Is Expose app window management broken in Golden Gate?

There have been many issues reported with Mission Control on macOS 27 Golden Gate, especially regarding the way Full Screen apps are handled. Some have been resolved by identifying and removing incompatible 3rd party extensions, others are bona fide bugs. 

There have been many issues reported with Mission Control and Spaces on macOS 27 Golden Gate, especially regarding the way Full Screen apps and app switching are handled. Some have been resolved by identifying and removing incompatible 3rd party extensions, others are bona fide bugs. 

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

If that does not correct the issue, test in a new user account. A newly-created user account will have all settings at default, and if the issue does not occur in that new account then it provides guidance on what may need to be changed to correct the issue.

Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support

Once the testing is complete, the new account can easily be deleted.

Delete a user or group on Mac – Apple Support

Those steps will help to isolate the problem.

It might help to download and run EtreCheck, written by a long-time forum member. The free version is fine. Post the full report using the Additional Text button. No personal information is revealed. 

If the issue persists in safe mode and a new user account, that suggests that it's a bug that Apple needs to address. Bugs can be reported to Apple here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Personally, I CAN replicate the issue you see on my Mac running Golden Gate, where with app grouping on in Spaces, trying to drag a group by the app icon just drags the top window and not the whole group. It works as expected on my other Mac running Tahoe. I posted screenshots from Tahoe and Golden Gate in a prior thread:

Mission Control Mac OS 27 - Apple Community

Reporting issues like this to Apple is the only way to get them fixed. They do prioritize bugs based on frequency of reports, so the more people who report it, the faster it will be addressed.

chet134 wrote:

"To he honest, I have not tried those steps myself for this issue "

But you also said:

"Personally, I CAN replicate the issue you see on my Mac running Golden Gate, where with app grouping on in Spaces, trying to drag a group by the app icon just drags the top window and not the whole group. "

So yeah, you did dupe it.

The point was that I see the issue, but I did not test the behavior in safe mode or with a new user account to confirm the issue is still present. Those are the steps needed to support the position that it is macOS bug causing the issue, and not an incompatible 3rd party extension. For example, multiple users reported 'glitches' in Finder that were initially claimed to be a bug in macOS, but upon testing did not occur in safe mode...and were traced to having installed TechTool Monitor.

I suspect this issue is a bug with macOS, but I cannot formally rule out a 3rd party extension (I do have some running) as the cause. You are welcome to boot in safe mode and test in a new user account if you like, or not.

Given that you see it, and multiple other folks see it w/r/t Spaces (vs. monitors), and that support confirmed the behavior to me on the phone ("Yeah, that's weird," basically), I don't think I need to waste my time with a safe mode boot or a new user account to "confirm" that the behavior is present in Golden Gate itself and is not the result of plug-ins or other apps or environmental factors within a user account.

I suppose it's POSSIBLE they broke this deliberately, but it's far more likely that it's a bug. I just hope they don't ignore it.

"To he honest, I have not tried those steps myself for this issue "

But you also said:

"Personally, I CAN replicate the issue you see on my Mac running Golden Gate, where with app grouping on in Spaces, trying to drag a group by the app icon just drags the top window and not the whole group. "

So yeah, you did dupe it. And, not to put too fine a point on it, so did the support tech I spoke to.

Group by app is key for any kind of meaningful window management, so I definitely won't be disabling it.

I don't use full screen apps ever, so that part's not relevant to me.

To he honest, I have not tried those steps myself for this issue so I posted them since I can't rule out a 3rd party extension causing the issue (as it's been shown to cause other issues). Personally, I keep the Mission Control setting to Group windows by application OFF, so the issue does not impact me during daily use. Likewise, I almost never use apps in full screen, which is another common complaint about Mission Control.

chet134 wrote:

I suppose it's POSSIBLE they broke this deliberately, but it's far more likely that it's a bug. I just hope they don't ignore it.

I suspect it's not intentional, that would seem counter to the whole idea of grouping windows from an application. However, the priority of this issue relative to others is unknown. Might not be fixed in the first point update, but probably at some point.

Given that you duplicated the behavior yourself, it sure seems like the first several paragraphs of boilerplate there are kinda out of place. ;)