I discovered a solution to CMD + tap (and SHIFT + tap) being missed:
On the built-in trackpad, there's a central rectangle area a bit smaller than the size of the smaller trackpads older macbooks had before they started putting these massive ones in. The 3-clicks required to get CMD + tap to register can be avoided by clicking in this central region instead of more toward the edges. Also note that the first tap must be in this central region. If you first click more toward the outside and it misses it, the trackpad will also reject a followup central tap.
Before that, CMD + tap routinely took 3 taps to multi-select files in Finder. And of course, if I forget and do CMD + tap more toward the edges, 3 it is again. So this required a bit of retraining for me to use the smaller central rectangle region for tap to click, but it's comfortable now.
Now I only use the larger area outside that smaller central rectangle area for continuing long drags. Some might say this is more of a workaround than a solution, but it saved my sanity.
It's almost as if the driver that rejects trackpad input while a key is pressed is working off the dimensions of the older model macbooks' trackpad dimensions.
All this is on:
- 2019 16" MacBook Pro
- built in trackpad
- Catalina, Big Sur, and Monterey 12.1
Peter
