Mission Control is broken

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. The minor point update, macOS 27.0.1, did not appear to address the more significant issues.

Bugs should be reported to Apple here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

“We” are users like you and have no information about when or if Apple will address any issues/bugs. Apple employees are generally precluded from even reading these forums, with the exception of moderators who only monitor for compliance with the T&C.

Historically, fixes for minor issues at release take a full point update or two to be addressed (x.1, not x.x.1 like the recent 27.0.1, those are typically security patches). But some issues take longer, and some never get addressed at all (either Apple changed a behavior, or the issue is system-specific and Apple cannot replicate it).

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.

Personally, Mission Control is working fine for my use cases on my 16" M4 Pro MBP running 27.0.1. I have many Spaces and open windows, but I don't use full screen apps and I don't have my apps grouped, both of which are associated with reported issues.

Hello,

What you are facing is a macOS 27 bug everyone is facing, including me, and I am on a new M4 MacBook Air as well. I understand hoe frustrated you are with the basic things of the device broken, and I am as much as you are. For me, Mission Control lags, the trackpad is confused between normal everyday gestures, and the macOS 27 used a whole extra 1GB of RAM. You are not alone, and its the software. There is no fix yet, sadly. If you are wondering how, it isn't because apple don't have beta software, its because they modified the Liquid Glass last second before launch, breaking Mission Control and the base of macOS, as this version didn't have a beta.

Hope this helps

magsafe4_creator wrote:

Fair, but again, everyone uses there devices completely differently, and what I see as an issue, may seem like nothing wrong to you.

Different people have different workflows. It's great that Apple offers so many ways to work on a Mac, but it also means that macOS is a complicated beast. Changes to one aspect sometimes break others. Personally, if someone posts a problem they are having, and provides sufficient detail about what they are doing, then the first thing I do is try to replicate the problem.

For example, I personally don't have the Mission Control setting to Group windows by application enabled but a user reported they were unable to move a group of app windows to another space. So I enabled the setting and found that to be true on Golden Gate. I happen to have a second Mac on my desk that is still on Tahoe, so I was able to immediately confirm that it was possible to drag a group of apps on macOS 26.

One other point that has been missed in this 'my way is not your way' discussion is that Apple's way is Apple's way, and they write the code. That means that some of these changes that we see as bugs may be intentional changes. In the above example, I think the change from Tahoe to Golden Gate that eliminated the ability to move grouped apps is a bug, because the grouping setting is associated with Mission Control and it seems logical to be able to move the whole group. But it's also possible that Apple decided to change the behavior of the functionality.

Why would Apple change the behavior of a functionality that users may depend on for their workflow? No one here can answer that, but clearly Apple will do what they are going to do, and if you need evidence of that look no further than the elimination of Launchpad.

To reiterate, on this forum “we” are users like you and have no power to implement any suggestions. Apple employees are generally precluded from even reading these forums, with the exception of moderators who only monitor for compliance with the T&C.

To have Apple consider your feedback, submit it here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

The more feedback they receive on an issue, the more prioirty it will receive. Bugs will be fixed faster if Apple knows they affect more users. Sometimes feature changes are mitigated, for example all of the complaints about Liquid Glass evidently had an effect, because in Golden Gate there is a slider to adjust the intensity of the effect, and Apple even put that up front in the post-upgrade Setup Assistant. But Launchpad? Still gone.

There’s are things about mission control that don’t work the way they used to, or don’t quite work, but I don’t experience any jittering or any odd behavior with the animations or switching between desktops. However, I don’t use full screen at all, so there could be something there.

magsafe4_creator wrote:

What you are facing is a macOS 27 bug everyone is facing, including me,

How do you know "everyone" is facing it? Have you asked "everyone?" I think not as you didn't ask me. And I'm not having this issue. That doesn't change the fact that some people are having problems. But it also suggests that it may not be as simple as a bug in the new version of macOS.

Hyperbole is useful for catching attention. Accuracy and precision are better for troubleshooting.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

And I'm not having this issue. That doesn't change the fact that some people are having problems. But it also suggests that it may not be as simple as a bug in the new version of macOS.

I can replicate two of the issues that people are complaining about (switching out of full screen apps and moving grouped app windows, neither of which impact my workflow). Those are 'behavior' changes in Mission Control that seem consistent with what would be expected for a bug in macOS.

For the people complaining about 'lagging', 'jittering', 'glitching', etc., those are unlikely to be bugs and are most likely caused by 3rd party crapware the users have chosen to install.

