Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Upgrade to Tahoe?
- Thread starter ParsaS
- Start date
-
- Tags
- performance sequoia tahoe
- Sort by reaction score
Liquid Glass doesn't make sense on Mac. Also, the app icon loading issue persists in Tahoe.
The icons in the Settings app load one by one. Likewise, the new apps drawer does the same. It's like the apps are not kept in memory or something. Check Reddit. There are various complaints.
App drawer?
Have you tried any of these to see if they help you?
# Restart the System Settings app (Sonoma/Ventura/Sequoia+)
killall SystemSettings
# Or for older macOS (System Preferences)
killall SystemPreferences
# Restart the core system configuration daemon (cfprefsd) – this reloads preferences/plists
killall -9 cfprefsd
# If Dock icons or Finder settings are acting up
killall Dock
killall Finder
Have you tried any of these to see if they help you?
# Restart the System Settings app (Sonoma/Ventura/Sequoia+)
killall SystemSettings
# Or for older macOS (System Preferences)
killall SystemPreferences
# Restart the core system configuration daemon (cfprefsd) – this reloads preferences/plists
killall -9 cfprefsd
# If Dock icons or Finder settings are acting up
killall Dock
killall Finder
I had Tahoe installed on my MBP 14 M2 Max, and it was super glitchy, so I rolled back to Sequoia. I recently picked up a MBP 14 M5 with Tahoe pre-installed. After a fresh install, it was glitchy for the first few days, but it's better now. Apps definitely open faster on the M5 than on the M2 Max, though the Tahoe UI still feels sluggish compared to Sequoia. Battery life is okay in 26.1. I wouldn't upgrade M2 Air just yet.
Lucky you! Mine was rough: Finder icons took half a sec to load, Activity Monitor crawled, and web scrolling was glitchy. That was Tahoe 26.0 on M2 Max
Thanks. You answered very well, I'm convinced to stay at sequoia.
I've been running Tahoe since the public betas were released, and am now off the beta track and running 26.1. If time were rewound I would still install Tahoe. You'd have to pay me a lot of money to make me go back. I had less trouble going from Sequoia to Tahoe than I did going from Sonoma to Sequoia, and there was barely any issue at all going to Sequoia.
Feels like it, but I think Apple will make macOS 26 nice enough for Intel since it's the last version.
Leopard ran decent on my G5 I remember, then Snow Leopard came out dropped PowerPC support and I upgraded to a 2006 Mac Pro and that ran great.
If macOS 26 doesn't run well by the end of the cycle on a (used to be) $25,000 (used to be) Mac Pro that's just insane and mean and that would confirm "planned obsolescence". The system itself is still very powerful (maybe not single core perf) but still overall, especially GPU and Multi-core.
I remember when they added Launchpad and everyone complained it was too basic.
For every change there are people to complain about that change. It’s a fundamental human law.
I regret that they wasted resources in creating it in the first place. 😂
Here is what I usually do when moving to the new Betas.
I backup my machine and I actually forgot to disable and turnoff/delete Little Snitch this time but thankfully it still worked and I had internet this time as it usually breaks.
When I update, I then backup and do a fresh install of the Beta then connect my external HD Time Machine and drag what I need back over. It's a pain, kinda but that way I get a clean fresh install and things go much much smoother.
I totally agree. The contacts app in your screen shot is one of the main reasons I won't be using Tahoe along the fact it is ugly looks to be aimed at junior high level users.
OP. If you make a backup and have the Sequoia installer downloaded and ready to go it isn't very hard to roll back if you don't like Tahoe. Some people like it. I tried it for a few days and decided I'll wait until they try again with next years release.
You can actually bring back the launchpad if you really want it. I never used it so it doesn't matter for me. I mainly use the Dock or Spotlight to launch apps. That's probably why Apple removed it, nobody was using it.
GitHub - ggkevinnnn/LaunchNow: Alternative Launchpad for MacOS Tahoe.
