Cannot place icons on left of screen after upgrading to Tahoe

Question

Cannot place icons on left of screen after upgrading to Tahoe

I have a number of folders I like to keep down the left hand side of my screen for easy access. Now the icons will not go to the left of the screen anymore. (See image below.)

I have used Command-J to pull up the Desktop preferences and experimented with various Sort By, Icon Size, and Grid Spacing combinations. Nothing works; icons refuse to go to the left, so I am left with these folders out in the middle of the screen where they are behind windows and harder to access.

Icon spacing seemed to be messed up in general on the Finder screen immediately after updating, but I finally was able to get the ones I keep on the right positioned correctly, after a great deal of tinkering. (This is on an Apple Display monitor.)

Any suggestions? I have reported this to Apple on the Feedback page.

[Edited by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 26.0

Posted on Sep 20, 2025 10:35 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Donnie Ashworth Author

Level 3

916 points

Sep 23, 2025 7:44 AM in response to Donnie Ashworth

Solved!

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. (Thanks to drmoss over at TidBITS discussions for this tip?)

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

135,971 points

Sep 20, 2025 10:39 AM in response to Donnie Ashworth

Yours is only the second post with the issue.

See: Cannot place folders on left hand side of… - Apple Community

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Answer 3

Sep 20, 2025 1:07 PM in response to Donnie Ashworth

Donnie Ashworth wrote:

Thanks for the link. So it's got something to do with Stage Manager. That makes sense I have SM turned off, and no help, but at least I know now where the problem lies.

To be proactive you can file a bug report / submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple

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Answer 4

Sep 20, 2025 12:53 PM in response to dialabrain

Thanks for the link. So it's got something to do with Stage Manager. That makes sense I have SM turned off, and no help, but at least I know now where the problem lies.

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Answer 5

pstKSU

Level 1

37 points

Sep 22, 2025 7:26 AM in response to Donnie Ashworth

I have the same exact issue!

(2020 intel iMac, stage manager is off)

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