just recently my trackpad has been messing up. It will be like im right clicking to highlight everything. and the cursor changes into the one when you are typing something. This is really annoying and the only way to fix it is if I restart my computer. Any suggestions
No, turning bluetooth off does NOT help my trackpad to start clicking.
If it was the Update fault as u suggest then i believe it should have been gone after i had formatted my mbp completely, but that does not help either so i believe its a manufacturing fault.
i stumbled across my little four corner trick out of frustration by angrily tapping the pad, so i'm glad that people have found it useful as well.
new trick - and not quite so bizarre (though it is still interesting that i just dropped 1.2k on this machine and i need a flippin' 'trick' to make it function properly):
just tap with one finger, in quick succession, on the pad. I've tried it several times now and it has worked every time - no need for four corners or one side or even multiple fingers.
no need to reboot, open another program or throw you mbp at the wall, or take it the genius bar 'cause they got nothing. and the bluetooth thing totally did not work.
Yeah, that trick has worked for me since the beginning. Like double-clicking except four times not two. It actually hasn't happened for me in a while... I don't recall a specific update that did it.
I am not sure that this is a problem with the update...
If you lightly click all over the trackpad, it's like it unsticks and you can go back to moving like normal. There is no restart needed. On mine, I think the physical trackpad is getting stuck.
i had the same problem. all it did was run my fingernail around the edge of the trackpad, particularly in the bottom right where the 'click' is. there was a little dirt in there that was keeping the trackpad from working properly. works fine now.
I got exactly the same problem today and I was able to resolve it. The trackpad on my new MacBook Pro i7 started behaving erratically: cursor jumps, highlights text, clicks randomly, etc. I have noticed two things however:
1) Trackpad's erratic behavior only happens if I put my macbook on a certain surfaces, like a printer top; once I move it away from the printer, trackpad is immediately back to norm
2) Magic trackpad connected at the same time works fine, no jumps/highlights/clicks, etc.
The conclusion is obvious, at least in my case: trackpads are capacitive devices which means their behavior can be strongly affected by surrounding surfaces. Simply try to put your laptop on another table, far from metallic surfaces, or from other electric devices that can produce static electric field (printer in my case). The same should work for Magic Trackpad, for exactly same reason.
Just had exactly the same problem with my MBP 15" SR after updating to 10.6.5. The mighty mouse would work, but trackpad functionality on the finder bar in particular was duffed. I have, however, fixed it by disabling bluetooth and then turning back on again. Appears to be working fine now.
GET A GRIP APPLE - THIS SORT OF PROBLEM IS WHY I MOVED FROM PCS!
I had this issue and reviewed this and other threads and tried all possible solutions (two-finger tap, software updates), but no joy. One thing I was pretty sure was that it had something to do with the battery, as my trackpad problems started soon after some weird things started happening with my battery. I also noticed that the click button didn't have that nice distinctive click when I pressed it.
Sure enough, I took my MacBook Pro in today to the Genius bar and found that my battery had expanded, and so it was putting pressure on the underside of the trackpad and click button so that it always thought the click button was being pressed, which was making the trackpad and cursor go haywire. When pointed out, I could actually see this on the battery. If you suspect this might be your problem, take out your battery and look at it - if it doesn't sit flat on a flat surface or appears to be bulging, it's your battery that's the problem. Another way to test is to just run your computer (plugged in obviously) without the battery and see if you're still experiencing trackpad problems. If you aren't, then it's your battery and you'll need to replace it.
Great suggestion - that solved the problem for me. When I removed the battery it was clearly bulging in the middle which was especially noticeable when I put it on a flat surface. Another clue that I should have picked up on was that the battery cover on the bottom was not fitting flush with the rest of the case. The bulging battery was pushing the cover out slightly and also pushing up on the bottom of the trackpad, essentially keeping it "clicked" all the time. I guess this points out how dependent all our high tech stuff is on battery technology.
I have a brand new macbook pro, and I can assure you no one on this post is crazy. The trackpad has some serious issues! It is just funny that Apple hasn't responded to this yet. I would like to know what a permanent fix would be. am really upset.
Emotions aside, if anyone finds a solution it would be nice to let everyone know. My cursor is walzing around as I type.
Maybe they're waiting to release a software fix until the next generation... then they can tell us we need to upgrade. :/ Apple would never do something like that, would they now?
I am having the same or at least very similar issues with the trackpad on my MacBook Pro. However, the problem seems to happen only after "undocking". By that I mean disconnecting external monitor, turning off Magic Mouse, unplugging, etc. Like many others who posted here, I have to restart to get the trackpad working again. Anyone else notice a correlation between undocking and trackpad issues?
I have been having the same issues with my trackpad but I have noticed it's the worst when I'm moving the mouse vertically, it seems to respond best when moving horizontally at the very top of the trackpad. I don't know if other people are having this issue but my trackpad begins to really act up if I try to use two fingers to scroll. To temporarily fix my problem I purchased a wireless mouse but from time to time it acts up too. The weird thing is though when my wireless mouse acts up if I rest my hand on my trackpad the problem seems to go away. Any idea if this could be a system problem or a physical problem with my trackpad?
Seeing as both your trackpad and your new mouse are acting strangely, it's most likely the same OS X software problem as the others on this thread have been having. :/
Which makes me wonder... I don't use Windows on my MBP, but to those who have it dual-booted: have you noticed any problems when using the Windows partition? If you don't, that would mean it's not the hardware OR the drivers- something that's part of OS X perhaps.
