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belosh Author

Level 1

3 points

Can't Drag and Drop Anything

I've installed OS X Lion and now when I click on an icon on my desktop and drag it, it follows along nicely, only letting go of the mouse button doesn't drop it. In fact, nothing does. Instead the icon hangs onto the cursor as if I have kept holding down the mouse button. If I want to drag something to the trash, when I hover over the Trash icon and let go, it acts like I'm still holding down the mouse button and instead opens up the Trash folder. It's not limited to trash, it's just where I first noticed it. I can't move files between folders.

This pretty much happens across the board, too. Drag an icon off of the dock to remove it, it just hangs onto the mouse pointer and never goes away. Drag an icon from the icon bar at the top (command-click) and you can pick up the icon and move it, but never drop it. Is there a solution to this?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 20, 2011 6:11 PM

261 replies

Aug 25, 2011 7:29 PM in response to justinxxvii

Thanks justinxxvii . I did a "Force Quit" of Finder, and once it re-launched d&d worked for me again. (That's drag & drop, not dungeons & dragons.)

didis

Level 1

0 points

Aug 26, 2011 1:50 PM in response to sachl

The Sleep/Wake worked for me as well.

Problem and workaround still needfull with itunes version 10.4.1 and mac os x 10.7.1 !!

Sep 6, 2011 1:20 AM in response to belosh

Same here with the drag & drop, the problem also occurs on the dock when adding / rearranging items.

The Sleep/Wake method works for me as well.

Apple should do something...

Sep 6, 2011 5:37 AM in response to angelofrombern

SMH, this is because of the third party drivers you have installed on your computer to support another display, angelfrombern. They say it's because of lack of support for the nvidia 9400. changing it to the 9600 will address your dragging issue but there are still a large number of issues with these drivers. Delete said drivers and your computer will work better.

you could do something now by uninstalling these drivers from your computer and waiting for the third party company to fix their issue. This is not something apple has any responsibility in fixing on their own.

you should see if your problem driver has a forum so you can know when they fix the issue or other work arounds.

Oct 14, 2011 6:59 AM in response to belosh

I suspect that in my case it's the Wacom tablet driver that is causing the issue. Very annoying!

I'm using a 13" MacBook Pro (2011) with the Thunderbolt screen. The issue only occurs when the screen is connected.

Oct 28, 2011 10:15 AM in response to Community User

Sleep and wake worked for me too.

Forcing Finder to Quit and relaunching did not work. 3 restarts did not work, but getting my macbook to sleep and wake did work. I was getting to the end of my tether when I found this fix. Thanks to all who commented.

Macbook Pro 15" 2009 (Model Identifier: 5,3)

Oct 28, 2011 12:27 PM in response to Greg Welch

Brilliant this worked for me! Thank-you for the short term fix

Oct 28, 2011 5:32 PM in response to belosh

Maybe a bit late in the game, but let me mention one of Apple's solutions for the drag and drop failure when using a trackpad:

"Press the lower edge of the trackpad using the bottom of your palm."

Don't take my word for it. Just try it.

Hope it helps some.

belosh Author

Level 1

3 points

Oct 29, 2011 5:01 AM in response to belosh

I don't know if everyone else has experienced this, but I've been using the latest Display Link driver (Beta 4) and with the latest OS X update provided by Apple, I no longer have experienced the drag & drop problem. So I've basically considered the issue resolved. Also, the Beta 4 Display Link driver didn't work on its own, but after the OS X patch, things have been working great. So I can't verify that the Beta 3 driver works or if it was all Apple's doing. Though if some are still having issues, I'm sorry to hear it. It was certainly a frustrating one to deal with.

Oct 29, 2011 12:08 PM in response to belosh

DisplayLink points out the computers still affected here : http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1059

Symptoms caused by this issue are:

The login screen may not be shown

When dragging a window, you are unable to drop it

Rendering issues on Safari, Quicktime, VLC and possibly other apps

Affected machines include:

13" MacBook (aluminum late 2008, early, mid, and late 2009)

13" MacBook Air (late 2008, mid 2009)

13" MacBook Pro (mid 2009)

15" MacBook Pro (late 2008, 2.53 GHz mid 2009, mid 2009)

17" MacBook Pro (early and mid 2009).

20" iMac (early or mid 2009)

24" iMac (early 2009)

21.5" iMac (late 2009)

Mac mini (early or late 2009, Server late 2009)

Mac mini Mac OS X Server (late 2009)

Which patch are you referring to?

belosh Author

Level 1

3 points

Oct 29, 2011 12:40 PM in response to TheSmokeMonster

I don't recall the Apple information. All I know is I had updated the Display Link drivers to Beta 4, still had the issue as always, but shortly after there was an OS X update, whatever the last update happened to be, and upon installing that update, I no longer had the drag & drop problems. I assumed it contained a fix for everyone, but apparently I just got lucky.

putnik

Level 4

1,179 points

Oct 29, 2011 1:09 PM in response to belosh

Could this be as simple as disabling the Drag Lock function?

System Preferences>Universal Access>Mouse & Trackpad>Trackpad Options

Oct 29, 2011 2:29 PM in response to putnik

no, Putnik 😉, the OP's issue is definitely DisplayLink drivers. Check out the forum link I posted, there is a lot of stir in the forums of this and other issues it has created when lion was released.

Nov 10, 2011 1:28 PM in response to putnik

Putnik: That worked well my friend - thanks! You certainly know your onions.

Nov 15, 2011 3:49 AM in response to belosh

I'm experiencing this issue on an iMac 27" Mid-2010 2.93GHz machine. It has occurred on an upgrade from SL to Lion and on a clean install of Lion w/ user account migration from the aforementioned upgraded OS.

In my experience, relaunching the Finder works briefly. When attempting the first drag-n-drop, it works. When attempting the second it does not.

Also, sleep does not resolve the issue.

The 3rd party drivers that I'm aware of that may be outdated are Elgato EyeTV Hybrid USB tuner and LogMeIn. Neither were in use when the Finder stopped functioning.

Can't Drag and Drop Anything