Mid-2011 13" Macbook Air Trackpad problem.

Thanks dylanito,

I certainly appreciate your detailed and compassionate response, and as you suggest (and I indicated), I will take my MBA to the Genius Bar next week when I'm back in San Francisco - and hope for the best. Of course I will let you (and the rest of the community) know about the result. For now, again, many thanks!

My 2011 Macbook Air started selecting items on it's own. The trackpad just went crazy. I scheduled an appointment at the Genius Bar, checked in, showed them the problem and they put a new trackpad in my machine in 20 minutes. Great buch of support people at the Lenexa store in Kansas!

BTW... still under warranty - no charge.

Hey ribbitribbit, I'm having the same issue with my mac air 2011. Did you find a fix or is it a hardware issue? It's so annoying!

I had just now, suddenly, a very jumpy and crazy trackpad issue on my 2011 MBA 13".

The reason: my power adaptor. Maybe it's the unstable current in our appartment, but as soon as I unplugged it the trackpad worked perfectly. I can reproduce this 'bug'. So there must be some buildup of tension...

Just FYI, maybe it helps somebody!

We are having this problem again on our 2011 macbook air, it was fixed about 6 months ago at apple, however my wife took it in and I don't remember what they did to fix it, Problem is, I bought this machine in Mid November of 2011 for Xmas gift, I didnt realize the warranty period started at time of purchase, I just checked and see it expired November 13th.

I had planned to purchase apple care before the warranty was up and missed it.

Since it had already been in for this well known issue I am going to try and take it in again and see if they will cover it, as they should givien it has failed now twice and is a known issue.

crosses fingers.

My mid-2011 MBA 13" is acting up with the exact same issue. The genius bar guy was saying the forum is not a representative of the people experiencing the issue. I feel otherwise - it seems like plenty of people around the world are having this issue. There should be an extension program to fix this.

My laptop is now taken away for 3 to 5 days. It's my primary laptop to do my work in. For something coming out Apple, I'd least expect the trackpad to fail! I have non-Apple laptops older than 10yrs with spinning disks and it still work!

I should add, they are also charging $90 to repair it...

I had this issue a while ago on my 13" MBA. I recall somebody a while back mentioning that it happened to them when they installed Parallels. I knew I had installed it at some point but thought it had been removed. When I upgraded to 10.8 Parallels popped up and said it was incompatible. At that time I did a proper uninstall. Since then, I haven't had the skipping trackpad problem.

I know this probably isn't the fix for everyone's problems, but it may work for some.

Good luck!

Hi erverybody,

I had the same issue with my brandnew MacBook Air Mid 2012. I noticed that I have this strange behaviour when I have it on my knees or have something capacitive near the trackpad like my hand - holding the MacBook or something metal.

As the MacBook is very thin where the trackpad sits - maybe there are some disturbances?

I did the following test:

• Turn on dragging with three fingers
• Put the MacBook on a table and grab a window an drag it around
• Now hold it in your left hand in a way that your palm is below the trackpad and do the same dragging with your right hand like before.
• Its quite impossible to drag the window while doing this.

This is only when I use multitouch gestures. It's a bit annoying cause I really like multitouch and I also like working with the MBA on my knees :-)

Regards

Reinhard

The issue is related to a bad contact or a short circuit in the trackpad. To resolve, have the trackpad replaced. Mine was done under guarantee. Your's should still be under guarantee also.

Yes, it is still under warranty. Just made an appointment in our Apple Store over here.

Thanks for the tip!

I'm having the same problem, and it's maddening!!! I was working with a client today, and trying to bring things up online as well as develop a quote for them. It kept moving files where they should not go (automatically), and I could even get it to double click inside a cell in Excel. It's sending me over the edge. I made an appointment at the Apple store, so we'll see what they come up with. I bought my MBA last January (2012), so I have a few more days left on my warranty.

I'll post once the problem is resolved.

Today I was at different shops (Apple Store as well) around here and tested the demo MacBook Air 13". I always open "Notes" and activate 3-finger-drag. Then I drag the "Notes" window around

1. when the MacBook is flat on the desk

2. when I tilt it a bit and hold my left plam below the trackpad

Same beviour. When I tilt it and hold have my palm below, the 3-finger-dragging doesn't work very well.

I have an appointment at the AppleStore over here but I doubt that changing the trackpad will fix this.

I will keep you updated :-)

So, I got my new track pad. It only took them about 24 hours to replace it. All is good right now, and it is working perfectly. Thank goodness for Apple care. Just to restate....I bought my MBA 11" in Jan 2012.

I did the same for my not working trackpad (additional clicks and so on)- tighten all screws in the back with pentalobe screwdriver and now its working like a charm! Thank you