Q: iMac sometimes ignores left click

Hi again,

I understand that everyone is happy with their mouse clicks since they are all silent..

I did the fresh install. If anyone interested I can give details here about where I am so far.

cheers.

Looks like Spotify is another app on the list of apps that can eat left clicks. Checked console and there it was:

12/9/11 5:12:37.442 PM Spotify: Media key event tap was disabled by timeout

Closed it and it fixed the problem. A little annoying, though...

So it's very obvious that certain programs can cause this clicking problem

Hi everyone,

I use fresh lion OS X Lion 10.7.2

I have same problem with dead clicks

i try it with 3 different mouse still same problem

Shutting down Spotify did it for me!!!

Thanks a lot!!! I was about ready to through my Air out the window :-/

Another vote for Spotify being the culprit. After a bit of testing, it seems that Spotify only exhibits the click-eating behaviour if it starts up when you log in to your computer. If you launch Spotify afterwards (or quit and relaunch if it launched at login), the click problem disappears.

Same issue here, Spotify is not and has never been installed. Nor has mplayer or VLC. I have Boot Camp and VMware installed, might be either of them I guess. However, "kext | grep -v com.apple" suggests I have no third-party kernel extensions installed. So I think this might be an OS bug.

Hi Guys,

A few days ago i upgraded to mountain lion. Now my problem is solved. I could reproduce the bug by opening some apps, but that is now totally gone in ML.

Just wanted to share this info.

I first upgraded to Lion to see if that would fix the problem and it didn't, so I went back to Snow Leopard. About a month ago, I replaced my HDD with an SDD, replaced tue optical drive with an optibay and placed my old HDD in it. I upgraded to Lion again and the left click issue is completely gone. I can no longer reproduce the error whatsoever.

I hope this helps.

Success with hardware re-configuration!

Was having the issue via Mighty mouse and trackpad.

Switched on the Logitech MXAir (that was talking to its USB dongle attached to the keyboard) and after left-clicking with the Air, the Mighty mouse and trackpad regained their functionality!

Simply turning the MXAir off again instantly reinstated the problem for both Apple devices.  Only after removing the wireless adapter did the problem go way.

Hope this helps anyone with that kind of setup.  I like to use that keyboard as a shared means of input between an aging W7 machine and a MBP running Lion using the same LCD.

I'd never cycled the power on the MXAir with the Mighty attached before; but it (the Air mouse) has been plugged into my keyboard for many months.

Final thought: It was quite fun reading through these comments and trying some of the other solutions

sans rebooting without the ability to left-click.

With a lot of different mouse issues out there, it's been hard to find a thread about this specific problem....I'm really happy to learn I'm not alone. I've been plagued by this problem before, and I'm so incredibly happy to report that it's back.  For the record:

1. 8-Core Mac Pro (5,1), running 10.6.8.
2. Problem has cropped up on both SL and Lion. (I didn't have Mountain Lion installed long enough to find out if it would pop up there.)
3. Has occurred with third-party wired and wireless (usb and bluetooth) mice, a trackpad, a magic mouse, and even an old, wired mighty mouse.  Does not matter if I'm connected through a usb hub or directly to the mac.
4. Have ruled out interference from bluetooth, vlc and other apps, along with most 3rd party kernel extensions, background processes, agents, daemons, etc.
5. A reinstall stopped the problem for about 4 months.
6. It doesn't seem to be tied to a program, but I've noticed it most in Safari.
7. Initially I noticed it mostly with the x button to close a window, and I finally just mapped a function key + left click to send a ⌘W...which further proved to me that it wasn't a hardware issue.
8. Now I notice it mostly with html checkboxes and drop downs, dragging files in Finder, clicking buttons to dismiss alerts, and when grabbing object handles in Photoshop, InDesign, PowerPoint, etc.  Some places left-click always seems to work: selecting text or a group of objects, bringing a window into focus, and waking the computer from sleep/screensaver. In other words, any time there is no defined clickable region, other than the window. Come to think of it, I've never seen the problem inside an X11 Window either, that I can remember.
9. I'm not sure if it's related to a less frequent problem I've seen where a single click will start resulting in a double-click (until I reboot), and an even much more rare problem where everything goes a bit nuts and the keyboard starts sending repeated spaces, or every click becomes a right-click.
10. It usually starts a couple hours after boot, but watching open processes (via top), services (via launchctl), extensions (kextstat), filesystem activity (fs_usage, opensnoop) network activity (you name it), hardware sensors, magic 8 balls, ouija boards....nothing offers any clues.

It's insane how much time and money I've invested in a computer that can't reliably recognize a mouse click. It's insane that instead of working, I'm doing things like watching the Accessibility Inspector for clues and learning about the I/O Kit Registry. And it's insane to think that Apple has apparently solved the issue (since I didn't notice any complaints about Mountain Lion), because releasing a new OS is not the same thing as fixing the problem. I'm not upgrading...Apple keeps killing off features in the name of "usability" and ditching industry standards in favor of proprietary technologies (and then ditching those for newer ones), and ignoring the problems created by their updates for anyone who chooses not to follow their release schedule.  And they do this all without consulting their OS X user base, because they apparently assume since iOS sells so well, people must want to have a giant iPhone on their desk instead of a computer...and you know what?  I'll take it, fine, whatever....as long as YOU GIVE ME BACK THE ABILITY TO INTERACT WITH THE **** MACHINE SO I CAN GET BACK TO WORK.

This problem's already cost one poor Logitech mouse its life from a sudden, unexpected acceleration...across the room. When's Sarah Mclachlan going to write a song about that?

My brand new MacBookPro Retina model did the "right-click ignore" thing for the first time. Mountain Lion OS, Logitech MX 1100 Wireless Laser Mouse, and relatively little system customization. This is a new machine that I'm gradually bringing up to speed and am only this morning putting "into production" as a primary computer.

Same problem I reported earlier and was never able to resolve on the iMac 27"--leftt-click stops responding and cannot be remedied without a restart. When it manifests, the computer ignores the left-click of all mice/trackpads "attached" to the computer, and any mouse/trackpad added to the system when the problem is extant has the same problem.

Log into the MBPr via Timbuktu from another computer on the network and the computer accepts the left-click input from that machine. It seems like there's a problem with the computer's internal wiring when the problem occurs--no amount of plug/unplug on/off with the pointing devices will reset the left-click behavior, but coming in via remote control shows that the left-click event is recognized by the OS. It's incredibly frustrating, and I'd still love to find an answer that won't require me to give up my MX 1100 mouse.

That said, the MBPr is my first experience with the magic trackpad and I like it thus far. If that device doesn't show up as a problem in these threads, I may have to give it some serious consideration as an MX 1100 alternative.

Argh, also have this problem (I think, I've recorded a clip of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W5huQ1X7cA)

I've had this problem for a while, updated to 10.7.5 and it doesn't happen AS much, but I can still reproduce the problem. I've been following this thread and can't seem to fix it. I've uninstalled Spotify.

I'm on 10.7.5 and really hope this gets fixed. It slows down workflow and is just annoying. Thanks!

I have mountain lion and I also had this problem and I solved it in this way:

1. go to system preferences

2. open accessibility

3. click mouse & trackpad

4. set double speed on fast

I`m using trackpad and apple magic mouse and I don`t have this problem anymore.

Hey thanks for the tip.

I've changed it and I think it's working. Did you set the double click speed to the fastest?

Thanks!!!