Tap-to-click issue on MacOS 12.0.1

Solved in macOS Monterey 12.1? At least seems so for me.

I had this experience before I updated Monterey 12.1. It made me frustrated and think that my trackpad had issues

No issue on M1 MBA upgrade fro Big Sur 11.6.1 to Monterey 12.0.1.

Have seen some other will similar issue and in many but not all cases -

The root cause was Any Third Party Applications that will interfere with the normal operation of the OS, alter, modify, remove or delete or attempt to do so is an invitation for disaster and may require a Reinstallation of the OS.

This includes AntiVirus, Cleaners, Optimizes, UnInstaller etc.

Fresh out-of-the -box - amazing machine no doubt.

Have a look in the System Preferences >> Trackpad and explore all the options available for customizations the click action. There might be one of two to enable to get things just right.

Few seconds after booting the fresh Monterey upgrade from BigSur) I found this irritating regression.

I use two macs (Monterey and BigSur) with Barrier (the Open-source KVM software), the server is on Monterey and some clicks are forgotten on the client, if I switch the server on BigSur no click is lost so the problem seems totally in Monterey and not related for example to bluetooth

We must wait for macOS 13 (at the end of 2022) to see this bug fixed or some patch is around the corner?

Really sorry to hear that. I did some further tinkering around, even re-enabling the Smart Zoom function and have not seen the issue return. That said, I have had the very occasional missed tap as well as one instance where the cursor jumped position. It is so rare ATM that it really isn't an issue at all. I'm not totally convinced that it couldn't happen again, however, so only time will tell.

I had actually done more customizing in the Trackpad settings, changing tracking speed, click pressure setting (to medium from light, but now back on light). I noticed the change after turning off Smart Zoom, however, so I feel it was something to do with that. I did several things though really, so kind of like a "jiggling the wires" sort of thing.

Seems no tinkering with smart zoom settings or resetting of SMC is going to help with this. Certainly didn't change anything on my device. For the foreseeable - because it's really damped things for me - I've opted to use an inferior computer with just the latest version of Big Sur installed.

I wonder if people might be so kind as to do the following and publish their numbers on here:

Go to trackpad settings and make sure 'tap-to-click' is ticked, whether that be permanently or temporarily in order to perform the following experiment:

Open Keynote...

Add a table (10 x 10 squares)...

Change the fill colour of the first square...

Command-C the contents of the first cell... then, using the cursor to select the adjacent cell, paste the same fill in there....

Do likewise with all cells - always selecting them one by one using the cursor and a light tap (not your keyboard - other than Command-C/Command-V)...

When a tap fails to register use a different colour to fill that cell so it stands out and can be counted later...

You can then ascertain how many clicks fail to register out of the 100 total

Would be interested to hear back from as many as possible. A bit of hard data to throw Apple's way might help...

Yeah you should wait a few more months. The only reason I'm still on Monterey is because I'm too lazy to downgrade lol so I turned off tap to click and I'm not gonna lie, clicking the trackpad is pretty good (better than I expected tbh) so I might just leave it turned off until they fix it

It is ridiculously easy to reproduce.

Go to https://www.rapidtables.com/tools/click-counter.html and tap 100 times. The counter will only register 90-95. The quicker you tap, the more misses you get.

Apple engineers: try it and then acknowledge the problem.

Yes. Your observation on MBA is correct. My 2017 MBA with Monterey acts the same. Some tap-to-clicks are not counted and rarely one of them clicks on a totally different location. Its really annoying. Please report on https://www.apple.com/feedback as mentioned above.

This is still an issue with 12.2 when you click to select a number of files in the finder by either holding down the shift key or the command key before clicking. It takes between 2-3 clicks before the selection is recognised. Come on Apple!!

I have had this issue as well on a new 14" MB Pro. Since it is a new machine not supported by Big Sur, I don't have the option to roll back to the previous OS which doesn't have the problem.

In my case I find it happens most often when holding a key along with the tap. For example, holding the command key while tapping on a link to open it on a new tab. I often have to tap three times for it to register once. This happens regardless of the application (can be reproduced on different browsers, etc). I've tried changing system preferences, sensitivity settings, etc to no avail. The bug persists and taps fail to register all day every day.

I have used "tap to click" for at least five generations of Mac laptops so I am quite used to it, and expect it to work. At first I thought the MacBook Pro I had just purchased must be defective, but there are multiple threads on several sites reporting the issue and the common denominator is Monterey. Hopefully a fix for this bug can be made ASAP.

Check any and all non-default settings. I saw a recent thread where some minor setting in Terminal completely changed the behaviour of all windows when Terminal was running. Someone else noticed a connection between these trackpad issues and the zoom setting in Accessibility, which I have always enabled. It will be a while before I can tell if there is any difference with zoom disabled. These bugs are fleeting and annoying. They don't happen until you are completely unprepared for them. Many people may not even realize they are happening.

LOL! That didn't take long. Drag the Xcode window to the external display. Click inside window. Another file gets opened and half the content selected and my mouse pointer is instantly back on the main display.

Ran 6 test tables (separate slides). Three tables filled the slide (rectangular cells); the last three were square. Thought I'd change up the distance between targets.

Results: 98%, 97%, 97%, 98%, 95%, 96%

(plus one tap dropped when selecting slides)

This looks to be in line with the other lucky contestant's results.

Although not a big sample, offhand, it looks like the smaller, closer together square targets fared worse than the more spread out tables. Could be a timing thing exacerbating the bug – with the closer together square cells, I was able to select and paste at a faster rate.

Excellent suggestion, btw!

Just for giggles, and a sanity check, I'm going to reboot on Big Sur and/or Mojave (I skipped Catalina) and perform the test. Will post back.

Oh, and I find the bug to have a significant effect on my daily usage. I've been using tap-to-click since its introduction long ago. It's second nature, and it's not nice to fool nature...

Some observations from last night and today's usage:

While my testing with the table cells showed up to 5% tap loss, in actual use, switching between several apps, it feels more like 20%-30%. I was interacting with: TextEdit, Numbers, Safari, and Finder mostly. Copying cells in tables, selecting rows, opening/closing windows, switching between different app's windows – normal zip-zap kinds of interactions. The experience was simply frustrating, as others have noted – not the responsive and reliable (and previously best-in-industry trackpad) user interface.

(Also open, but not used during the above: Mail, Music, Messages, Preview, Terminal, and a few misc third party apps. I've had open the same set (kept up-to-date) of apps for years.)

🤞 for a fix sooner than later!