Why does my Mac keep right clicking when I am clicking left?

Doesn’t matter which mouse - Bluetooth or wired - they’re all popping up with a right-click, drop down menu whether I click left or right.


I checked prior posts and there was one similar to this problem. The responder said to “Check System Preferences Mouse pane (or Trackpad pane). For the Mouse pane, make sure the Primary mouse button is set for the one on the left.”


THERE IS NO “PRIMARY MOUSE BUTTON!”


I have checkbox buttons for:

[] Scroll direction: Natural

[] Secondary Click

(with options for click on right side and click on left side; none of these permutations changes the left-click/right-click problem)

[] Smart Zoom


There’s more to the problem as well; hard to describe. Especially when I’m clicking like a madman trying for a normal action.


Mac is up to date with Catalina 10.15.7.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 12, 2024 7:56 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 13, 2024 5:01 PM

Have you tried restarting the Mac?


If a normal restart does not help, then try booting into Safe Mode to see if that makes any difference. If this works, then you most likely have an issue with some third party software.


You can try creating a new macOS user account. Log out of the main user account, then log into the new user account. See how it behaves. If this works, then you know there is a login item or some System Preference that is causing the problem....maybe the Trackpad & Mouse .plist preference file in the "~/Library/Preferences" folder is corrupt or was configured using some third party or manual method.


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 13, 2024 5:01 PM in response to YoLew

Have you tried restarting the Mac?


If a normal restart does not help, then try booting into Safe Mode to see if that makes any difference. If this works, then you most likely have an issue with some third party software.


You can try creating a new macOS user account. Log out of the main user account, then log into the new user account. See how it behaves. If this works, then you know there is a login item or some System Preference that is causing the problem....maybe the Trackpad & Mouse .plist preference file in the "~/Library/Preferences" folder is corrupt or was configured using some third party or manual method.


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Why does my Mac keep right clicking when I am clicking left?

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