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Does anyone have any idea why a Magic Mouse and Trackpad would start skipping and not track smoothly in Catalina? The problem gets worse the longer the computer is on and is corrected with a reboot. Both devices are wireless but there was no issues prior to Catalina.
Greetings, sailorSig.
Thank you for consulting the Apple Support Communities. I understand that your Magic Mouse and Trackpad are not tracking as expected. I know this can make it difficult to work, so I want to lend a hand.
First, please work through the steps shown, here: If your pointer is jumpy when you use a trackpad, Magic Trackpad, or Magic Mouse - Apple Support
Be sure to pay special attention to potential sources of wireless interference: Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference - Apple Support
If the issue persists after completing those steps, please respond to this thread.
Best wishes.
Greetings, sailorSig.
Thank you for consulting the Apple Support Communities. I understand that your Magic Mouse and Trackpad are not tracking as expected. I know this can make it difficult to work, so I want to lend a hand.
First, please work through the steps shown, here: If your pointer is jumpy when you use a trackpad, Magic Trackpad, or Magic Mouse - Apple Support
Be sure to pay special attention to potential sources of wireless interference: Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference - Apple Support
If the issue persists after completing those steps, please respond to this thread.
Best wishes.
Hello, sailorSig.
Thank you for letting me know that you completed those steps.
"Safe mode (sometimes called safe boot) is a way to start up your Mac so that it performs certain checks and prevents some software from automatically loading or opening. Starting your Mac in safe mode does the following:
Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
Loads only required kernel extensions
Prevents startup items and login items from opening automatically
Disables user-installed fonts
Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files”
Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support
So, I do suggest starting in safe mode to see if the issue persists. Safe mode may also help with the unexpected restart message.
In regard to that message, I suggest working through these steps: If your Mac restarted because of a problem - Apple Support
Please let me know how it goes.
Warmly.
Sterling,
Thanks for the suggestions. I went through each step with the exception of booting in Safe Mode, and I still have the same issues. It's interesting because the Magic Mouse and Trackpad both have the same skipping, jumpy issues after a period of time since a restart. Once I restart, the tracking issues go away for at least an hour, but they tend to get progressively worse. I tried turning off the mouse and trackpad individually, but that didn't help.
I'm not sure how I would diagnose the issue in Safe Mode and could use some suggestions. Mail, Chrome, LastPass and AdBlock are the only apps running from the bottom bar, but I also have Dropbox, Norton Security, Carbonite, and Adobe Apps (Lightroom, Photoshop update manager) running in the top bar. I'm sure that there are several other apps running in the background that I don't know about.
The iMac also tends to crash and reboot often, usually at night when I am not using it. Also, when I run "Restart", I usually get a message that the computer shut down unexpectedly and I send a report to Apple. I use the computer an hour or two a day, but I tend to have unexpected crashes every two or three days. All of this seemed to happen with the upgrade to Catalina, but it could be a coincidence.
Thanks again. I cannot start in Safe Mode. I have tried several times and confirmed Normal Mode in System Information. I Restarted to clear PRAM (Command-Option-P-R), restarted in Recovery Mode, ran Disk Utility, First Aid on 1) MacOS Base System, McIntosh HD and McIntosh HD-Data. Checked Login Items and removed from Login an Adobe app and iTunes, which had a yellow triangle. The Login items remaining are Mail, LastPass, Google Chrome, Dropbox and AdBlock. The top task bar shows Norton Securities, Adobe Apps (Lightroom, Photoshop), Carbonite, Dropbox, AdBlock, Silent Start, Lastpass, and the normal MacOS utilities. OS is 10.15.2 Catalina, iMac Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014, Processor 4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 32 GB 1600 Mhz DDR3, AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4 GB.
Well, I feel like a dummy. I contacted Apple Support and was asked if I was holding the left Shift key to start in Safe Mode. I was holding the SPACE bar in the middle.
Successfully started in Safe Mode and I will experiment to see if the issue continues. Thanks again, and I will contact Apple Support (I have a Case ID now) if the issue continues.
Hey there, sailorSig.
That is certainly unexpected that you are unable to start in safe mode. Since you are unable to start in safe mode, you should Contact - Official Apple Support.
Cheers.
Mouse and trackpad jerky and skipping in Catalina
