Keyboard and Mouse stop working for a few seconds

2019 iMac

3 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5

Sonoma 14.6.1


Recently, the Mouse and Keyboard have stopped responding briefly, perhaps 2 or 3 seconds. If I'm typing, what I'm typing actually gets "remembered", and after a brief time, what I've typed appears on the screen.


The only thing I can think of is that I have a number of Accessibility feature activated - is the Mac just scanning for input elsewhere and briefly ignoring the keyboard/mouse?

iMac (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Aug 28, 2024 10:40 PM

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Posted on Sep 4, 2024 11:57 PM

OK, turning off Accessibility feature helped somewhat but still having some issues with Keyboard slow to respond.


Then I realised Firefox was consistently using huge amounts of memory, over 3 GB at times. Tried various suggestions to stop this, none of which helped. Finally, completed deleted Firefox (AppCleaner) and reinstalled. Now Firefox is using under 400 MB, Keyboard and Mouse problems gone and everything generally seems quicker.


Note, I had set up a Mozilla account and a recovery key - this allows Firefox to be returned to the state it was in when last synced.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 4, 2024 11:57 PM in response to larry666

OK, turning off Accessibility feature helped somewhat but still having some issues with Keyboard slow to respond.


Then I realised Firefox was consistently using huge amounts of memory, over 3 GB at times. Tried various suggestions to stop this, none of which helped. Finally, completed deleted Firefox (AppCleaner) and reinstalled. Now Firefox is using under 400 MB, Keyboard and Mouse problems gone and everything generally seems quicker.


Note, I had set up a Mozilla account and a recovery key - this allows Firefox to be returned to the state it was in when last synced.

Aug 30, 2024 9:42 AM in response to larry666

I'd rebuild the spotlight Index...


Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


Manually Rebuilding Spotlight via Terminal

If the aforementioned Spotlight control panel approach doesn’t spur a reindexation of the drive, you may need to initiate it manually through the command line. Open Terminal and use the following command string to do so:


sudo mdutil -E /

This basically asks for temporary super user status, which is why Terminal may ask you for your password (it may not if you’ve used a sudo command recently or are already logged in as a super user or root. The command asks the unix tool mdutil to reindex the spotlight database for everything on the computer, including external drives, mounted disk images, etc. To re-index only for a specific drive, use the /Volumes path. For example, for an external drive named “MiniMe,” the command would look like this:


sudo mdutil -i on /


Rebuilding a drive index can take a long time, so be prepared to wait whether you do it through the System Preference panel or the command line.


If still need be…


Open Terminal and run each of these one at a time


/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user


sudo will ask you for an Admin password that won't be echoed.

Carefully type your admin password when asked & hit enter.


sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network


killall Dock


sudo mdutil -E /


sudo mdutil -i on /


Rebuilding a drive index can take a long time, so be prepared to wait whether you do it through the System Preference panel or the command line.

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Keyboard and Mouse stop working for a few seconds

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