Dashboard widgets don't respond to click

Go to ~/Library/Preferences

Move the com.apple.dashboard.plist file from the Preferences folder to the Trash.

See if your widgets work now.

If not, go to ~/Library/Widgets

Move all the Widgets from the Widgets folder to the Desktop except one then click the Dashboard icon to test.

Process of elimnation....

~ (Tilde) character represents the Home folder.

For Lion: To find the Home folder in OS X Lion, open the Finder, hold the Option key, and choose Go > Library

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account, or is system-wide. Enable guest logins and log in as Guest. For instructions, launch the System Preferences application, select “Help” from the menu bar, and enter “Set up a guest account” (without the quotes) in the search box.

While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your personal files or settings. Any application you run will behave as if you were running it for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.

As Guest, launch the application(s) and test. Same problem(s)?

After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. First, disconnect all wired peripherals except keyboard, mouse, and monitor, if applicable. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:

• Be sure your Mac is shut down.
• Press the power button.
• Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
• Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).

During startup, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login screen, which appears even if you normally log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.

Safe mode is slower than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including your login items.

Launch the application(s) and test. Same problem(s)?

After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)

In the Finder, hold down the option key and select Go > Library from the menu bar. From the Library folder, delete the following item:

Caches/com.apple.dashboard.client

Log out, log in, and try again.

Going back to the Library folder, in the Preferences subfolder there are files with names such as

widget-com.apple.widget.calendar.plist

Delete or move to the Desktop all such files that correspond to the widgets you're having problems with. Then log in/log out again and test.

First, back up all data if you haven't already done so. No matter what happens, you should be able to restore your system to the state it was in at the time of that backup.

In the Finder, hold down the option key and select Go > Library from the menu bar (Lion) or otherwise open the Library folder of your home folder (pre-Lion.) From the Library folder, move the entire contents of the subfolder Caches (not the folder itself) to the Trash, then log out and log back in. Empty the Trash. Test.

If the problem is not solved, open the Library folder again and move the entire contents of the subfolder Preferences (not the folder itself) to the Desktop. Log out and log back in. The account will then be pretty much in a clean state. Test. If you can still reproduce the problem, then put the Preferences folder contents back, replacing any that were created in their place, log out, and log in again.

If you can't reproduce the problem in the clean state, then start putting things back in the Preferences folder piecemeal, starting with items that seem unrelated to the issue. I can’t be more specific. After each group of items, repeat the log out/log in cycle and test. At some point, the problem may reappear, in which case you know that something in the last batch of files you restored is at fault. If it never reappears, the problem is solved.

This will be a very time-consuming process, but that’s the best I can do in this setting.

I have pretty much the identical problem, running 10.7.2 on a 2009 MBP. Interestingly all was well until about 3d ago when the widgets just stopped responding to mouse clicks. I cannot add packages to Delivery Status, change the weather location on weather, or change any widget preference. I have deleted everything that I believe is widget-related from preferences (see responses above), deleted the cache files, restarted etc. The problem is only with my account, as the widgets work as normal with the guest account. Seemingly the only thing I haven't tried is giving the machine a good thump!

I will repost if I come up with a solution.

Problem rectified. As Linc Davis suggested, I started by moving all the preferences out to a folder on the desktop. The finder and dock preference files get regenerated immediately. I restarted, and as I predicted, the problem went away. It's amazing what havoc a corrupt .plist file can cause. What happened next was unpredictable. I trashed all the new preferences and just dragged all of the old ones back, replacing the finder and dock pref files when asked. Then I restarted and the problem was resolved. The only thing amiss was that the Finder and Dock preferences were lost (I will have to manually add all my apps to the dock I guess) but I don't really care about that. So to save yourself some time, before you do what I did, trash com.apple.dock.plist and com.apple.finder and restart. That may well solve your problem. If not, then you'll have to try trashing all the prefs like I did and hopefully you will stumble onto the corrupted one, or else you will be lucky and what happened to me will happen to you!

Best of luck!