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Files Stick to Mouse Pointer

27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display,

3.6GHz 8-core 9th-generation Intel Core i9 processor,

64GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory,

1TB SSD storage,

Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory.

macOS Catalina 10.15.3


Since upgrading to Catalina, I have experienced a problem that happens frequently—and has now become exasperating, mainly since it has now carried over into a new iMac—bearly out of the box four days! Firstly, this happens with both the magic mouse and my Wacom pen/tablet (PTH-660 Wacom Intudos Pro Medium 2017).


I use my tablet and pen to control my whole computer workflow—instead of a mouse. Repeatedly (roughly every 5 to 10-minutes), if I'm moving something around the screen, a file, folder, or document, etc., the item sticks to the pen or mouse cursor. I cannot drag and drop. It takes an additional click on the rocker button (right-click), or the mouse to release the document; this is particularly aggravating when working with an extended list of layers in Photoshop, layers won't release when I attempt to drag and drop them in place.


I recently purchased a new 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display, with the configuration mentioned above. Rather than migrating the system—to save transferring any glitches; I rebuilt the system from scratch! After two days, the problem returned. I initially thought the problem might be a Wacom driver issue, and took the matter to their support section, but couldn't find a problem from their end. The Wacom support technician pointed out that he had seen several complaints from Mac users, dating back to Mountain Lion, that have reported the same issue. I read many of these complaints, and there seems to be no solution. I have uninstalled and removed the Wacom tablet, searched through the main library folder, and user library folder, and removed all the leftover files, plist files ect, and still, it happens with the magic mouse. Is there anyone out there with an answer to this?


I appreciate any help or assistance that you can provide.

Posted on May 2, 2020 9:22 AM

Similar questions

9 replies

May 2, 2020 3:20 PM in response to Community User

Log into another user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac,  and see if the problem persists (this tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide).


Boot into Safe Mode (How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support) by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists.  Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 

Lastly if all else fails download and apply the macOS Catalina 10.15.4 Combo Update. 




May 3, 2020 7:43 PM in response to Old Toad

I believe I have resolved the problem. It looks like the issue is with Wacom and not Apple, after all.


I uninstalled the tablet drivers and disconnected my Wacom tablet. Reverted back to Apple's magic mouse—and the problem seems to have disappeared. Furthermore, I installed the drivers and tablet onto my Macbook Pro, and the issue has now appeared on that machine. I will contact Wacom on Monday.


I appreciate your input—thank you all.

May 2, 2020 2:49 PM in response to Community User

Sounds like hardware problem, but...


EtreCheck is a simple little app to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck


Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report if you capture the URL while there…

https://pastebin.com/


Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck.

May 3, 2020 12:23 PM in response to BDAqua

I don't believe it to be a hardware problem—the same problem on two different machines? The problem started on my old Mac Pro (Trashcan) Late 2013 after the update to Catalina. As I explained, I didn't migrate my old Mac Pro to my new iMac—the new machine was set up as new. It hasn't been out of the box 5 days—and this problem has raised its ugly head again!

May 3, 2020 12:32 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua, as you suggested, I downloaded the EtreCheck app, and the software found no problems with the computer—in all categories.

Files Stick to Mouse Pointer

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