Trackpad issue? Clicking makes cursor jump to dock.

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Level 1

10 points

Trackpad issue? Clicking makes cursor jump to dock.

(For reference, this is happening on my new 15" Retina Macbook Pro, and the trackpad update has been applied.)

I'm not sure if this is a trackpad issue or if I'm somehow clicking "wrong," but I've noticed this issue with my trackpad, and it hasn't happened on the previous macs I've used.

About 20% of the time, when I click on something with my trackpad, the cursor jumps all the way down to the dock and clicks there. This ends up opening random programs and is generally annoying. Clicking also sometimes "deselects" and grays out the current window, which is generally odd.

This typically happens when I'm working quickly or clicking the button hard, so I'm not sure if maybe there's a trackpad setting I don't understand or I'm inadvertantly making a multitouch gesture to select the dock? (Is that even possible?) Am interested to find out if this is something I'm doing wrong or if this is an actual trackpad issue.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 18, 2012 8:29 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

crampy

Level 4

1,135 points

Jun 18, 2012 9:05 AM in response to 829z

I have had that happen a few times. I can think of two easy cures- if the problem is what mine was/is.

I sometimes get lazy hand and more than one part of my hand is actually touching the pad... Ooops.

Also, you can go to system preferences>trackpad and read the various things you can do...

And OH I see (my macbook is a few days old, previous machine an old power book- much changed in 8 yrs) that I find no settings for sensitivity...Hmmm. I was going to suggest make it slightly less sensitive...

OK, touch pad with only the things the prefs pane shows... CORRECTION: in point & click in system prefs>track pad>point and click you cna adjust speed... maybe slow it down a little will help.

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Answer 2

Jan 31, 2013 11:19 AM in response to 829z

I've found how to recreate the issue very, very easily. Just alternate touching the trackpad with two fingers, tapping lightly and quickly with your index and middle finger. First my cursor will move just a little, then jump down and to the left and click open a program in the dock. No other hand on the laptop, just a light touch of the alternating finger tips.

Does this recreate the bug for you? Is it a hardware thing? Could it be some weird multi touch feature gone wrong?

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Answer 3

Jan 31, 2013 11:22 AM in response to jontekristo

Also, the greater the tracking speed setting in system prefs, the greater/bigger the jump.

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Answer 4

Jan 31, 2014 9:51 PM in response to jontekristo

jontekristo wrote:

I've found how to recreate the issue very, very easily. Just alternate touching the trackpad with two fingers, tapping lightly and quickly with your index and middle finger. First my cursor will move just a little, then jump down and to the left and click open a program in the dock. No other hand on the laptop, just a light touch of the alternating finger tips.

Does this recreate the bug for you? Is it a hardware thing? Could it be some weird multi touch feature gone wrong?

This "alternating of the fingers" does recreate the problem for me. I have the identical itermitent trackpad problem where the mouse will jump to the dock while clicking.

I have a feeling this problem can be mostly be avoided by being aware of finger habits rather than an actual "fix" from Apple. If you're always careful to click with the your finger of choice on the trackpad, rather than moving the cursor around with one finger and clicking with another, you will probably avoid this weird cursor jump that happens when alternating between fingers.

You'd like to think it wouldn't matter, but maybe it just does...

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