Alternative Launchpad for MacOS Tahoe. . Contribute to ggkevinnnn/LaunchNow development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
Same here, I have a iMac M1 and a MacBook Air M2 and from all the comments, I am scared to upgrade. Although it seems to have settle after they released the 1st update. I drove over to Best Buy last night and looks at the Macs and the upgrade actually looks pretty cool. Or maybe it was the newness of the model. In any event, I quickly ran out before I bought a newer model. LOL
.2 is coming next week most likely so I would upgrade then. The M class Apple devices don't have a lot of issues, it's mostly Intel that I've seen from people who get slowdowns.
Does somewhat similar on both of mine, but after a while will be okay. The slightly sluggish bit is opening the applications stack.
These two ran fine before and they are both very high end machines. My other apps haven’t slowed on them.
I have an M2 MBA and M4 pro Mac mini, they are also slightly slower than before.
Steam just posted hardware survey numbers for November 2025. I know this isn't the broadest range of Mac users, just gamers, but still interesting to look at.
Of the Mac users reported, the November numbers show 47.5% on macOS Sequoia and 52.5% on macOS Tahoe... so, almost an even split. Compared to the October survey, Tahoe has gone up by about 7 percentage points.
Backing up a year, November 2024 numbers showed 72% on Sequoia and 28% on Sonoma. So, it appears that Sequoia was adopted much more quickly than Tahoe has been.
(The numbers aren't quite right because Valve doesn't seem to report any OS version with less than 0.05% total usage, so a trickle of macOS 13 and earlier users that there may be don't show up in the report.)
Of the Mac users reported, the November numbers show 47.5% on macOS Sequoia and 52.5% on macOS Tahoe... so, almost an even split. Compared to the October survey, Tahoe has gone up by about 7 percentage points.
Backing up a year, November 2024 numbers showed 72% on Sequoia and 28% on Sonoma. So, it appears that Sequoia was adopted much more quickly than Tahoe has been.
(The numbers aren't quite right because Valve doesn't seem to report any OS version with less than 0.05% total usage, so a trickle of macOS 13 and earlier users that there may be don't show up in the report.)
Mine was stuttering for days especially simple things like opening finder windows, using control center, using Adobe apps and anything that uses liquid glass. I disabled liquid glass and all is ok now (on Intel).
This is a work machine for me, should've just stayed with Sequoia
But I'm too lazy to downgrade, so going to move forward with the updates.
Been using Apple for personal and business - Macs, iPhones, iPads exclusively - since 2008 (I was a Windows guy for 16 years before that). I still use Windows a couple of times a year. I’m in my forties…
I updated to Tahoe with the Release Candidate, stayed on until Tahoe 26.1, and then went through several Beta 2 releases. So many issues and bugs made me want to scream, so I went back to Sequoia 15.7.2. It took me an entire day to wipe my 16” M4 MacBook Pro and reinstall everything. Another full day to restore 3.7TB of data.
My issues are all over the place. The corner radii are insane - they literally cut off important space and information from toolbars and desktop icons. Issues with Photos and iCloud, issues with Contacts and iCloud, issues with parental controls and children’s accounts. Performance problems, battery drain, Spotlight search not working properly. The Music app controls being on the bottom instead of the top. Inconsistent with other Apps that have it on top. It makes sense to have it on top on a desktop (who's idea was to put it on bottom?) The wild inconsistencies across Apple’s own apps when it comes to toolbar placement, design language, and corner radii. The Contacts app layout for a single contact is just nuts - important info like phone, address, and email now require scrolling because Apple decided a giant poster image is more important. CarPlay disconnecting, etc... There’s just so much…
It feels like one arm doesn’t know what the other arm is doing. Apple seems completely out of focus, and you can see it in all the firing, hiring, talent leaving, and leadership that feels so old it reminds me of Congress. It’s frankly embarrassing for Apple to release Tahoe in this state. And iOS 26 is even worse - that’s a bigger disaster as there is more iPhones than Macs.
Liquid Glass is actually not terrible and I enjoyed many aspects of it, and with the tweaks you can make in Beta 2 on both desktop and iPhone/iPad, they are getting there... I like the idea and the potential. But the execution is not well thought-out. The main control panels “float” above app windows, giving apps weird double edges. The floating panels add extra shading, which makes it harder to tell what belongs to what. If you have multiple apps open next to each other, it becomes confusing which one is active and which one isn’t, etc...
