Level 1

9 points

two finger scroll doesn't work.i

just got the new macbook. all of the multi-touch gestures work, except the two finger scroll. of course, the most important one doesn't work. anyone else having this issue? i installed all of the updates, restarted, still no luck. pretty annoying. otherwise, a great machine!

macbook (late 2008), 1gen iPhone, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Oct 15, 2008 8:54 PM

39 replies

M Reece Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 20, 2008 4:04 PM in response to M Reece

well, after about two hours on the phone with applecare, i managed to get it working. we trashed quite a few preferences, none of which did anything.

even getting rid of the entire preference folder, and letting it create new ones didn't work. eventually, through a very long series of steps, something worked. neither i nor the applecare tech could really explain what it was that did it, something in the preferences was definitely the culprit. one thing i could suggest if you're still having issues, is to also delete the caches folders, two of them located at \Library\Caches and \Users\yourusername\Library\Caches

after doing that, and then trashing the prefs (or more accurately moving them to the desktop or some other location so you still have them saved...) the scroll started to work. I've been copying preferences back in as i need them, and haven't managed to muck up the scrolling yet.

good luck everyone!

Oct 21, 2008 12:52 PM in response to M Reece

The correct value in the users global preferences file for com.apple.trackpad.scrollBehavior is 2 to enable scrolling.

To set it correctly open a terminal window and type the following:

defaults write -g com.apple.trackpad.scrollBehavior 2

You will have to log out and back to see the setting change. Worked for me.

you can check your current setting by typing:

defaults read -g com.apple.trackpad.scrollBehavior

Oct 21, 2008 8:48 PM in response to Patrick McConnell

Change the setting worked for me. Now I can two finger scroll. But two finger pinch doesn't seem to work and rotate is very slow.

In general, I'm finding the trackpad difficult to use. I sometimes have to click multiple times for it to register. Or the cursor gets stuck for a sec.

Oct 25, 2008 12:17 PM in response to Patrick McConnell

Patrick's solution worked perfectly for me on my new MacBook, thanks.
I also had migrated from an OS X 10.4x PowerBook G4.
Apple should release a fix for this very soon! (Either for Migration Assistant, or a Trackpad prefs update....)

Oct 25, 2008 2:58 PM in response to Patrick McConnell

This fixed my problem as well......

Thank you so much Patrick

Oct 27, 2008 7:36 PM in response to infomersion

I too migrated from an OS X 10.4 G4 Powerbook. Mine was the last of the Powerbooks not to have the 2 finger scroll. The migration assistant probably moved the preference of the 2 finger scroll turned off from my Powerbook to the new Mac Book Pro.

Thanks so much for the solution!!!! It worked for me.

cainscou

Level 1

0 points

Oct 28, 2008 8:26 PM in response to Patrick McConnell

Patrick's fix worked for me. Thanks!!

Oct 29, 2008 2:23 PM in response to Mark Vogel

I'm having the same problems, which I didn't have when trying it out at the Apple store. Not cool.

p-hughes

Level 1

4 points

Oct 30, 2008 1:52 PM in response to Patrick McConnell

That Terminal solution worked for me, too. Thanks, Patrick!

w7ox

Level 4

2,407 points

Oct 30, 2008 2:47 PM in response to Patrick McConnell

Patrick McConnell wrote:
The correct value in the users global preferences file for com.apple.trackpad.scrollBehavior is 2 to enable scrolling.

To set it correctly open a terminal window and type the following:

defaults write -g com.apple.trackpad.scrollBehavior 2

You will have to log out and back to see the setting change. Worked for me.

you can check your current setting by typing:

defaults read -g com.apple.trackpad.scrollBehavior

Weird. I did all of the above and it is now set to 2 (it was 0).

But the only gestures that work for me are the two four-finger ones.

Do the two-finger and three-finger actions only work within certain apps?

Or should I be able to use them when viewing messages in this forum and such?

Phil

p-hughes

Level 1

4 points

Oct 30, 2008 2:58 PM in response to w7ox

It didn't work for me until I restarted (the equivalent of logging out and in again). But now it works in Word, Safari, etc.

w7ox

Level 4

2,407 points

Oct 30, 2008 2:59 PM in response to p-hughes

Thanks! Will try that now.

Phil

Nov 2, 2008 6:28 AM in response to w7ox

Thanks Phil, fix worked great.

Apple forums should highlight this as a very straightforward fix to a very frustrating problem.

raymond

Level 1

5 points

Nov 2, 2008 11:17 AM in response to M Reece

thanks to patrick, the terminal command worked. i have to admit, i have never used a terminal command in my life before, and the first time i tried patrick's suggestion it didn't work. the second time i ended the terminal command by typing in 'log out' and then i did log out as well, this seemed to have the right effect because now it works like a charm. thanks to him and to everyone here for helping. raymond

spasm

Level 1

0 points

Nov 9, 2008 5:40 AM in response to raymond

could someone pls, make this a bit easier to understand as im a complete novice and need to sort this problem out too. can do all the other gestures no problem at all, and not having the to finger scoll working is frustrating. yes i have the new ali macbook and i did the migration from my old ibook g4. i'm trying to follow these other posts here but am finding them a bit beyond my computer knowledge. so if someone could try to do a talk through would be great

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two finger scroll doesn't work.i