Apple’s Stage manager is a hot mess!

I agree with you, I tried to use it but I don’t like it how it does management, when I open multiple apps, it gets hidden inside more clicks are needed, more time complexity not efficient in terms of computer science.

I work as a software engineer. So I have tons of windows and other applications opened all the time on my large ultrawide. I turned on stage manager, and turned it off a week later.

It's bad. Really, really bad.

I found it really buggy on the public release of Ventura. Sharing a window on Google Meets while Stage Manager is turned on makes any window you're sharing really glitchy. Using other spaces with stage manager doesn't seem to let you bring up the thumbnails by just moving your mouse to the edge like it does on the first space.

Overall, I only like Stage Manager in combination with a window manager like Rectangle to really optimize how you organize windows (without always needing your mouse). If you like the aesthetic of using gaps between your tiled windows it keeps other apps that might otherwise end up underneath the apps you're using in their own area but then....you may as well use spaces...

But for all of the purely aesthetic benefits, I'm beginning to see a trend with apple and with stage manager specifically where they disregard how the user actually works to cater to the "iPad as my main computer" crowd.

Great video and appreciate the honesty!

Amen!

Hi, I'm from Germany and today I tried the new Featuer. After one day of use, I have deactivated Stage Manager again. Very frustrating and poorly implemented.

I just downloaded this today, and I REALLY wanted to like it, because that is the direction they are going with the iPad. I'm still trying to get used to it on the iPad, but it's worse on the Mac! So many steps to get the simplest things done! You have to micromanage everything!!

Ventura is out now and I think I don't need the stage manager when I already have mission control that works very well. What I want is the ability to be able to snap the windows to the left and right to do the split screen instead of going full screen. I just want the windows to act like those on Windows. I know there's software for that but I wish there was a default one. Anyway, I'm already used to using three fingers swiping up, so it's not a big deal.

Edit: I really like the windows animation when using the stage manager. I'll keep it on for the sake of the look. I think I'll give it a try for a week and see if my workflow is better or not.

it is even worse on iPad. Stage Manager gets in the way of getting things done because it is so finicky. I end up spending more time figuring out how to organise and navigate through windows instead of getting to the task at hand.

Wow, that's a lot of whining over something you could just turn off if you don't like it.

Stage manager is a mess

This is the ONLY good video about Stage Manager.
All others are like "yeah, you do it like this and uh... it's fine... we'll see."

currently it looks like a half assed feature done over the weekend

This manager makes is super complex to navigate your desktop. its a messy written thing which distracts you from actually working on something. Spaces are fine, but this is just another hassle in the way of productivity. The app launcher bar anyone? combine that with the dock, and spaces and stage manger and usual windows. and several spaces inside stage manger by space! This is super unnecessary. Also minimized windows are not in a stage manager but by spaces? Also having several monitors you run into the problem that they have several spaces, lets combine everything also with universal control and several other devices...... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARHRGHHGHAHGWJHAGJFSHJGASFJGASJKF!

I tried it as well and yes the same issues you pointed out were happening to me, super frustrating and an incredible waste of time. I thought this would help my workflow but its the opposite.

its even shittier on ipad

Me personally, I would like it if you could have stage manager enabled for specific desktops, I usually have my messaging and emails on one window and the stage manager works super well there. But in quite a few cases, I'd like it to be disabled. It also gets kinda wacky when you have your mac connected to external monitors with seperate spaces, and when you disconnect them.

All those animations get so repetitive. It looks like it would slow down a power user’s s workflow.

My thoughts exactly. I would add that they should’ve (somehow) found a way to better integrate the Dock into this. Maybe a more refined and powerful way than what Windows does? (I'm referring to the preview windows integrated into app icons in the Taskbar, which seems like a good start). Anyway, I think I know a thing or two about usability (because of previous work) and I saw day one (on the WWDC keynote) that this was a bad move. I then learned that this was a feature developed many many years ago that was never green lighted, so it would seem that Apple is scratching the bottom of the barrel to come up with new features for their yearly releases. No need to do that, really. macOS is, for as long I can remember, the best UI and most refined/powerful OS out there. Thanks for the analysis!

Are there any signs of Ventura letting us add a floating window or pinning a window on top of others even if it is not active?

What you mentioned are things that might, and probably will, be fixed in future updates. The main benefit of stage manager is that you can see a preview of the open windows all the time. Before, you have to hover through the app icons to find what you've opened - which isn't that intuitive, or go in mission control mode - which is an extra step. In addition, here you can group windows together, which means that you can minimise them, and access them at the same time rather than by selecting them one-by-one as before. Imo this is perfect for working with multiple windows.