How can I fix the open dialog being too wide across all apps on Mac running macOS 26?

It's most definitely a bug, but what I realised is that if you have a "Recent Places" folder that is really long, the dropdown dialog box is locked into that length, hence having super wide dialog windows that cannot be resized.

Rename your folder name shorter and see the magic! Hacky... but works for now until a proper fix from Apple

n1mie wrote:

When I try to open a file, the open dialog is too wide. It goes past the edges of the screen. It won't let me resize it smaller (I can change the height or make it wider, not narrower). This happens with Safari, BBEdit, MS Word, and other apps. I've noticed it wants to give a HUGE amount of space to the name of files. I've tried narrowing down that column but it doesn't stick. This is exceptionally annoying. Anyone have a fix?

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The current stable release of Tahoe including bug fixes, security updates is macOS 26.0.1

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Amorpheum wrote:

It's most definitely a bug, but what I realised is that if you have a "Recent Places" folder that is really long, the dropdown dialog box is locked into that length, hence having super wide dialog windows that cannot be resized.

Rename your folder name shorter and see the magic! Hacky... but works for now until a proper fix from Apple

I am sorry— where exactly is this "Recent Places" folder you mention?

not seeing it anywhere

Check your screen resolution.

I had the same issue on Outlook for MacOS where the reminders for meetings and follow-ups would be soooo wide that I had to use shortcut keys to push it to the second monitor and tile it (using shortcut keys) to the left to see the first half and to the right to see the other half of such reminders.

Can some of you guys try this?

• Switch Outlook back to legacy mode and relaunch (it will start sync'ing and showing you reminders)
• Abort it after a few seconds
• Switch back to "New Outlook"

Does that seem to fix the wide dialog problem?

It is similar on the tiny display of my MacBook Air., even with the display resolution set to "Standard". The windows of the standard apps are opening nearly as large as in fullscreen ode and forget the size I have set before,

You wrote "It won't let me resize it smaller (I can change the height or make it wider, not narrower). "

This may be a problem caused b the new Liquid Glass design. It it hard to find the sweet spot where the resize corners are located. With overlapping windows in dark mode it is hard to tell where to grab a resize corner or drag the left or right border to make the window smaller and the window may not respond. If window does not allow you to make it narrower, it may help to hide all other windows or get them out of the way to make I easier to grab the correct resize corners or borders and resize the window..

n1mie wrote:

When I try to open a file, the open dialog is too wide. It goes past the edges of the screen. It won't let me resize it smaller (I can change the height or make it wider, not narrower). This happens with Safari, BBEdit, MS Word, and other apps. I've noticed it wants to give a HUGE amount of space to the name of files. I've tried narrowing down that column but it doesn't stick. This is exceptionally annoying. Anyone have a fix?

How long is the Name of the File which is causing this behaviour

Perhaps a Screen Shot showing the length of the problematic file ?

I do remember some time ago, where a user's file name was inordinately long

Causing it to extend beyond the edge of screen

Same here, happens on all Open/Save dialog boxes on OS 26.0.1. I've cleared my "Recent Items" list, I've rebooted in Safe Mode and it still happens!

Need to search for something? You have to drag the window to the Left.

Need to navigate to a folder? You have to drag the window Right.

Need to press Save or Open button? You have to drag the window to the Left.

Tahoe offers WAY more frustration than useful features.

The Clear Recents that you may see under the Open Recent submenu does not affect that list of "Recent Places".

It is for recently opened files in the application. The "Recent Places" are a list of folders where stuff has been saved to or opened from.

See the post by Amorpheum for a workaround until this gets fixed.

I am using Tahoe 26.0.1 on an M4 Mac Mini Pro and a 32-inch LG 4K display. My Displays setting is More Space and my open and close dialogs, regardless of the application, are the same as they were on Sequoia. That is, not any larger or ungainly.

Even applications that I have written in Swift, Objective-C, or AppleScript/Objective-C where I have used the NSOpenPanel class with custom window sizes have not changed their screen real estate size in Tahoe.

I'm having the same issue! It's really really annoying! I regret updating to macOS Tahoe!

Great catch, Amorpheum!

The "Recent Places" in question appears in the Save or Open dialogs when you select the popup to change the location.

For example: