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Magic trackpad hangs on user switching

When I switch between user accounts (mostly back to my admin account) the trackpad often hangs. It sometimes recovers after a few minutes and other times requires a reboot. I have all the latest software updates and am using with 18 month old iMac. Any ideas?

iMac 3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Sep 6, 2010 1:31 AM

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34 replies

Dec 17, 2010 12:45 AM in response to sdhip

When my Magic Mouse gave up the ghost several weeks ago, I decided to try the Magic Trackpad. It's very nice, though I loved the Magic Mouse. But when I change users, the Trackpad nearly always gets lost. Neither of my Apple Bluetooth keyboards gets lost like this, and my Magic Mouse did not either. I fool around with the Bluetooth drop-down menu for a while, which always lists the Trackpad as "Connected", and eventually the Trackpad hooks up. It's quite frustrating.

Feb 26, 2011 10:09 AM in response to Ralph Davies

I too am having this issue. Steps to recreate:

1) Click name in taskbar and select "Login Window"
2) Continue to move finger on trackpad when login window appears (you will observe the mouse cursor jumping all over the place, then eventually the cursor will start moving correctly again)
3) Log back in with user you were last logged in as (might work with other users, but this is the workflow I can recreate with everytime)
4) After desktop appears, continue to move finger and you'll see symptoms just like in step #2.

In the bluetooth setup screen I see the trackpad has 92% battery left, so it isn't batteries sputtering out.

This looks more like a driver issue; if you too are having this problem please post on the forums so Apple knows it is an issue and can get it fixed.

Apple please fix this.

May 19, 2011 6:03 PM in response to Ralph Davies

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.

Jul 2, 2011 11:17 AM in response to Ralph Davies

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.

Aug 4, 2011 8:29 PM in response to Ralph Davies

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.

Aug 29, 2011 8:14 AM in response to scott mcavennie

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.

Magic trackpad hangs on user switching

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