MacBook Air 2020 M1 - trackpad issues
Here's an issue and a possible solution for anyone out there with a similar problem.
I was having an intermittent problem with my new MacBook Air 2020 M1; the trackpad would freeze up periodically wherein the cursor wouldn't move, and it wouldn't respond to button presses. The freezes would last for a couple of seconds, and sometimes the cursor would jump to somewhere else on the screen. This made using the laptop an exercise in frustration, especially when editing documents, etc.
I did the usual recommendations: make sure MacOS was up to date, limit the number of programs running at login or the background in an attempt to find the cause. This didn't help, so I started looking for other causes.
It turns out I was plugging my laptop in lower wattage (iPad Pro) charger that seemed to work fine. It would easily charge my laptop when it was closed, and very slowly when I was using it.
As long as I was using the laptop and it was actively charging, I had no problems. However as soon as the charge hit 100% and the laptop was still plugged into this charger, the trackpad problem began. When unplugged from the charger, the problem disappeared.
It took a few days to diagnose this issue. If you are having trackpad problems and you are using a lower wattage or 3rd party charger, try switching back to the Apple charger or run the computer on its batteries.
MacBook Air (M1, 2020)