Trackpad gestures stop working randomly after monterey update

Purchased new 16" M1 and it's disappointingly buggy. Really not acceptable. Same gesture problem, as noted originally, and the killall Dock command repairs it only temporarily. The real annoyance is how the computer "deselects" windows in any software after 15 - 20 seconds of use. I couldn't type this note on my Apple wireless keyboard without having to click on the window 3 times (after the killall Dock command). This could push me back to a PC if not resolved quickly, Apple. You stuff is supposed to work!!! That's why I pay several times more for it.

Yeap, me too! Brand new M1 Max 16" MBP and it happens to me intermittently, super frustrating! Thanks for "kill 'dock' in Activity Monitor" trick, that helps it get sorted temporarily. Hope Apple fix this really soon as it's super annoying!

Good to know that there is a workaround but I don’t want to do workarounds on premium products. I bought Macbook Pro to have super-stable laptop for my business and now I’m really surprised that Apple hasn’t fixed it in the last update even if it was known bug at least for month and half.

I, too, have been having these same exact issues. However, force-quitting the Dock does NOT resolve the issue for me, and in fact makes the situation worse, because I can't even switch to another application (like with CMD+TAB).

FWIW, I also have an M1 Pro 16" MacBook. It SEEMS possibly connected to my invoking Microsoft Remote Desktop, which opens in full-screen mode.

However, not all gestures become inactivated: sometimes, even when the three-finger swipe left/right gesture is broken, I can still use other gestures, like three finger swipe up/down, or the four finger "gather" gesture.

Hi, I'm late to this thread because I received my new 14-inch MacBook Pro only a few days ago. I'm experiencing the same issue; in addition all of my trackpad gestures suddenly not working, my F3 key and hot corners also glitch out. If I restart my computer the problem is resolved. I haven't tried to the Dock solution yet.

I was curious, now that it's two months later, have you continued to experience this issue? I'm on macOS version 12.1, and I'm surprised the glitch wouldn't have been resolved by now. I didn't pay thousands for a glitchy computer...

Hi, just saw your post Scott and the answer (for me) is 'yes'. The issue started around late October 2021 for me, almost as soon as I upgraded to Monterey (although interestingly, it was not immediate - it was a few days after the upgrade and it did work on-and-off for a few days before stopping working completely). I even wiped the SSD on my Macbook Pro and reinstalled the operating system from scratch, and it made no difference. For me - it's mostly the haptic feedback on the trackpad that doesn't work (ie there is no 'click' or 'hold for more information'), but randomly the gestures stop working too. Only a computer reboot fixes that... and it's random how long it fixes it for (sometimes hours, sometimes only a couple of minutes).

I run an IT Support company, and use Mac, Windows and Chromebook laptops, and am shocked that this has not been fixed yet by Apple, 3 months later! It's as if they couldn't care less.

I'm experiencing similar issues with my 16-inch (M1 Pro) on Monterey 12.2

I was able to work around the issue by setting up hot corners for screensaver, after launching my screensaver (even for a few seconds) my gestures work again.

I hope for a fix soon.

I found this article that helped me restart the Dock, which fixed my problem.

https://www.howtogeek.com/363857/how-to-fix-your-mac%E2%80%99s-dock-when-it-gets-stuck/

"Restarting the Dock will usually fix problems you’re having with it. You can do it in Terminal by typing (or copying and pasting) this command and then hitting Enter:

killall Dock

The Dock should restart itself automatically."

*edit*

Oops, I didn't realize other people provided this answer already.

I found a post on superuser.com, that you can run in the terminal, that restarts the trackpad without having to restart the entire computer.

killall Dock

This worked for me. After executing this command in the terminal, the swipe functionality returned to my trackpad. I have the 16 inch Macbook Pro with the M1 Pro chip.

source:

https://superuser.com/questions/301222/how-to-reset-restart-an-internal-macbook-trackpad-driver

This happened to me twice this week, and only a restart fixes it. Reapplying the toggles in Mission Control doesn't do anything. I hope they fix this in the soonest update, as I heavily use the gestures in my workflow.

So I have a 2 week old MacBook Pro 16" M1 Max running OS 12.2 and suddenly the gestures stopped working and could no longer move between screens or apps, at the time this occurred I was using the Handbrake app. I do not have Rosetta installed and only have a few other apps installed FinalCut and a trial version of ScreenFlow 10. I logged out and back in again and this seemed to handle it and I am currently updating to OS 12.2.1 but I am concerned about this problem as this is a new and very expensive computer to be having this issue especially being in a pretty clean uncluttered state

So I just did a test on my 16" Macbook Pro M1 Max running a video file on the Handbrake app to reduce size (which had the CPU doing some work), I had my screen saver set to turn on after 5 Minutes and after the screen saver turned on and was running I then touched the trackpad to open the screen and when I tried to do gestures they were not working and I could not switch screens, so I let Handbrake finish the job and then quit it, reopened Handbrake did the same video file again and waited for the screensaver to become active, then when I opened the screen, the gestures were now working.

So far for me there seems to be a connection to the screensaver becoming active and turning the functionality of the track pad on or off. I will do some more tests with other apps to see if I can find any other situations.

I have also added Screensaver to a hot Corner to open it quickly as was suggested by astriddesmet.

Thanks! that fixed it for me. Glad to not be alone, but what a weird bug. Don't suppose you've ALSO had command-W to close windows stop working too? Command-Q works but not Command-W. Happened twice in between reboots lately.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is still an issue... 4 months after release. It's becoming more "typical" for Apple to deliver an OS with numerous bugs... some of which only get corrected weeks prior to the release of the next major iteration. This one is just unacceptable! 4 months!

Restarting is the only option that fixes this for me. Happens every time I plug into my external monitor.

I have a MacBook Pro 16" (M1 Pro)

Having this issue, too - at random. Try to swipe with two fingers (to delete mail or mark as unread) and it doesn't function. It's only when I'm swiping with two fingers left or right. Brand new MacBookPro M1 Chip.