Can't resize the Xcode navigator pane in Big Sur

same issue here, what a bugly xcode,I am very curious as to why there is such a bug

I came here looking for an answer to why the navigation and inspector pane behavior changed, and how I could change it back.

Besides the difficulty in resizing the panes, you may notice that all window tabs now share the same state and size of the navigation and inspector panes. That is, if you close a pane, and switch to another window tab, that pane will remain closed. If you open it, and switch back, the pane is now open in the first tab also. The same goes for the size of the pane. If you can't resize it, switching to another tab sometimes lets you resize it. That new size will stick when switching back to the first tab.

You may also note the contents and expansion state of the panes are still independent of the window tab you are on, which makes this change even more puzzling.

I find this new behavior very annoying, and counterproductive. I have different panes open on different tabs for a reason. For example, window tabs with storyboard or nib files do not show the navigation pane, but do show the inspectors, while tabs with code files are the opposite.

The only workaround I have found is to use a separate window altogether for my IB work. I do know the keyboard shortcuts for hiding/showing the panes, but even having to do that is a pain (painful pun intended).

I have the same issue....it won't expand past a certain width which is ok for like 1-2 levels deep.

I had the same issue, seems to be a bug. By trial and error, clicking on the Xcode toolbar seemed to restore the functionality for me.

Succeeded to restore the resizing functionality by opening new tab..

Most annoying bug of XCode 12 so far. Please fix this in XCode 12.5 😅

Me too. I had the same trouble. As janhalousek suggested, I deleted the current tab and now I can properly resize the Project Navigator. I hope this trouble will not occur again.

Someone mentioned a working solution, but not so clearly as here:

1. Right-click (or control-click) on any file

2. Select Open in New Window

3. And ta-da! You can now resize the project navigator freely!

Here is my solution.

Basically it was related to a Debugger tab window so when I changed my running behavior to open a new window instead of a window tab I have not had this issue anymore.

EugeneL solution worked fine but this is just an annoying workaround but a workaround nonetheless. The last version was the most annoying one... before that one, it was the previous to that one too, and so on and on... now, this is the most of all, 12.4. I doubt that this will be fixed in another 20 years.

Issue is still there, with Xcode 12.4 and macOS 11.3. It's *Very* annoying.

But what is even more annoying, is the behaviour of the Filter of the Project panel. Our project is really big, has many files, all ordered in groups. And to find a file/class, I often use the Filter option (basically there is no other find option).

With the new Xcode, I have two issue with this:

1. Often the Navigator panel suddenly can't resize anymore. Even though just seconds before, it would resize fine.

2. If I do a Filter, then select my file, and then clear the filter, the previous state of the panel is restored, and my file selection is undone, bringing me back to square one.

Previously, if I would select a file or a folder, with the panel filtered, and then remove the filter, my file selection would be kept, and all of it's 'superfolders' would be disclosed as well.

So, previously, I could filter for a file that I know was part of a Group with more files. Then select the file. Remove the filter. And then get to see all the other files belonging to the group/folder of the file I selected. Extremely useful when you have a big project and keep files that belong together, together in one group.

This one change, has significantly impacted my effectiveness in debugging. Because now suddenly, I basically can't search for files in the Navigation panel anymore and have to avert my attention to browsing through the navigation panel to get to the files I want to inspect.

Recent Apple doesn't fix very inconvenient bugs like this for a long time. It's very very irritated. 😡

Did you all file a bug report ? It seems to be worth it.

As EugeneL mentioned, my solution was to open a file in a new window. However, someone else discovered that opening a new tab works even better. There's an assortment of other solutions here.

Xcode 12 - Project Navigator width is stuck/locked, cant resize