Magic trackpad hangs on user switching

Okay, may have found something, posted to my other thread on this topic: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3203906?answerId=15963083022#15963083022

Okay, some potentially good news:

Under System Preferences > Bluetooth > Advanced > option to Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer

This is turned on by default and is apparently a per-user setting, not a global setting, which is where the conflict begins, from what I can tell.

My guess is that, when turned on for all users, like it is by default, when the computer goes to sleep, the bluetooth signal gets screwy, probably stepping over itself, to listen for incoming requests for both users for both keyboard and trackpad. And/or, when a user wakes the computer by pressing one of these devices, the signal tries to relaunch the Bluetooth stack for both users for both devices immediately, again probably stepping over itself, setting up a chain of events that will cause Bluetooth connectivity to fail altogether after a few sleep/wake and/or Fast User Switching cycles.

So, for a couple days now I've been running with this option turned off for one user and on for the other user. So, depending on which user is currently logged into the console, you may have to wake the computer by way of the power button or the keyboard/trackpad. The good news, though, is that it would typically foul up after no more than a day, and it's gone a couple of days thus far without issue.

I too am getting very frustrated by this issue. Some things I have observed:

1) The issue starts with the trackpad not driving the cursor for several seconds up to a minute after a user switch, but then starts to function normally. Eventually the trackpad never resumes normal function, forcing a reboot of the iMac.

2) I have a wacom bamboo tablet connected to my iMac via USB, so I can still drive the cursor when the trackpad is acting up. I have observed that I can move the cursor over "clickable" elements with the tablet and "click" them with the trackpad while it is in this state of not working the cursor.

3) If I power off the trackpad, the iMac will display the "trackpad off" pop up message, so the computer is at some level communicating with trackpad (as also evident by 2 above). Powering the trackpad back on, the trackpad simply flashes its green LED indicating its looking for a pairing partner, but the computer never pairs with it, again forcing a reboot, after which the trackpad pairs with the iMac and functions normally.

4) I have tried to shutdown the Bluetooth stack and restart it. But when I select "Turn Bluetooth off" from the far righthand menu bar Bluetooth menu, the menu icon remains "selected" and the spinning beach ball of death appears over it and any menus to the right of the Bluetooth menu, again forcing a reboot.

It seems to me the Bluetooth stack on the computer is screwed up at some level. Rebooting the computer alone fixes the issue -- nothing needs to be done to the trackpad to restore normal operation. And, also, the battery level seems to play no roll in this issue.

I am getting very frustrated with having to reboot my machine every two to three days because of this issue.

Same here, after switching user, only clicking works, but the pointer won't budge. If I disconnect and reconnect the Trackpad via bluetooth menu, also click stops working. The only sure way to get it working again is restarting the mac, although _sometimes_ after leaving the computer alone for a few hours it starts working again by itself.

FWIW, me too. I have a Mac Pro running 10.6.8. My bluetooth trackpad generally works just fine, but when I wake the machine from sleep, if I don't use the mouse for a minute or so first and touch the trackpad it never works. So frustrating. Rebooting seems to be the only remedy.

It's a joke looking at the trackpad in System Preferences saying "Searching..." endlessly.

I found the same problem on my iMac with Lion. I found if I turn the trackpad off after switching users, wait a couple of seconds, then turn it back on, it comes back. This is not an elegant solution, but it's working for me.

Nope, doesn't fix it for me.

On a side note, I do notice the same message in the system.log every time this happens:

hidd[41]: setting surface orientation to 0 returned 0xE00002C2

Anyone recognize this?

Additional information:

I'm experiencing this problem not exactly during user switching as I have only one user: me.

I experience this problem when I return to the login window and then try to log back in. Usually it hangs after i've let it sit in the login window for a while e.g. overnight.

This is really frustrating.

Interesting error code you found. I'll have to look and see if my logs report that one as well.

And I, too, can confirm that even with only using a single user account, eventually the problem crops up at the login screen.'

One thing I seem to notice is that the problem is greatly exacerbated by 3rd-party Mac App Store apps. I would be greatly curious if you would try installing a Mac App Store app, like, say Twitter or something, leave it running and see if the problem rears its head even faster/more frequently. If I leave Twitterrific or Sparrow mail app up and running and switch to my wife's account, I can reproduce the problem after just one or two account switches.

Yep this thread describe the exact issue that I have recently started to experience.

it ony started happening the other day. I'm the admin account and my wife has another account. We switch accounts frequently.

'Tis really getting on my wick.

Interesting few comments made about 3rd Party MAS apps - The Twitter app has recently been doing funny things with scrolling ie not scrolling with my Trackpad. I'll try uninstalling that and see how I get on.

Yeah, that's exactly the behavior I've noticed in conjunction with the TrackPad problem. I've seen it with Twitter, Twitteriffic and Sparrow. Probably plenty of others, too, if I tried.

This behavior (scrolling/not scrolling or not refreshing/repainting the screen until you minimize/maximize the app) occasionally shows up in iPhoto, too. This often signals an impending OS-wide TrackPad issue requiring a reboot.

I've not yet launched Twitter since my latest reboot, but I think I have found a possible culprit. If the app is running when I switch users the trackpad stops working.

And the app in question...

...the new Skydrive app from those that are no strangers to system freezes and driver issues, why it's Microsoft.

Godda love em.

I'm having the same issue.

It's clearly to do with login/logout and user switching. It doesn't seem affected by other running apps, I use twitter but my wife doesn't and if she turns on the computer in the morning, then I login to my account the issue still happens.

Also, everything was fine on my system before the 10.7.4 update. Started instantly after software update finished, and now won't go away. Happens every time I login/out or switch users. Most of the time the trackpad will recover after a minute or two, but sometimes it locks up and requires a reboot.

Anyhelp would be great! Super PIA.