MacBook Pro M4 experiencing multiple issues with macOS 27.0.1

Sorry, but who do you hope this helps? Note that this is Apple Support Communities, not Apple Support. “We” are users like you and have no power to implement any suggestions. Apple employees are generally precluded from even reading these forums, with the exception of moderators who only monitor for compliance with the T&C.

Bugs can be reported to Apple here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Regarding your issues, I have a similar Mac (16" M4 Pro MBP, 48 GB memory, 2 TB storage) and have not had major issues other than known bugs with Mission Control (which really don't impact my workflow). Windows never become full screen when I drag them, everything syncs via iCloud, and the Menu Bar (set to never auto-hide) never disappears.

Since you do not see those issues on your MBA and I do not see them on my similar MBP, that strongly suggests there is an issue with your Mac, and waiting for an update to fix specific issues with your Mac due to a 3rd party utility or extension conflict is not a good plan.

See if the problems are present when you boot in safe mode. That process performs some system cleanup and clears caches, and also disables 3rd party extensions that may cause problems.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

If that does not correct the issues, 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.

If you have 3rd party ‘protection’ software installed, that may be the problem. That includes:

• Cleaners (software claiming to automatically free up space)
• Optimizers (software claiming to make your Mac run faster)
• Antivirus software
• VPN software (unless provided by a school/employer to enable access to internal resources from a remote location)

Such 3rd party system ‘helpers’, ‘cleaners’ and ‘protectors’ do more harm than good. In fact, such products are completely unnecessary for macOS and the only ‘good’ (if you want to call it that) they do is to put money in the developers’ pockets. Cleaners and protectors cause compatibility issues, often after macOS updates. Commercial VPNs claim to hide your browsing activity from websites, and while that may be true those VPN providers just sell your browsing data to others. For the user, all of these types of software offer only harm…and if that is limited to harm to your bank account, then count yourself lucky. If you have installed such software, follow the developer’s instructions to completely uninstall it (note that some developers fail to provide instructions and their software installs can be pervasive, meaning the only way to truly remove it is to erase your Mac, reinstall macOS then restore your user files from a backup).

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. 

Alfonso wrote:

My MBPro M4 is mostly running Apple apps (Pages, Keynote, Final Cut etc.) and Firefox, GoogleChrome, ChatGPT and Claude. I am going to create a partition and try again adding one app at the time.

Don't create a new partition. Instead create a new APFS volume.

Add, delete, or erase APFS volumes in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

Make sure that you have at least 200GB of Free storage space because after the 2nd installation of macOS you need to make sure you still have 100GB+ of Free storage space for the normal operation of macOS since even that amount of storage can sometimes disappear with seemingly light & simple tasks.

Ignore the very misleading "Available" storage space value shown every where in macOS since it is not synonymous with Free. The only important & reliable storage value is the Free storage space value which is only shown correctly in Disk Utility.

Alfonso wrote:

It is an excellent reminder.

Just one question, if both OSs share the same partition, will the recovery tools be overwritten by the latest OS?

From what I have seen with the Apple Silicon Macs......if you boot to another OS on a different APFS volume as I suggested, the system will actually reboot two times in order to first load low level system elements unique to that OS. Even the Apple Diagnostics are different depending on which OS is currently booted (easy to see when comparing macOS 26+ and any older version of macOS installed beside it as Tahoe introduced a different style diagnostic interface).

FYI, a new partition is very risky as it modifies the drive layout in a significant way which requires resizing the current Container which may involve rearranging existing items to allow the shrinking of the existing Container (aka partition). A new APFS volume created within the same Container will act like a partition, but share the storage pool without requiring any dangerous re-sizing.

I should note though that I have sometimes encountered an issue where the other OS may no longer boot if the default Startup Disk is changed. From what I've observed, there is a macOS or firmware bug where if the other non-booted OS has a pending OS update patch, that it may not be able to boot it without reinstalling macOS on that volume. I've never tried just using Startup Options to switch to the other OS.....that may not encounter the issue. This has nothing to do with multiple operating systems sharing an APFS Container.

My MBPro M4 is mostly running Apple apps (Pages, Keynote, Final Cut etc.) and Firefox, GoogleChrome, ChatGPT and Claude. I am going to create a partition and try again adding one app at the time.

As for Apple Support not watching, I was recently contacted by the iWorks team at Apple asking for clarification on another issue I posted here.

Regards

It is an excellent reminder.

Just one question, if both OSs share the same partition, will the recovery tools be overwritten by the latest OS?