugs(like closing one window leaves the other one lonely and stuck split)

I just do not have the TIME to do a full reinstall and RECONFIG to resolve the issues. Especially when some anecdotal evidence suggest that that is not resolving the issue for everyone.

Now here is my vent/rant, as a developer myself I know how different use cases can cause weird and random edge-cases(my nickname is edge-case Hernandez), but this is seriously and literally the buggiest UI I have used on macOS since Mac OS X Cheetah...

Yeah I said it. Cheetah!

I've used the beta and reported bugs during that time. I also understand the risk of using early release software. I'm not mad, I just thought I'd post this so that people know it is not just them. This one is bad.

clorofilazul wrote:

This is quite annoying. Please fix it as soon as possible.

What happened when you tried the recommended troubleshooting steps of booting in safe mode and creating a new user account?

Yes, all turned on. After a restart all works fine but if the Mac goes to sleep then it stops working, although ctrl+1 always works. I can get it all to work again by adding or deleting a desktop but it fails again after the next sleep. Very odd.

Adriankwil wrote:

I am really hoping that this is a bug and not intended behaviour, but it really begs the question as to how its possible that nobody working on this new OS has used mission control before release day to not notice this obvious of an issue...

People use their Macs in different ways, including Apple’s developers. This is one of two issues I’m now aware of with Mission Control (the other involves moving groups of windows), and I did not notice either of them before user posts here. I’m a heavy user of Mission Control (5-6 Spaces and lots of switching between them), but I almost never use full screen and I don’t have my app windows grouped.

Apple prioritizes bug fixes based on report frequency, so if not many users run into this issue (as I didn’t) and report it, there may be a long wait for a fix.

As an example, there was a display resolution missing for 21:9 monitors on M4 Macs (but not M1-3 or Intel). Those Macs came with Sequoia, and the resolution (which happens to be my preferred one) was not added with Sequoia updates or in Tahoe. In Golden Gate, it’s back. Two years later, likely because there aren’t too many M4 users with 21:9 displays.