Magic Trackpad selecting all text on a window - erratic.

Exactly this happens to me all the time. Aside from the "right mouse click" on the "Magic Trackpad" being anything but magic, it is the biggest irritation by far.
Disabling one finger drag does nothing.
I guess it'll be the usual Apple "pretend nothing is wrong and slip out an update while nobody is looking" process.

Most of the time this is the one finger dragging gesture. Just as an experiment you might try turning off the 1 finger dragging and instead, turn 3 finger from navigation to dragging. See if that works better for you or changes the problem symptoms.

Cheers

Maybe this is the troubleshooting something to consider:
1. How does it work with a standard mouse?
2. Is the mouse action satisfactory or unsatisfactory?
3. How does it work with Magic Trackpad (MT) or Magic Mouse (MM)?
4. Is the change/difference satisfactory or unsatisfactory?

In relation to the above, I have a report (which may be both an example and a real report that I will submit to Apple Feedback).

1. When selecting text with a mouse, a single click (in the middle of) a word highlights it, for the next action. Clicking outside the selection deselects and repositions the cursor. For small sections (like selecting a single letter word or groups of words without spaces but with a dash or other special characters, " '()*•°&, etc."), the whole section is not selected. Examples: Anti-establishment, 89°
The complete paragraph is selected on the next single click within a highlighted section. A third click within the highlighted paragraph returns the pointer to the selected location. You can try it here.
2. Mouse action is satisfactory.
3. The MT (or it's user) may have trouble differentiating input two single clicks and a double click in this same scenario. Unfortunately there is no test and adjust dialog for this (as there is on drawing pads).
4. I think that these are basic mouse/MT/MM interactions that we should consider. Is there a better setting in the existing dialog?

My conclusion is that, while I am beginning to prefer the MT as opposed to the mouse, there should be a better setting for a double tap and a single tap in the system preferences. And I could produce a similar complaint for the click and select options (these may be even more prononced due to the design of the MT or MM. In short, the setting in system preferences could be improved for better more reliable user interaction.

In the meantime I have discovered that :
1) the MT right click really is unreliable, often resolving to a left click despite depressing the outer most edge of the pad
2) the "continual selection" problem, in most cases, hangs together with eclipse or firefox (very very odd). Closing one of these two will typically resolve the problem. If it does not, I need to completely reboot the mac.
3) the MT crashes the bluetooth stack (the OS is fully updated). When this happens the mac no longer recognises any bluetooth devices and can no longer connect to the MT. A full reboot is required.

It's starting to remind me of windows.

okobloko wrote:
1) the MT right click really is unreliable, often resolving to a left click despite depressing the outer most edge of the pad

Don't use the right click function. Just hold down <CTRL> key for that.

okobloko wrote:
2) the "continual selection" problem, in most cases, hangs together with eclipse or firefox (very very odd). Closing one of these two will typically resolve the problem. If it does not, I need to completely reboot the mac.

Don't have that problem in my Safari browser. Firefox doesn't act that way (hang) either. What version do you use?

okobloko wrote:
3) the MT crashes the bluetooth stack (the OS is fully updated). When this happens the mac no longer recognises any bluetooth devices and can no longer connect to the MT. A full reboot is required.

Now use the internal BT card in my Mac Pro and have no more issues with compatibility. You may want to try that to confirm the problems. There do appear to be serious software issues with external modules even those that used to work with Tiger and Leopard OS. Moreover the third party makers don;t have a clue generally about those. I ran into a huge finger pointing excerise with them, and so gave up, returned the items and moved on. I did post my impression of compatibility to Apple's Product Feedback.

Sad that BT dongles (external Bluetooth/USB adapters) don't work with OSX 10.6.x (Snow Leopard). Their drivers appear to be the reason. Of course they won't tell you that.

Good luck with your troubles, I hope that my experience sheds some light on the issues...

You can see my thread on this issue by clicking here. 😉

Actually, I am also using the Bluetooth card in my MacBookPro.
All in all, I am just accepting things as they are now.
The MT has been a bit of a disappointment (6/10 lets say).
It works ok, most of the time, but the lack of reliable right click is crappy and the intermittent software problems can be a real pain.

I'm fully upto date on all OS updates and it's still happening.

Naja. Life's just too short to stress about this any longer.

Thanks for your comments though.

I'm having the same problems. I think it started with the last update about a week ago. VERY frustrating. It starts doing it for no apparent reason and then stops again just as it starts. How about a fix?

Hi to all,
My Traclpad have the same problem, get selecting everything.
First i think it could be the sticky fingers, but this is not true, it happens even after washing the hands. Then I disable the Tap to click and dragging and it still continues to get stuck selecting all!!!
I still have 7 days of warranty.
So this is a OS bug or Hardware problems??

I could 'solve' the issue by disconnecting and reconnecting my USB mouse.

Ah, so that's the cunning plan. SJ want you to spend an extra 70bucks to buy a USB mouse so that you can unplug it when their NotVeryMagic Trackpad malfunctions.

I too have the same problem. It seems that it starts with Safari. Everything on page will be selected with only one finger. If I click on an application at the bottom of screen, it will try to move that application wherever my finger goes. Is this an OS issue or have I inadvertently changed some setting?

I too have the same problem. It seems that it starts with Safari. Everything on page will be selected with only one finger. If I click on an application at the bottom of screen, it will try to move that application wherever my finger goes. Is this an OS issue or have I inadvertently changed some setting? I do not have external mouse. This is the built in trackpad.

I am having the same problem. Sometimes I can't even use the computer at all. The trackpad does a number of different things:

1) Sometimes no matter what you do, it will only do the right click functions (come up with the little mini-menus)
2) Sometimes it will select everything
3) Sometimes it will not place the cursor where you want it, plus it's difficult to move it at all
4) Sometimes it does all of the above simultaneously, rendering the computer useless

Things that seem to help (temporarily):

1) Re-downloaded and re-installed the flashplayer
2) Restarting the computer

However, the trackpad will work for awhile (minutes or hours), and then suddenly act erratically again.

This is a HUGE problem. I've had Macs for about 20 years, and am a die-hard Mac addict, and have NEVER had anything so discouraging happen in my Mac usage before. I'm really pretty disgusted with the whole thing, this is obviously an issue that needs to be addressed by Apple.


Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook6,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz

Fully updated.