Chrome toolbar started getting cycled through rapidly on my MacBook Air

Question

Level 1

4 points

Chrome toolbar started getting cycled through rapidly on my MacBook Air

Good afternoon,

I had an unnerving experience on my macbook this afternoon.

I was using Chrome, and all of a sudden, without my control, every selectable item in the upper Chrome toolbar started getting cycled through rapidly, without me doing anything. Almost like there was a very fast auto-tab taking place for anywhere you'd ordinarily interact with the Chrome toolbar at the top of the browser. Then, I shifted over to my desktop, and every folder/file on the desktop behaved the same way - it's like something was automatically selecting each item in rapid succession, cycling r tab-ing through. I shut my laptop off, and it stopped once I turned the laptop back on.

Clearly not normal but......... should I be worried about hacking? Or was that just some weird hotkey or accessibility feature that I accidentally kicked off?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air (2018 – 2020)

Posted on Jun 26, 2023 4:27 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

a brody

Level 10

85,308 points

Jun 26, 2023 4:41 PM in response to mrhudson99

Generally this shouldn't happen, but I've heard of other people suddenly having a cat run over a wireless keyboard or mouse that was connected or even the phone which is paired by bluetooth with your computer.

Controlling Bluetooth on your Mac is documented here:

Turn Bluetooth on or off on Mac - Apple Support

If you ever downloaded Teamviewer or Anydesk, and gave the code to someone to help you with your computer, they may have inadvertently reconnected to your computer.

If you share your Etrecheck report following the directions of this tip, we could tell you if something like Teamviewer or Anydesk is installed, or if something else may be hit inadvertently that allowed control like this.

The trackpad is sensitive to multi-finger swapping that could mean a shortcut was activated that your System Settings/Preferences in Apple menu is managing on the trackpad. If you have a wireless mouse that could be accessing it too.

Reply