Multiple Issues After Initial Big Sur Installation

Hi everyone!

I’m hoping someone here can offer some advice as Googling has not turned up anything useful. Late last night I updated my MacBook Pro (15-inch with touchpad, 2017 model) to Big Sur version 11.2.3, and have had a whole slew of issues since. I will try to group them into similar/related issues.

Trackpad/clicking/selection

• The right click function (set up in system preferences as clicking with two-fingers or ctrl click) only works when clicking on empty space within the downloads folder and most other folders, but works with no issue on the desktop and in the documents folder. In the folders where it is not functioning, I cannot right click on files or apps to make the options dropdown menu appear. When I attempt to right click on files or apps using either method, nothing happens.
• Scrolling by using two fingers on the trackpad still works on some apps like Chrome and Final Draft, but when I try to use this same function in other apps such as Pages, it instead zooms in and out.
• If I click anywhere at all within a folder or on a webpage or in a text-input space like a Pages, Final Draft, or Scrivener file, every bit of data between the cursor’s old position and the place I clicked is highlighted and will not deselect. As a writer trying to edit her work, this is an especially frustrating issue and finding a fix for this one is my highest priority.
• The only app in which I’ve been able to highlight text without instantly highlighting everything is Notes, but there’s another selection issue there, in which attempting to select text which spans over multiple lines will only highlight the first few words on each line. For an example, I typed the chorus to Never Gonna Give You Up. When I tried to select and copy the four lines of text, it only copied the first few words from each line:

Never gonna give you 

down, never gonna ru

Never gonna make yo

goodbye, never gonna

• Note: these right-clicking/scrolling/selection issues do not occur when I have a wireless mouse connected--this seems to only happen when using the trackpad. Unfortunately for me, I don't have my own wireless mouse as I prefer using a trackpad, and only borrowed one to check if the issue would transfer over to a mouse as well, so this isn't a good long-term workaround!

Apps

• When I close one window of an app, the entire app closes, even if I have other windows still active and open. This happens with Finder, also.
• Example: I’m writing this list in a Pages document before I post it to Communities. I have an active window with the text I’m typing open. I clicked on Pages > Preferences to check if there was a way to manually override the scrolling/zooming issue I’m having, and when I closed the preferences panel, the entire Pages app closed.
• When I click on another open app to make that my active window, the window hides.
• Example: I have a Chrome page open on the right side of my screen to double check if I can find solutions for any of these issues before I include them in this list, and Pages is open on the left. I did some Googling, then clicked back on the Pages window to continue typing, and the Pages window was instantly minimised and hidden, so that I had to find it in the dock to make it appear on screen again.
• When I click any link in Chrome, a new tab opens, despite this being disabled in my Chrome preferences. It also opens a new tab when I use the refresh page function.

Files/Finder

• Closing any finder window closes ALL finder windows.
• Drag-and-drop no longer moves files, only creates a link back to the file in its initial location.
• When I click between folders (downloads, documents, applications, etc.) in the finder sidebar, the window jumps around the screen instead of staying in the place I moved the open window to.

I think that's everything, though I kept finding new issues as I was typing this up, so who knows! Hopefully someone will have some suggestions that will make using my laptop less of a headache. Also, if I've missed a similar thread where this has already been discussed, please let me know. I did try to find similar discussions but couldn't find anything that fit the issues I'm experiencing.

Thanks in advance,

Cass

Edit: I should also mention that I have already tried restarting my laptop multiple times, and checked all of the relevant settings in System Preferences before writing this post! I have also already ensured that any apps which required updates after installing Big Sur have been updated :)