My feeling is that they bombed the AI race and needed a big announcement, so they pulled Liquid Glass forward - something that might have been planned for next year or even 2027. It feels VERY RUSHED. And I really do believe their shortcomings in AI pushed them to jump on Liquid Glass before it was ready - to simply shut everyone up about Siri and AI and make them talk about Liquid Glass. Mission accomplished... partially.
I’ll be skipping Tahoe for a long time (first time skipping a major macOS version since 2008). I’m a big Apple fan and genuinely love the products and software. I used to stand in line overnight for the newest iPhones I always updated to major releases right away. I even got the iPhone 17 Pro again on day one. That’s why I updated to Tahoe - I was excited like always. So this was my first big disappointment with Apple.
I might wait for macOS 27 since they already announced they’re focusing on quality there.
Apple’s software quality decline since COVID is significant. I’ve seen and felt more bugs and issues over the last five years, and I read about it from friends who would never post online. Even my wife experiences issues on her iPhone (which I basically never touch… LOL). Disappearing contacts, FaceTime not starting, apps quitting, things not syncing - things she never complained about before. So something is going on, and it isn’t pretty.
No wonder more and more people are complaining about it. You can hear it from all corners of the internet.
I updated to Tahoe with the Release Candidate, stayed on until Tahoe 26.1, and then went through several Beta 2 releases. So many issues and bugs made me want to scream, so I went back to Sequoia 15.7.2. It took me an entire day to wipe my 16” M4 MacBook Pro and reinstall everything. Another full day to restore 3.7TB of data.
My issues are all over the place. The corner radii are insane - they literally cut off important space and information from toolbars and desktop icons. Issues with Photos and iCloud, issues with Contacts and iCloud, issues with parental controls and children’s accounts. Performance problems, battery drain, Spotlight search not working properly. The Music app controls being on the bottom instead of the top. Inconsistent with other Apps that have it on top. It makes sense to have it on top on a desktop (who's idea was to put it on bottom?) The wild inconsistencies across Apple’s own apps when it comes to toolbar placement, design language, and corner radii. The Contacts app layout for a single contact is just nuts - important info like phone, address, and email now require scrolling because Apple decided a giant poster image is more important. CarPlay disconnecting, etc... There’s just so much…
It feels like one arm doesn’t know what the other arm is doing. Apple seems completely out of focus, and you can see it in all the firing, hiring, talent leaving, and leadership that feels so old it reminds me of Congress. It’s frankly embarrassing for Apple to release Tahoe in this state. And iOS 26 is even worse - that’s a bigger disaster as there is more iPhones than Macs.
Liquid Glass is actually not terrible and I enjoyed many aspects of it, and with the tweaks you can make in Beta 2 on both desktop and iPhone/iPad, they are getting there... I like the idea and the potential. But the execution is not well thought-out. The main control panels “float” above app windows, giving apps weird double edges. The floating panels add extra shading, which makes it harder to tell what belongs to what. If you have multiple apps open next to each other, it becomes confusing which one is active and which one isn’t, etc...
My feeling is that they bombed the AI race and needed a big announcement, so they pulled Liquid Glass forward - something that might have been planned for next year or even 2027. It feels VERY RUSHED. And I really do believe their shortcomings in AI pushed them to jump on Liquid Glass before it was ready - to simply shut everyone up about Siri and AI and make them talk about Liquid Glass. Mission accomplished... partially.
I’ll be skipping Tahoe for a long time (first time skipping a major macOS version since 2008). I’m a big Apple fan and genuinely love the products and software. I used to stand in line overnight for the newest iPhones I always updated to major releases right away. I even got the iPhone 17 Pro again on day one. That’s why I updated to Tahoe - I was excited like always. So this was my first big disappointment with Apple.
I might wait for macOS 27 since they already announced they’re focusing on quality there.
Apple’s software quality decline since COVID is significant. I’ve seen and felt more bugs and issues over the last five years, and I read about it from friends who would never post online. Even my wife experiences issues on her iPhone (which I basically never touch… LOL). Disappearing contacts, FaceTime not starting, apps quitting, things not syncing - things she never complained about before. So something is going on, and it isn’t pretty.
No wonder more and more people are complaining about it. You can hear it from all corners of the internet.
Last edited: