How can I stop trackpad from hurting/burning my fingertips?

is the battery very hot too? It might be xferring the heat from the battery, which is directly under the trackpad. Also, MacBook's were never shipped with 10.3, which is the version of OS X listed in your profile. Do you have an older model notebook or is the o/s just not updated from a prior mac?

SS-W

Whether the mac is new or old, clean or dirty, it will make my fingers burn. I used laptops before my mac and they didn't make my fingers burn. My ibook didn't make my fingers burn, only the macbook. Either I developed the intolerance or what they put in the track pads changed. My new air is the worst out of all of them. I should have played around with it more before buying it. I have already been through two mouses because I have to lug them around everywhere with me. It's annoying, but.....I can't think of anything else to do.

I hope you guys are stil active on this, I have been extensively researching this since January. I believe it is an allergy to the nickel or another substance used to coat the aluminum alloy on apple products. Right now I am typing on my iPad mini and the back is slightly burning the tips of my fingers. Apparently the allergy develops after prolonged exposure to the metal mixing with small amounts of sweat.

If you use other apple products like iPhone etc, after your fingers hurt from your comp, try holding the unprotected edge of your iPhone and you will start to feel the burn.

I started using a mouse at work, but my company gave me an apple mouse that has the aluminum on the underside, haha' but it is still better than the trackpad.

I also ordered some "protective" layers for the palm rests and trackpad. Just the protection is for me rather than the computer it was intended for.

Can anybody confirm my iPhone hypothesis?

Thanks :)

Thank you HB315!

I figured it had to be an allergy.

I remember way back when I was just starting out in the business world and the Selectric typewriter keys gave me a weird rash - supposedly and allergy.

I'll try the protective layer thing and the trick with my iPhone too and let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for your extensive research!

I am going to ask a new question on this Apple Support Communities regarding you situation, I have the same problem with the same point that I have been using my MacBook Pro for two years. I don't have the issue with "[feeling] a lot of heat radiating from trackpad" But I think it could be a problem that a coating of some sort has worn off over the years that we have been using it. It could be a coating that helps reduce friction and with that worn off the "burning sensation" is just that, burning, because of more friction. I know there is some situations posted here where they have only been using the track bad for months. But a lot of the problems might be because of an increase of friction between fingers and track pad.

I even gave it a few weeks for my fingers to heal, because it started after using it for a long time one day, but my fingers get the burning feeling right away now.

The thing is corbybuckels I have this problem with brand new macs or old ones. I can see how your problem may have begun slowly, but for me it is as though now no matter how new the trackpad is, my fingers react. I have a lot of weird food intolerances as well and when I tell my friends about this 'intolerance' of mine, they just laugh. So I mostly don't tell people because I'm tired of everyone thinking I'm crazy... =)

I just started having this problem today. It's kind of humid here in Japan, so I suppose the problem is sweaty fingers and fine particles of sweat / dirt on the trackpad causing friction.

People with soft fingers tend to have this problem, especially if they've been exposed to a lot of cleaning products or chemicals without using gloves.

I rubbed Vaseline into my fingertips, just a tiny dot of it, enough to coat my fingers. Now they're gliding across the trackpad with ease. The Vaseline doesn't seem to be rubbing off on the keys either. I'd recommend Vaseline over lotion as the hands will absorb less of it, in my opinion.

I have an update. I figured out that it is definitely friction and heat over time rather than an exposure of nickel. It takes most users a year or two of using a macbook or trackpad before the pain occurs. In this time period the friction and heat will wear down your fingertips. I noticed because not only does my trackpad hurt my fingertips, but my android phone as well. Also the fingertips on my right hand, the one I use, are very smooth. Whereas my left hand fingertips remain rugged as usual. I can use my left hand and there is no burn. However, that won't work as a fix being right handed. I am now restricted to a good old fashion mouse. No more trackpad functionality. Oh well.

Please explain how friction causes my palms to burn and get irritated from the edge of my iPhone?? I am not trying to discount that friction might be a factor for many. But mine started out with my fingers because that's the point of most contact with my comp but as the allergy progressed, any contact with Apple's aluminum(containing a nickel alloy) burns and irritates whatever part of ,y skin it is contact with!

Hmm, sounds like some people have problems with the allergy and some people with heat and friction. I can say for my case it is heat and friciton, but for you all signs point to nickel exposure. Has anyone here called apple? I feel like I should. Their product is literally hurting me. Something could be done.

I am leaning more toward allergy than heat and friction as touching the outside of my macbook air or the back of our iMac - any contact with the aluminum causes a mild pain - almost like conducting an electrical current through the tips of my fingers. It's very disappointing after spending $2k on switching from non-Mac to Mac. Love what the machine can do but not loving this fingertip pain issue. I hope Apple can come up with a fix for this for future iterations of their products.

It was very difficult for me to use the trackpad because I have sweaty hands all the time. Baby powder solved this problem for me. My keyboard, though, gets all covered by baby powder, but I don't care.

pls discontinue using the builtin trackpad and use an external trackpad, they are cooler in temperature wise.. I have already bought an external track pad for 50 bucks and I will see if it heals my problem...

so.... anyone still having these issues?

i have it slghtly...

if im on the computer long enough and keep brushing my fingers on that trackpad they get all sensitive and tingly.

sometimes cutting my nails causes me to touch it with a different part of my fingertip and this helps.... but its just a quickfix. Im gonna try a mouse.

i guess touching the trackpad all day can cause nerve damage.......i dunno