MacBook Air Trackpad or Mouse Problem or ???
Writing on behalf of my 90 year old mother who suddenly developed a couple of weird issues with her 2020 MacBook Air running Catalina (v.10.16.7). I have decades of experience with Macs, but have never seen this sort of behavior before.
Problem #1: When using a window scroll bar, percentages appear as she scrolls up and down:
Problem #2: While reading or composing e-mails, a "ghost" image in a gray box appears from a completely different e-mail .
Problem #3 (which makes the least sense): A "Sign in to iMessage" window suddenly appeared that she can't close or cancel no matter what we've tried. The strangest part though is that it's asking about my Apple ID, not hers.
As I had originally purchased and set up this Mac for her, I don't recall ever using my login credentials with her computer, although I suppose I may have forgotten. (I might add that my Apple ID and password work fine and don't need updating.)
To me, the first two problems reek of something being wrong with the trackpad or magic mouse (she alternates between the two), but as for this third one, I'm baffled.
Here's what I've instructed her to do so far and she claims that nothing has worked:
- Disconnect all peripheral and cold shutdown for 15+ minutes
- Log out and back in to the Apple Store and Messages using her ID, not mine
- Force quite everything, including Finder
- Reset PRAM
- Trash the trackpad and mouse preference files.
Anybody have any suggestions? This is quite anxiety-provoking for her, and frustration-provoking for me given that I live 750 miles away and can't help out in person. 🙁
Thanks in advance, Elaine
