- Some of those who've upgraded to macOS 27 aren't happy
- They're complaining about bugs with the interface and sluggishness
- The main problem is with Mission Control, but there's also flak being aimed at Apple due to other issues – and its testing department is under fire
Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate last week, and some early adopters are flagging up bugs and regretting their upgrade – although others are finding the new version smooth sailing.
The Reddit 'megathread' on macOS 27 bugs and issues highlights some of the more common problems that those upgrading are running into, some of which appear to be more severe than others.
The biggest beef is with Mission Control which a number of macOS 27 users are describing as broken. It's in pretty bad shape by all accounts.
As one user put it in the above thread: "Been reading about this and finally tried it because I never use Mission Control and you're absolutely right. Most NON smooth experience I've ever seen on a Mac."
Someone replies to agree, and goes further: "It is, without a doubt, the most significant visual glitch I've encountered as a decades-long Mac user."
Another Redditor observes: "I'm a power user of multi-desktops and Mission Control and I can't believe they've broken such a fundamental feature. Yes, the animations are broken and sluggish, but the issue that breaks my workflow is when you drag a desktop to another monitor it leaves an unresponsive black screen behind.
"The only fix is to create a new desktop on the black screen, switch to this new desktop, then delete the new desktop."
In a separate thread complete with an illustrative video clip, another Redditor declared that Mission Control is "glitchier, laggier, and buggier," and that: "The animations judder, and sometimes when switching to a full screen app I'll get a completely black screen."
They added: "I've been using Macs for 20+ years, and remember [when] Exposé was released. Never have I ever experienced such a Windows-esque bug in macOS."
On top of this, there are complaints about sluggishness with some other areas of the interface in macOS 27 Golden Gate, including the menu bar and Control Center.
There are also frustrations being vented about Spotlight search not working properly, but this is apparently a symptom of the system reindexing after the installation of the new version of macOS.
Analysis: mission statement
The biggest problem is clearly Mission Control, but stuttering, sluggishness and glitchy animations can reportedly extend to other areas of macOS 27.
That said, there are a notable amount of folks who are finding that macOS 27 runs nice and smoothly for them, and they're praising it as a vast improvement over macOS 26 (although that isn't difficult given that Tahoe was a messy release for many reasons).
You may experience some slowdown with Golden Gate due to search indexing, as mentioned above, but once that work is done, those performance hiccups should disappear, and macOS 27 will hopefully settle down.
If you use Mission Control, though – and granted, a lot of people don't, as it's designed for power-users, and those running apps across multiple virtual desktops or monitors – it seems that for now, macOS 27 is best avoided. Those in this boat might want to wait until the 27.1 release in the hope that it brings a resolution.
It is a bit baffling that a feature should be pushed out in a clearly wonky state – there's no arguing that something is wrong with Mission Control – and this has brought up a related issue with Apple's beta testing of the desktop operating system.
As one tester tells us: "Many years ago, I did actually get responses [from Apple] to bugs submitted and updates on where it was heading. I've submitted a lot of bugs and since Tahoe (maybe earlier) I haven't received any feedback on my submissions and the bugs that I submitted still exist in the official release of Golden Gate. I don't think that anyone is reviewing the bug reports anymore."
That's in reply to a post that says: "The very long list of serious bugs were reported extensively and often during the beta to Apple. Apple did what they always do with macOS beta feedback. Your video [of the glitchy Mission Control interface] is the result."
Others agree that the process of beta testing and feedback seems to have gone downhill in recent times, hence the comparison of macOS to Windows. Microsoft has long taken flak for its QA department which, as I've argued many times, needs some serious attention – but this subject just isn't talked about. I doubt Apple will be talking about these testing-related assertions, either, but hopefully Mission Control will get the attention it needs behind the scenes.
For now, a good number of macOS users who stuck on Sequoia because Tahoe was overly buggy and problematic are still holding off upgrading to Golden Gate, and I can see why some folks might think it's prudent to exercise caution here. Those macOS 25 holdouts will continue to watch and wait, no doubt, and that's a bad look for Apple.
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