Mouse and trackpad intermittently stop working

Repairing permissions is a waste of time and don't worry about its reports. You will always see a bunch.

Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore

Being alone with a skipping, intermittent magic mouse? Hardly. Google "skipping mouse", "magic mouse loses connection".

As for two mice that were working on two machines and suddenly both machines having problems, that could be from some kind of new interference. Have you added any wireless devices recently like routers? Read this article,

AirPort and Bluetooth: Potential sources of wireless interference

Sorry I don't know the answer then. I think I know the answer for occasionally missing single left clicks but not all left clicks.

One possible reason for an older MM's to ignore a click may simply being dirt clogging up the clicking mechanism. I occasionaly use a small postit notes to push out the gunk along the space between the top surface and aluminum case. You said you have a new MM so I don't think that is your problem.

Hi - now I'm having that same problem. I have a Logitech wireless mouse and today both it and the trackpad have been failing to recognize left clicks. When I reboot, it works for a while but then fails after a few minutes. I've also got a magic pad and will experiment to see if there's some strange combination that's causing this problem, but I've had all these devices for a few months now, with no problems. I'd appreciate any suggestions for help.

In the meantime, I have one idea. I wasn't using the magic pad this AM, and left it sitting in my backpack about three feet from the Macbook Pro. Perhaps it being close, but not close enough caused some weirdness....

Thanks - Logan

I have experienced the exact same thing with our older 13 inch macbook. I was using a bluetooth mouse and noticed intermittantly the left click would stop working entirely, but right click worked and mouse tracking worked. Restarting solved the problem for a while but the problem would always return. I bought a wired usb mouse hoping it was just a problem with that particular mouse or with bluetooth. However the wired mouse does the exact same thing. I'm at a loss.

absoludicrous,

Let's hope by now your problem is resolved. But I will add my experience in case it helps others.

I had the same left-click disappearing problems on both my MacBookPro (mid 2008) and a new-to-me MacMini4,1 (mid 2010) this week. I am happy to report both are resolved.

MacBookPro: the Genius Bar (thank you Apple!) immediately detected what I'll call "swollen battery syndrome". The third party Li-ion battery in my MBP had swollen, and was pressing on the underside of the trackpad. This apparently caused the tap dectector to fail, probably in a closed position. The Genius diagnosed this by simply noticing the trackpad did not yield properly when he tapped on it. As a result, no pointing device (USB mouse nor Bluetooth mouse) could do a left-click. When I replaced the after market battery with my original Apple Li-ion one, problem solved!

MacMini: for this one it was easy for me to reinstall and update OS X 10.6. After that, the problem has not recurred. I do not know why the problem happened in the first place, so this is a bit less satisfying result.

Hope this helps.

I had this exact same problem yesterday-- but found the answer in another thread here: Bluetooth prefs. Go to Bluetooth, remove your mouse. That fixed it for me! Then I just went back into Bluetooth prefs and re-established the connection again, and all has be peachy for me ever since!! Try it!

Thank you for your post. It helped me quickly diagnose this. My Macbook was having the left mouse button on my USB mouse stops working issue. I tested multiple mice. It would work then stop working and a restart was the only way to make it work again. I found your post, looked, and sure enough the original Apple battery was bulging out very significantly. It was bowing the laptop and it was sticking out the bottom. I won't assume this is possible, but the battery looks like it's close to rupturing. With the laptop plugged into the wall and the battery removed the mouse works fine. Thanks again!

Many thanks for your post! I had the exact same problem with the standard, Apple battery which came with my MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008). Once I removed the battery both my trackpad and logitech USB trackball started working again.

I was seeing similar symptoms. First the left-click on the track pad stopped working. The right-click then started working as a left-click and ultimately began to "stick" as if I were continuously holding down the button. I hope others with the problem find this thread.!

I to am now a victim of the no click left or right trackpad issue. I was opening a program and all of a sudden my audio device closed, track pad stopped clicking on items, left or right click. I attempted to restart but cant click on anything, when hooking up a usb mouse Right click works, but im still not able to restart . Holding the power button, and re powering hasnt fixed anything and its opening with my downloads folder open, I attempted the resets that everyone else has spoken of, command option pand r , that did nothing, i powered it off , held the power button down til the light blinked, it still opens the same way everytime, I let the battery run down till it powered off, hoping that would reset something, or allow a restart, nope didnt happen, its still opening the same way, boots up opens my home screen ,then, the downloads folder opens...the mouse movement left right up and down are fine, just the click, and the folder that opens each time. I am on a macbook pro 15 inch,10.6.8 I7 processor, i did a diagnostic on it, no problems found, I attempted a reboot , but could not click once it got to the options of time machine, internet back up, etc etc. Just seems odd .it was working just fine until I opened a program, thats when the show started, any one else having issues like this,or is this a new plague?

My bluetooth mouse would stop responding every few minutes. Someone suggested wedging a small piece of folded paper between the two AA cells. I tried that and have not had a bit of trouble since. In my case, I think there was enough play for the batteries to temporarily lose contact. Did not try cleaning the terminals. Someone else tried that and said it worked.