There was a recent thread on interacting with folders using Stacks in the Dock causing the Mac to freeze. Two users were complaining about it, one definitively stated it was a macOS problem. After some cajoling, that user posted an EtreCheck report, which to my complete lack of surprise showed the user had BrickMyMac installed. Then the other user, who declined to post their EtreCheck report, stated he had a different flavor of 'protection' software installed.

I agree, I came here to post about Mission Control/Spaces, it just does not know what space I'm working on and popping open an app or a window or a dialogue box or interacting with Finder dances me around to a different space and just fks up my workflow.

Just now I tried using the dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top (for example), on the same space that I have my email, because I wanted to grab a link and paste it into the email, and every time I clicked on the dropbox icon it took me to another screen that didn't have my email app on it OVER AND OVER AGAIN until I rage quit the apps and reopened them again on the same space so I could interact in a non-insane way

farooqk1 wrote:

This is basically what I'm facing. You can see the dock 'jittering' in the video when moving in and out of fullscreen. If this user has reproduced the exact same bug I'm facing in a new user account, this user must have all the crapware too, right? For reference, I have no 'protection' apps installed.

Still not seeing the Dock 'jittering', on the video or on my own Mac. As for problems in a new user account, I trust you realize that apps (including crapware) can be installed for all users of a Mac, right?

I apologise if I'm coming off a bit rude and my observation may be wrong, but, the initial feeling I'm getting while visiting these forums is that a bunch of old members have grouped up, will refuse to accept that there can be an issue with MacOS itself and will just taunt the user that they must've done something wrong because everything is 'fine' on their end.

Speaking for myself, I've certainly acknowledged there are bugs in Mission Control (I can replicate issues with grouped apps and exiting full screen apps), and in other aspects of macOS Golden Gate. As a random, recent example, if you select a voice in the Chess app settings from the near the bottom of the list, you actually get the voice above the one you picked. Definitely a bug. Doesn't happen on Tahoe.

On the other hand, many people seem to think that because there are bugs with Mission Control, any issues they experience with Mission Control (or other parts of macOS) must also be a bug. Some may be, but I suspect many are due to conflicts with 3rd party software installed on those Macs.

neuroanatomist wrote:

I can replicate two of the issues that people are complaining about (switching out of full screen apps and moving grouped app windows, neither of which impact my workflow). Those are 'behavior' changes in Mission Control that seem consistent with what would be expected for a bug in macOS.

Very useful information.

For the people complaining about 'lagging', 'jittering', 'glitching', etc., those are unlikely to be bugs and are most likely caused by 3rd party crapware the users have chosen to install.

That's mostly what I was responding to. I try to keep the crapware to a minimum. I use Mission Control a lot, on two different user accounts.

There was a recent thread on interacting with folders using Stacks in the Dock causing the Mac to freeze. Two users were complaining about it, one definitively stated it was a macOS problem. After some cajoling, that user posted an EtreCheck report, which to my complete lack of surprise showed the user had BrickMyMac installed. Then the other user, who declined to post their EtreCheck report, stated he had a different flavor of 'protection' software installed.

Very little in life is certain except for the results of installing BrickMyMac!

magsafe4_creator wrote:

Fair enough, sorry for that, but according to google, lots of people are, and that Mission Control is failing. My bad either way.

I'm not denying that people are having a problem. My issue is that frequently, people insist something is a bug in macOS and do no further troubleshooting and then complain that the problem isn't fixed in the next update. It could be a bug that not everyone runs into. It could be an interaction with third-party software. And yes, it could even be user error. Or some combination of the above. Troubleshooting tends to be tedious. It's also close to impossible if you go into it with a priori assumpitions.

Yeah.. I see the Mission Control issue as a bug, I rely on it daily, although some people may not, it depends on how people use their Mac, and in what way. For me, I rely on Mission Control, while others may have another way they deal with their work.

magsafe4_creator wrote:

Yeah.. I see the Mission Control issue as a bug, I rely on it daily, although some people may not, it depends on how people use their Mac, and in what way. For me, I rely on Mission Control, while others may have another way they deal with their work.

As do I. On two different user accounts. Nothing has changed for me since I updated. Everything on my Mac was a bit slower for a couple of days after the update but that's expected. Everything is back to normal now.

magsafe4_creator wrote:

Fair, but again, everyone uses there devices completely differently, and what I see as an issue, may seem like nothing wrong to you.

There is no issue if nothing has changed. Which is my experience. But you seem to be entirely missing my point. No worries.