Area of my screen (MBP 16", Tahoe 26.1) has become a "tabu" zone

Question

Level 1

0 points

Area of my screen (MBP 16", Tahoe 26.1) has become a "tabu" zone

The red overlayed area is not allowing any icons/files to be placed onto. Snap to grid is active. iCloud desktop sync is deactivated. If I try to move an icon there, it snaps to the remaining (non-red) areas. Saving files to desktop from within apps also seems to be not allowed to place files into this area, so they are placed elsewhere. Snap to grid works everywhere else just not in the red area. The finder keeps it free for some reason.

If it makes a difference, I had placed widgets there before but removed them. Maybe Finder is still thinking there are widgets there even when there are not?

Any help would be appreciated.

MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Dec 10, 2025 11:44 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

neuroanatomist

Level 9

55,779 points

Dec 10, 2025 11:50 AM in response to schnuck

Probably there are still widgets there, but they've been hidden by unchecking the boxes to show them in System Settings (unchecking the Show Widgets boxes hides them, it does not delete them).

Secondary click (control-click, right-click) on the desktop and select Edit Widgets. If they show up, click the (–) button in the upper right corner of each of them to delete it.

If Edit Widgets does not show any widgets, post back.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 10, 2025 1:35 PM in response to schnuck

schnuck wrote:

Is this normal? Should placing a widget even remotely have an effect on the icons below (which are blurred out while in placement mode)? I assumed these are both on the desktop screen estate but on completely different layers. Why would the icons move away to make space for the widget?

Glad you got it sorted. Yes, that's 'normal' – widgets preclude overlapping (underlapping?) items on the desktop, even if the widgets are not visible.

I presume the reason is that with some settings the widgets are visible only sometimes, and it wouldn't be good UI behavior to have them cover files/folders on the desktop when they appear.

For example, with Show Desktop set to Always on wallpaper click and show widgets on desktop off, the widgets don't normally show up but if I click on the wallpaper all the open app windows move aside to reveal the desktop and the files on it, and the widgets then show up.

Reply

Answer 3

schnuck Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2025 12:54 PM in response to neuroanatomist

I've done what you've explained. There are no widgets showing up.

In the meantime, I had done 1 more test. I tried adding a medium size widget. And while I'm moving the widget around the screen to place it somewhere, I've noticed that all the remaining icons on the top right (like on the screenshot) move around to make space for the widget. Is this normal? Should placing a widget even remotely have an effect on the icons below (which are blurred out while in placement mode)? I assumed these are both on the desktop screen estate but on completely different layers. Why would the icons move away to make space for the widget?

Reply

Answer 4

schnuck Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2025 1:21 PM in response to schnuck

It's now fixed. I've followed the steps you mentioned again. Some things were called differently but essentially I was able to remove the widgets. This time for real, not just from view. It still feels a bit of a bug though.

Reply

Answer 5

schnuck Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 11, 2025 12:34 PM in response to neuroanatomist

Thanks for the explanation. Looking at it this way, it makes sense.

Can this be marked as 'solved'?

Thanks again for your help!

Reply

Answer 6

Dec 11, 2025 12:39 PM in response to schnuck

Glad to help. There's no longer the forum capability to mark a question 'solved' (that went away some years ago), just up/down (helpful/unhelpful) votes.

Reply