Unworkable and time-consuming Launchpad on Tahoe

I've just upgraded to Tahoe and for the most part I really like the new look and feel, but what on earth were Apple thinking when they merged the Spotlight and Launchpad and came up with this unusable abomination.


In the original launchpad I could (and did) organise the Apps to make me more productive. Some apps were grouped together under their functionality to help reduce the clutter, others were placed in very specific locations, so if I needed to launch something it was a quick click, swipe and the move the mouse to where I knew the app would be - most apps I could launch in around a second.


Now I'm presented with a much smaller window to work with, much smaller icons, the groups have gone, everything is alphabetical rather than in a productive order.


I've tried moving the apps but they just snap back, I can't create groups to reduce the clutter, the "groups" at the top don't really work (I've got a game appearing under Productivity), and almost every application and game I've installed is now under "Other" so Apple's suggested groups are a waste of time.


I know I can search for an ap by typing it's name in, but that takes more time and it's also assuming that I can remember what the app's name was.


It's making me less productive, it's more time consuming and harder to find anything. I like a clean and tidy Dock, but now I'm pinning almost every app I use onto it just so that I can find them.


I'm really hoping Apple come to their senses and allow us to choose whether to use the original Launchpad or their new style (having both would have aided in allowing us to transition to it).


I've done some searching online for advice on what to do, but the commands and scripts I've found just disable the Launchpad completely when activated


I've looked at some launchpad alternatives, but I don't want something that looks like Windows or menus, I just want something straightforward and simple that does the taks of the old Launchpad with no additional bells and whistles getting in the way.


Both my partner and my father have taken a look at Tahoe on my machine, and both have decided to stay on Sequoia until the issue can be resolved purely because of the Launchpad.


so if anyone has any suggestions on getting the old Launchpad back or a good alternative that I can suggest to my family, I'd be really grateful.





[Edited by Moderator]

iMac (M4)

Posted on Sep 16, 2025 1:56 AM

Reply
48 replies

Sep 23, 2025 1:01 PM in response to DMGSYS

DMGSYS wrote:


dialabrain wrote:

Just to add, Launchpad was introduced in 2011 with Mac OS X Lion 14 years ago. I never bothered with it.
Terminal was introduced in 2001 with Mac OS X Cheetah 24 years ago. A majority of users have never bothered with it, either. Should we look forward to you proposing Apple remove Terminal in macOS 27?

Several third-party terminal emulators. There’s a lot of people that don’t like Terminal and use the other things. We would just find another solution.

Sep 26, 2025 2:27 AM in response to wuxinli1025

Already tried, don't like it!


I'm using a 4K monitor, and look at how much space this wastes. It even shows my iPhone apps, which makes it really hard to find the Mac apps I actually need. If I don’t remember the app’s name, I have to scroll through 300 unnecessary apps just to find it. Only five apps are shown per row, which means it takes 60 rows to display everything, making location-based searching even harder. What kind of design is this?


[Edited by Moderator]

Sep 26, 2025 2:51 PM in response to RayvenUK

While I prefer the former customisable launchpad to minimise the user actions required to launch commonly used apps, I was using spotlight for launching, e.g., keychain and other apps in earlier versions of Mac OS.


I'm slowly coming around to the new way of working. I still prefer grouping apps as per how I use them workflow-wise; not random-alphabetical order, nor grouping by same or similar function.


The thing that still gets me, and moreso in Tahoe is I'm always launching the App Store because the App Store's dock icon is the same as the Applications app icon (when opened) and in the Finder (blue icon). It's not like Apple to be this inconsistent. They need a different icon for the App Store.

Oct 9, 2025 5:43 AM in response to RayvenUK

I want launchpad back! Every one of my apps was organized exactly where I wanted it--by function--and Apple seems to think they know better than me about how I use my computer by giving us a spotlight tool that looks like something from earlier Microsoft.


This is the same sort of intrusiveness and presumption that Apple displayed when rearranging our photos without asking and removing local files to the iCloud.


Overall, the disregard for my preferences and organization is a substantial problem.

Oct 10, 2025 7:55 AM in response to Simod

Simod wrote:

A bit like Grapher, that’s been in OSX over 20 years and is still used, just not by the majority of users.

I'd say that's a rather different thing as it's not part of the way the OS works in the same way. But what I (or any of us) think about how this works doesn't really matter.


Apple has access to enormous amounts of user data. They know how people use features, which ones they use and which ones they don't. And, because they are Apple and they've always done things this way, they have their own ideas for what people should have.


Arguing here over whether or not LauchPad was a good thing and whether it was wrong for Apple to have removed it accomplishes nothing other than perhaps some catharsis.


Submit your feedback. Tell you friends who care to submit feedback. And then figure out how to work with things as they are.

Unworkable and time-consuming Launchpad on Tahoe

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