macOS Tahoe Finder Bug: “Liquid Glass” Design Breaks Columns View Resizing

Apple’s design overhauls don’t always land smoothly—and macOS Tahoe is a perfect example. While investigating a separate Safari issue, a frustrating Finder bug surfaced—one that directly impacts users who rely on the classic Columns view.

The culprit? Apple’s new “Liquid Glass” interface redesign, which looks modern but introduces some very real usability problems.

The Problem: Scrollbars Blocking Column Resizing

In Finder, users can switch between four main view modes:

• Icons
• List
• Columns
• Gallery

For long-time Mac users, Columns view has always been a favorite, offering a fast and structured way to navigate files—dating back to classic Mac OS X days.

But in macOS Tahoe, something is clearly broken.

👉 The issue:
The horizontal scrollbar now overlaps the column resizing handles, making them impossible to click.

This means:

• You can’t resize columns normally
• The UI physically blocks interaction
• A core Finder feature becomes frustrating—or unusable

How It Worked Before (macOS Sequoia)

In macOS Sequoia, the layout behaved as expected:

• Scrollbars sat below the columns
• Resizing widgets remained fully accessible
• No overlap, no interference

The difference is subtle visually—but huge in usability.

The “Liquid Glass” Design Problem

The new UI design in macOS Tahoe emphasizes:

• Floating toolbars
• Transparent layers
• Rounded, glass-like elements

While visually appealing, this redesign introduces layout conflicts—especially in dense interfaces like Finder.

The scrollbar overlap is a direct result of:

• Poor layering decisions
• Inconsistent spacing logic
• Lack of real-world usability testing

It Gets Worse: Scrollbars Settings Make It Inconsistent

The bug becomes even more confusing depending on your system settings.

In System Settings → Appearance, macOS lets you choose how scrollbars behave:

• Automatically (default)
• When scrolling
• Always

What happens in Tahoe:

• Scrollbars enabled:
  → They block the resizing handles
• Scrollbars hidden (default behavior):
  → Resizing handles disappear entirely

Yes—either way, something breaks.

Workaround: How to Resize Columns Anyway

Even though the UI is broken, there is a hidden workaround:

👉 Hover your mouse over the column separator line (not the handle)
👉 Click and drag to resize

This still works—but:

• It’s not intuitive
• There’s no visual cue
• Most users won’t discover it

A Testing Oversight?

This bug raises a bigger question:
Was this even tested properly?

Because:

• Columns view is a long-standing Finder feature
• Always-visible scrollbars are a common preference
• The issue is immediately noticeable

It suggests either:

• The combination wasn’t tested
• Or it was deprioritized in favor of design aesthetics

Neither is a great look.

Why This Matters

This isn’t just a minor visual glitch—it impacts:

• Productivity (harder file navigation)
• Usability (broken interaction zones)
• Consistency (UI behaves unpredictably)

For power users who rely on Finder daily, this kind of regression is hard to ignore.

Conclusion

The Finder bug in macOS Tahoe highlights a recurring issue in modern UI design: prioritizing aesthetics over functionality.

Apple’s “Liquid Glass” redesign may look sleek, but when it interferes with core interactions like resizing columns, it becomes a problem—not a feature.

Until Apple fixes this, users will have to rely on workarounds or adjust their workflow. Let’s just hope this gets addressed quickly in an upcoming update.