spotlight and "APPS" app not working on Mac OS 26

The Apps app is part of macOS. If it won’t launch, likely you need to reinstall macOS.

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

yusufkd wrote:

yes i did

Apple makes it easy to reinstall macOS

Recovery (both M1/M2/M3/M4 and Intel) — How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

then compare your results

yusufkd wrote:

After a random reboot of my macbook air m3 the "APPS" app and spotlight no longer launches it dosest allow me to open the app draw or use the spotlight shortcut i need help urgently i tried all the troubleshoots and none seem to work i cant even launch spotlight from terminal

please assists me as this is very frustrating

Did you shut down and restart your Mac... and compare your results

>Shut Down

i did a random reboot as well of my macbook pro m2, then suddenly spotlight and apps wont work

i have already tried everything

• cmd restarts/rebuilds of index
• macos tahoe reinstall
• force quitting the spotlight/ui
• booted to safe mode

the only thing left i havent tried is a fresh install of macos

tried using raycast as an alternative solution as of the moment, it works perfectly. this means the spotlight indexing and search functions still work, the spotlight ui just doesnt show up.

good to hear im not the only one experiencing this.

Do this!

sudo rm -rf /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/

sudo reboot

Have you tried rebooting again?

Do you see Apps in the Applications folder? You double click on the app in the folder, what happens?

There are other complaints showing up about Tahoe's Spotlight and the substitution of the Apps app for Launchpad. the Apps app is simply too cluttered and worse, "unclutterable."

However, Apple won't see complaints here. The only way Apple will know we are concenred with this reduction of functionality is to use this feedback link:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

worked! thank you!