Mac OS Big Sur - Dialog box not responding to mouse clicks

I have been in the same spot. I did a reinstall of the OS. I did not lose my Data. But now have been working for a month without issue.

I would do the reinstall and only install the other programs as needed. It's worth it.

Actually, it turns out that resize solution sometimes worked. it wasn't a complete solution.

My problem was specifically with gitk, a tool that is packaged with the Home Brew git-gui package.

You might find some relief by deleting ~/.config/git/gitk if that file exists.

I also ended up editing /usr/bin/local/gitk to point at the OSX version of wish (/usr/bin/wish) instead of the HomeBrew version.

I'm having this issue too, exactly as described everywhere else in this thread.

Hilarious and extremely disapointing not only that this issue exists at all but It's been reported in the community for so long and nothing has been done to address this.

Whoever is the technical support person looking at this thread can you please escalate this to a software development team responsible for creating native file picker dialogs or also system preferences or whatever framework is used between them. I have this issue in both places.

At least with the file picker dialog I can resize it to get it working as expected.

The pages on system preferences I literally cannot use because the app cannot be resized by the mouse.

It is not a hardware issue, it is a software bug. My MBP is literally brand new and it has had this issue since day 1, my trackpad and Magic Mouse work literally perfectly elsewhere.

And yes I have updated my operating system, but regardless this issue has existed for so long I shouldn't even need to update anything considering this laptop is literally brand new.

At least on linux I never get bugs like this and if I did I would be able to fix it myself.

I am facing the same issue but it just started recently, it was fine before. The saveAs dialogue box issue can be solved by pulling first pulling it from the corner to increase its size but nothing works in system preference settings. I am not able to select any options there. This is very annoying. Do we have a solution for this ? is this a bug?

I found a workaround. I started facing this issue after using an external monitor. I extend my windows to this external monitor. The problem mentioned above only occurred in my original MacBook screen, not in the extended monitor. I changed the display settings to "mirror" first and then unplugged the monitor, which seems to solve the issue.

I think the problem lied in that I didn't completely/properly shut down my computer in a week or two and somehow the restarting allowed to click things again. and thus update.

long story short, do restart your computer every now and then...

It's quite ridiculous. The loss of major (if seemingly simple) functionality. Keyboard shortcuts should work on dialog boxes.

Another thing they're doing is you used to be able to do cmd-s and just start typing. It would buffer your text so by the time the dialog window opened it would just spew out everything you'd been typing. Now it starts where you are at in the typing.

First why is there ANY delay in a dialog window box opening. Why do I have such a fast computer (M1) and yet it can't do such a simple thing like instantly open a save window? This isn't the 1990's.

Then it can't just save with the keyboard shortcut.

Now, half the time your dialog box field isn't selected, so you have to tab not once but 4-5 times to get to the field.

Then it doesn't even select the name right, like in photoshop. It selects the whole name, including the extension then doesn't put the extension on the end of the file, so it can't be uploaded to wordpress.

Does anybody else feel like apple's user interface design is actually devolving thanks to newbies coming along thinking they can "do things better?" Maybe it's true, maybe not, but what a pain. It's fundamental! Please fix this.

I've been having this issue for LONGER THEN I WANT TO TALK ABOUT. It's followed me from computer to computer. AT LAST I RESOLVE THE ISSUE. THE SOB was synaptics displaylink software. The newest Displaylink update resolved the issue. - This was a fix for my environment.

I have the issue too and noticed it only occurs when I have a Thunderbolt Dock attached.

Without the dock I never have the problem. Are you using a dock too?

I noticed that when I unplug the dock from the MacBook Pro and re-insert it, I can click (both file selector and system preferences). I did call Apple Support about this issue early September and they acknowledged the issue. The indicated it would be fixed when Monterey would be released. Upgraded my machine earlier this week, but still have this issue unfortunately.

I am really interested if all people that encounter this issue use a Thunderbolt Dock or not.

I am using an Elgatp Thunderbolt 3 Dock

Minimising System Preferences and restoring a window worked for me. Thank you!

This is a very annoying bug and I'm really surprised it's been around for so long. In my opinion, it should be considered as critical since it prevents clicking "Click the lock to make changes" in Security & Privacy.

All: my issue was resolved. I had a Mouse enhancer program running. The program seemed to interfere with system dialog prompts. Once I disabled the third-party mouse enhancer program the issue was resolved

I am also experiencing this issue on Big Sur - both the noted file dialog and System Preferences issues. If I restart, things are once again clickable but that is a super annoying workaround. However, I do think I found a workaround for the System Preferences issue. In System Preferences, make sure you are on the screen with items you need to be able to change (i.e. Bluetooth or General), minimize System Preferences, then reopen it from the Dock. Things on the screen you were on when you minimized should now be clickable.

Started happening to me on Monterey, 12.2.

The minimize-the-unminimize hack works most of the time, but for something like System Preferences > Notifications > Focus > Options (a small pop-up dialog within a pref. pane), the hack does not working. I cannot change any Focus option settings on my laptop.

I can confirm too that this issue is still present in Monterey 12.2 with the M1 Macbook Pro.

For the System Settings, you have to minimize and reopen it from the dock every time you go to a different section.

Sadly, this doesn't work with the File Open / Save As dialogs, rendering essential apps unusable.

Any work around for this case?