Dock issue with macOS 27 Golden Gate...

First report that I've seen on this issue, but there have been a couple of other issues reported for the Dock and several with Spaces/Mission Control.

Some have been resolved by identifying and removing incompatible 3rd party extensions, others are bona fide bugs. 

There have been many issues reported with Mission Control and Spaces on macOS 27 Golden Gate, especially regarding the way Full Screen apps and app switching are handled. Some have been resolved by identifying and removing incompatible 3rd party extensions, others are bona fide bugs. 

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.

It might help to download and run EtreCheck, written by a long-time forum member. The free version is fine. Post the full report using the Additional Text button. No personal information is revealed. 

If the issue persists in safe mode and a new user account, that suggests that it's a bug that Apple needs to address. Bugs can be reported to Apple here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Reporting issues like this to Apple is the only way to get them fixed. They do prioritize bugs based on frequency of reports, so the more people who report it, the faster it will be addressed.

elliottandrews wrote:

My Etrecheck. Please let me know what you see, if anything?

Indeed. What I see jumping out is:

[Loaded] CleanMyMac_5_FinderSyncExtension - /Applications/CleanMyMac_5.app

Many long-time forum members unaffectionately refer to that piece of crapware as BrickMyMac, because of the many (many!!) times over the years we have seen the problems it causes. Some approach catastrophic, but many are like what you are experiencing – insidious, apparently unrelated problems after an update to macOS. To be honest, I am not at all surprised to see that in your report...

If you have 3rd party ‘protection’ software installed, that often causes those types of problems. That includes:

• Cleaners (software claiming to automatically free up space)
• Optimizers (software claiming to make your Mac run faster)
• Antivirus software
• VPN software (unless provided by a school/employer to enable access to internal resources from a remote location)

Such 3rd party system ‘helpers’, ‘cleaners’ and ‘protectors’ do more harm than good. In fact, such products are completely unnecessary for macOS and the only ‘good’ (if you want to call it that) they do is to put money in the developers’ pockets. Cleaners and protectors cause compatibility issues, often after macOS updates. Commercial VPNs claim to hide your browsing activity from websites, and while that may be true those VPN providers just sell your browsing data to others. For the user, all of these types of software offer only harm…and if that is limited to harm to your bank account, then count yourself lucky. If you have installed such software, follow the developer’s instructions to completely uninstall it (note that some developers fail to provide instructions and their software installs can be pervasive, meaning the only way to truly remove it is to erase your Mac, reinstall macOS then restore your user files from a backup).

elliottandrews wrote:

It happened after the update, I had no issues with any of the previous OSs, so that makes it an update issue I am afraid.

I have Stacks-using folders in my Dock, and I've never experienced a freeze or beachballing associated with them (or for any other reason) on macOS 27.0 or 27.0.1, both of which I upgraded/updated to the day they launched. If it's an update issue, why don't I see it? Why aren't there more a handful of reports about it?

It's far more likely that it's a problem specific to your system. That you still see the issue in safe mode is an important piece of the puzzle. Since neither of the two people affected by this issue seem willing to post an EtreCheck report, one thing you might want to try is running Apple Diagnostics.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

The last time I had an issue with recurring freezes and beachballing was about 5 years ago on my work Mac, then a 16" Core i9 MBP. I would see the problems when running and actively using Microsoft Teams, regardless of what else was running on the Mac (even if Teams was the only active app). I suffered with it for a while (cursing Microsoft the whole time), but it turned out the real problem was a failing RAM module.

elliottandrews wrote:

Golden Gate issue.

There are 10-15 million Macs running Golden Gate at this point. Two people are reporting this problem. That strongly indicates that the problem is some incompatible extension or 3rd party software installed on your Macs, or a corrupted preference file. Thus the suggestions for safe mode, a new user account, and an EtreCheck report posted here.

My Etrecheck. Please let me know what you see, if anything?

Thanks!

elliottandrews wrote:

It happens for me in safe mode which is what makes me believe it’s an update issue, I don’t have any third party apps running as far as I am aware.

An issue affecting a handful out of millions of users is not ‘an update issue’.

One common cause of freezing / beachballing is insufficient free space on your internal drive.

I too am having this issue. I reinstalled Golden Gate from Safe Mode, I thought it had helped but it has come back today.

Does your keyboard also stop working when it locks out?

Interesting. Annoying for me as I can’t even run the kill dock command in terminal because my keyboard is not functioning.

Hopefully there’s a fix soon!