Left Mouse Click Stopped Working

No! Don't delete this, it's useful. 😉 I have had this issue all day until reading your post I had no idea of what the problem was. I have a BT mouse that I keep in my bag and I usually have it off, but I just found it on. Finally turned it off and haven't had the issue again. Thanks for reporting your fix.

I have exactly the same issue, but don't have a bluetooth mouse that could be affecting it. I've even turned Bluetooth off on the laptop and that didn't help. Any ideas?

Same problem on my G5 Quad running OSX 10.4.11 (NOT LEOPARD); left mouse click (might mouse BT) just stops working; plugging in an old Microsoft USB Intellemouse exhibits the same problem: no left click, even if I turn my MM off.

Changes recently: Aug 1: security update 2008-005 (PowerPC)
iTunes 7.7.1

Aug 22: MS Office 12.1.2 update

I had one other weird occurance while running the udpated MS Word, which may be related:

all off a sudden, the windows went "wild" as if something was continually clicking all over the place; I managed to get the system to reboot and all was fine.

Any common threads with other users with a similar issue?

Eddie O

It happened again. This time I made it go away without rebooting: I unplugged my USB Hub (Belkin 7 port hub, the silver one). I think it may be the Shuttle Express (used for FCP editing) which is plugged into the hub: it has buttons around the rim, and one may have gotten stuck down. Hmmmmm.

Eddie O

I am having this problem intermittently too. Suddenly, for no reason I can figure, my left click stops working. Right click contextual still works but not the left. The cursor moves about. Nothing will accept clicks though. I have to log out and in to regain clickability.

I am having the same problem on an iMac 10.4. About every 5 minutes the left click sticks, then esc out and left click won't work...only right click. Restart, works for another 5 minutes...same thing. Any Ideas???

same problem here with the new MacBook and Mac OS X (10.5.6).

this problem makes it basically impossible to use the computer ...

what are my options here? return it to the shop? have it repared? while these forums are a useful way to find out that I'm not alone, I'd like to know what the official ways are to get this fixed. I've switched from Windows (ahem), and am now slightly bemused to find this kind of problem on a Mac.

the problem suddenly appeared a couple of weeks ago, possibly after some software updates. for information, I just updated the system again (there was an SMC update available), and it works for maybe 10 minutes, or longer if not used, and then for some inexplicable reason doesn't accept left clicks any more (touchpad or USB-connected Logitech bluetooth mouse).

I checked the login items, just in case that there are rogue programs that may be the cause of the trouble, but it's only the itunes helper and the google mail notifier.

what other information may be useful to analyse and resolve this problem?

thanks in advance,
Jakob.

For what it is worth I was having this same problem. Very irritating. My left mouse button would suddenly appear to be stuck in the down position trapping the "drag" action over a specific window ... The type of window would not matter. Once it happened in a Terminal window, once in a Safari window.

I could still use the right mouse button and if I moved the mouse pointer in the Terminal or Safari app where the "drag" action was focused, it would highlight and un-highlight text as if I were in that window doing that actual task. The problem is that because the button was logically stuck in the "down" position, there was no way for my focus to change to another window. sigh

In my situation, the root cause appears to be another blue tooth device in my house. One room away, I had left my old mighty mouse in my laptop bag, it had turned on and had low batteries. The combination of this mouse joining with low batteries + it may have been pushed up against the side of the bag ... possibly pushing the left button ... seems to be the culprit.

So, my solution appears to be:

1. check for any other blue tooth mice and turn them off.
2. try disabling bluetooth
3. try replacing the batteries in your mice

Hope this helps, I'm glad I finally figured out a solution that works for me.

Dan