Unable to drag and drop files in Tahoe 26 on MacBook Pro

This is a bug in macOS Tahoe. In List view, if you drag and drop a file onto the folder icon it 'misses'. The workaround is to drop the file onto the name of the destination folder, not the icon.

Bugs can be reported to Apple here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

For the rest of y'all, this issue isn't exclusive to Macbooks. I'm experiencing it on my Mac Studio as well. Dragging and dropping to the icon or filename doesn't matter; the issue exists regardless, including dragging into an open folder.

Often times, if you have other windows open, MacOS seems to switch between open windows and randomly select which one your files will land on. This is especially annoying if I'm moving a large number of RAW photos into a folder and suddenly MacOS drops them onto Safari, which is active in a different space and display from where my mouse cursor/pointer is.

The only fix I've discovered as reliable is ye olde Cmd+C and Cmd+V commands for copying and pasting. Until such a time as Apple works out this bug at least.

[Edited by Moderator]

Thank you for this simple solution, neuroanatomist !!

I also was having trouble dragging and dropping files after upgrading to Tahoe.

It does work to drag and drop into the name, not the icon, of the destination folder. Such an easy fix.

System Settings > Accessibility > Pointer Control > Trackpad Options…

Enable Three-Finger Drag:

Or search System Settings:

Three-finger, or Dragging style:

I couldn't figure out the three-finger drag for the life of me. Turning off Force click and haptic feedback solved the problem though. Thank you!

Mahone Bay boy wrote:

Three-finger drag works. Not as smooth as what it was but better than not. Thanks

You didn't explain the issue with any specific detail. However, I know I have issues with the Force Click & Haptic Feedback with Apple's trackpads so I always have to turn that setting off in the Trackpad System Settings. It is possible the behavior of the Force Feedback & Haptic Feedback has changed slightly with Tahoe & you not able to compensate for it.

Brian King2 wrote:

For the rest of y'all, this issue isn't exclusive to Macbooks. I'm experiencing it on my Mac Studio as well. Dragging and dropping to the icon or filename doesn't matter; the issue exists regardless, including dragging into an open folder.

Often times, if you have other windows open, MacOS seems to switch between open windows and randomly select which one your files will land on. This is especially annoying if I'm moving a large number of RAW photos into a folder and suddenly MacOS drops them onto Safari, which is active in a different space and display from where my mouse cursor/pointer is.

The only fix I've discovered as reliable is ye olde Cmd+C and Cmd+V commands for copying and pasting. Until such a time as Apple works out this bug at least.

[Edited by Moderator]

I haven't found any problems (or differences) in drag & drop on my two Macs running Tahoe.

Three-finger drag works. Not as smooth as what it was but better than not. Thanks

AngieMSWC wrote:

In newly downloaded Tahoe 26 on my MacBook Pro I can no longer drag and drop a file to a folder if I want to move it to a different folder. Is there a way to allow this as in the past?

Newly downloaded— have you shut down and restarted more than once...

>Shut Down...

Barney-15E wrote:

I haven't found any problems (or differences) in drag & drop on my two Macs running Tahoe.

There is a Tahoe bug, still present in 26.1. Affects list view only. See here:

MacOS 26.1 Still not fixing trackpad issu… - Apple Community

neuroanatomist wrote:

Barney-15E wrote:

I haven't found any problems (or differences) in drag & drop on my two Macs running Tahoe.

There is a Tahoe bug, still present in 26.1. Affects list view only. See here:

MacOS 26.1 Still not fixing trackpad issu… - Apple Community

Yeah, I don't have that problem.

Lately, Mac OS is getting really horrible about drag-and-drop. The saddest thing is that Windows is better in this now. Please bring all employees to the office. We rely on this OS.