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trackpad settings not saving after powering down

after checking the boxes for new trackpad gesture settings (clicking, dragging, draglock, and double tap), they often do not save after I turn off and turn back on my computer.


normally then after starting up, I would then have to go back to trackpad settings and re-check those boxes. I have tried checking for software updates, but nothing so far has solved this issue.


anyone with the same issue and has found the resolution?


FYI, i'm running OS X 10.6.8 (snow leopard) on a late 2006 MacBook w/ a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo processor.


thanks in advance...

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Aug 18, 2011 12:20 AM

Reply
28 replies

Feb 28, 2012 1:05 AM in response to raymond11

Just a quick note to say that I tried deleting the trackpad.plist file from the preferences folder as suggested by an earlier poster but that the problem persists. Resetting PRAM also didn't do the trick as the trackpad settings keep being reset everytime I shut down and reboot. It's about time apple solved this issue. 😟

Mar 3, 2012 7:34 AM in response to raymond11

@HankCPH . . .

Same here . . . nothing works and all those other problems returned too, such as, if I try to click on something a drop down menu appears as if I had control+clicked and it's hard to get rid of it as it follows my mouse around. So many unpleasant things. Another one is when all my icons on the desktop suddenly shrink down to the smallest size. Or suddenly the view, on a page, zooms in as high as possible. ACKKKKK! 😢

Mar 3, 2012 12:47 PM in response to raymond11

My solutions is to use a mouse . . inconvenient but not as inconvenient as dealing with the track pad problems . . .. . . I think Apple has forgotten all about us and there will never be a fix or a solution of any kind . . .


I still love my apples and as I have bought 30+ iMacs for my computer lab . . . and never have troubles like people do with pcs . .. I still recommend macs to people . .

Jun 28, 2012 4:26 PM in response to Serenity17

deleting the file causes OS X to regenerate it with default settings. I've tried this, but I won't know if it's worked or not for a while...


go into System Preferences and make sure that you have your settings for the Trackpad how you want them.

open Terminal.app and issue the following commands:


cd ~/Library/Preferences

chmod a-w com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist


then quit Terminal.


This removes the ability to change the file and should prevent it from being reset randomly. But it might not.


If you need to change it back to being writable:


cd ~/Library/Preferences

chmod +w com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist

trackpad settings not saving after powering down

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