Q: Trackpad and magic mouse gestures stopped working - OS X Yosemite
I have a 13 inch MacBook Pro (early 2011) and currently running Yosemite 10.10.5.
I updated to Yosemite on release day and everything has been working fine under last night. I noticed that all my multi-finger gestures on my Magic Mouse were not working all of a sudden. I first picked up the problem while trying to switch between desktop screens using the two-finger left / right swipe. I then noticed that the two-finger tap to access Mission Control also wasn't working. Very quickly I discovered that none of the gestures were working, and the only thing I could do with my Magic Mouse was left and right tap, and one finger scrolling.
I thought the problem was isolated to my Magic Mouse or Bluetooth, but the gestures available to me on the built in trackpad also don't work. My Launchpad button on Dock was also disabled, as were the Launchpad and Mission Control buttons on my keyboard.
What wasn't working
- All multi finger gestures (even two-finger gestures) on Magic Mouse
- All multi finger gestures on built in trackpad
- Launchpad button on Dock disabled
- Launchpad and Mission control buttons on keyboard didn't respond
I've tried the following fixes recommended from other users and forums:
1. Reboot Mac -
2. Reset Dock (terminal command killall Dock and via Activity Monitor) - Fixed the Launchpad and Mission Control problem
3. Reset PRAM (Option + CMD + P + R at startup) - didn't work
4. Closing the lid / placing MacBook Pro on Sleep mode for 5 - 10 seconds - didn't work
Only peculiar thing I noticed after the initial restart was that when I tried to switch desktop screens using the two-finger left/right swipe gesture on the mouse or 3-finger on trackpad, it would appear to activate the feature, but freeze as soon as the screen started to slide across to the desktop from the right. It would then move an inch or so across again after a few minutes. I haven't had the patience to wait to see if it would actually complete the slide to the new desktop.
I don't run a lot of third party apps, just mainly cloud storage apps, Adobe CS5, Office 2011, Xampp. And I also didn't install any new apps just before the problem started occuring. Everything has been working fine on my Mac until this issue. In the meantime I have resorted to using keyboard shortcuts.
I hope someone has a recommendation that I haven't yet tried or found online. Thanks!
Phil
Posted on Sep 20, 2015 1:40 AM