Cannot place folders on left hand side of desktop

I don't use Stage Manager, but it seems to reserve that area for it's own use:

If you don't want to use Stage Manager, turn it off in System Settings > Desktop & Dock:

preview_sadness, just found the cause!

As leroydougles hinted in his response, this problem is Widget-related.

I don’t normally use widgets, but have a few I’d enabled in the past when I was experimenting with them and forgot they were there. When I went into settings and enabled Show Widgets On Desktop, the Widgets that came up filled precisely the space that is immune to icons.

Deleting those widgets gave me that area of the Desktop back. I don’t mind deleting them, as I rarely use them, and I sure am glad to have things back to normal. If you do use widgets, however, you may have to make a choice.

I’m supposing Apple did this because having widgets showing over the top of icons with the new Liquid Glass UI might be a problem. Hope this helps!

Donnie Ashworth wrote:

When I went into settings and enabled Show Widgets On Desktop, the Widgets that came up filled precisely the space that is immune to icons.

Well spotted! Fun trick – with Show Widgets on Desktop enabled, secondary-click on the Desktop, select Edit Widgets, pick any widget and drag it onto your desktop then move that widget around in an area of the desktop where you have some folders/files/etc. You'll see the folders/files dynamically 'shoved' out of the way by the moving widget.

Unchecked Stage Manager...whatever that is....no change. Then I opened the widget 'bank' on the desktop and physically deleted every widget. That did the trick for me on my Apple MacBook.

preview_sadness wrote:

After updating to Tahoe 26.0, I cannot place folder icons in a certain region of my desktop.

[Edited by Moderator]

Did you try turning off all those left side options— Stage Manger/ Widgets/ etc...(?) and compare your results

Open a new Desktop and compare if necessary(?)

I do not have the issue—

I have the same issue and this is how I solved it. 

Go to your Desktop & Dock, under Show Widgets > enable “On Desktop”. You should see all the 6 Widgets on the top left hand corner of your desktop, delete the Widgets by holding down the “Control” key and click on the “Remove Widget”. You should be able to place your folder after that.

I do not have that issue. Have you tried restarting your Mac?

See if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode, which disables 3rd party extensions and performs some system cleanup.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

To get rid of the Stage manager, click up on the top right hand corner, where the date is and I got a message that said that my widgets have been moved and if I like them there I said no move back to original place and that freed up that square on the left side of my desktop to put folders in.

Did you try Safe Mode?

preview_sadness wrote:

Huh. I changed my settings to exactly match yours, restarted my computer, and still have the issues. Am I missing something?

Have you shut down and restarted the Mac to compare your results...

>Shut Down

I also have this issue and made a post about it earlier today. I also have made sure everything that could evoke Stage Manager is turned off (precisely same settings as pictured above) and have tried force-quitting the Finder and restarting the Mac. I've also twiddled with Desktop preferences (Icon size, Sort by, Grid spacing). Nothing makes any difference.

This is really irritating; I'm used to having certain folders placed in certain locations along the left side for easy reference. This has always worked fine until the Tahoe upgrade. I'm hoping it's a sporadic bug they'll fix.

Not to beat a dead horse but works for me as well.