trackpad moving but not clicking

I cannot believe this but i had this exact issue... (facepalm)

hmmm.. i had the same problem... sitting upstairs playing Poker...

My girlfriend was cleaning downstairs and put a paper tissue box ontop of my magic magic mouse causing the problem... pfff really frustrating.. 😁😝

I had the same issue... I was using my magic mouse before I shutdown my computer and magic mouse was still powered on after my computer restart. I restarted computer several times but did not help. After reading this post, I turned off my magic mouse and restarted computer again and trackpad click was working fine. I didnot needed to reset the PRAM and NVRAM.

I hope it helps!

Thanks

Tushar

As I was reading your reply, I was jealous. I just knew my problem couldn't be fixed so easily. I am at home and my Magic Mouse was at work on my desk. Out of desperation, I checked my laptop bag, and there was my Magic Mouse! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I've found a very easy way to reproduce this issue with the magic mouse. If you are holding the magic mouse click as you switch it off with the underside power switch, it gets into this state. Basically the magic mouse button is permanently pressed and this prevents the touchpad click from working.

Probably a similar problem if the magic mouse goes to sleep with the button pressed down (like it might be in the bottom of a bag)??

It should really release the buttons when it loses connection to the mouse.

I just purchased a Mac mini today with the wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad. I had to use a hard wired mouse to do the initial start up, but now after the computer is up and running, the track pad mouse is moving but I cannot "click" anything.

This is the only mac in the house and I do not have any other mac hardware around, like mice or anything. Any ideas?

Take me out and dunk me in a vat of motor oil. I tried everything including sending all my other hardware with input devices to my sister in Uganda. Totally convinced this was not my problem I went back to setting pram's and vram's and pounding my head against more useless bulletin boards that continued to tell me what to do if my mouse would click. Finally, I picked up a pillow in the corner of my office to suffocate my frustrated self and found a white wireless mouse grinning at me.

I can't believe what worked for me. After rebooting, reading different websites, trying to fix it on my own, perplexed why one day the trackpad was working just fine, and then it stopped clicking.

Thank you, Twheeler 77, for posting your amazing words of wisdom!! Your the best.

✅

twheeler 77 wrote:

In case anyone has the same issue as above but not relating to the Magic Mouse (I don't use one), it may be from dust or crumbs in the clickpad (if mechanical models). Try holding the laptop upside down and tapping the clickpad hard several times. This worked for me. I promise to ease up on the cookies, ha.

Worked brilliantly for me!! Your the best.

Hi. None of these worked for me. Here's the difference...

My laptop ran out of battery while connected via bluetooth to a magic mouse and keyboard. I took the laptop only to a school, plugged it in, powered it up and noticed the trackpad wouldn't click but would tap.

In my brilliance (Lol!), I went into the Settings and turned off the "tap to click" check box. OMG! Now all I can do is move the cursor.

I tried zapping the PRAM but not the other one with no luck.

Any thoughts on this one?

i think was messing with the track pad ad didn’t know what i was doing ;/ ... is there a way to set it back to default settings? it moves, but it won’t open most things when i click. siri was the way i opened this safari... please help

I put my MacBook to sleep and opened it back up again to turn it on and it worked just fine to fix the mouse click issue. To get to those points of sleeping though, you will need to use the keyboard and hold the power button until the options come up to put it to sleep. From there, hit tab until you are over sleep and hit enter.

Thanks Ralph,

It looks like I had the exact same problem. My magic mouse was accidentally turned on in my notebook bag. I turned it off and all is well.

Thanks again for the help,

Peter

I tried all the above and it did not work. However, this (SMC reset) did!

1. Turn off your computer.
2. Plug in the MagSafe adapter.
3. Press Shift-Option-Control, on the left side of the keyboard, and the power button, at the same time and hold it for 5 seconds.
4. Let go of all the buttons.
5. Turn your computer back on with the power button.

Apple Store is free, so a good place to start. iFixit and PowerBook Medic have parts and instructions if you want to try to fix it yourself. Here's a link:

https://www.powerbookmedic.com/MacBook-Pro-15-Unibody-Trackpad-p-17445.html

(Not sure exactly which Mac you have, but you can chase down the trackpad and install video for your exact model.)

Good luck!

Exact same problem: Magic Mouse in laptop bag, left powered on, was messing with my cursor. Had it not been for this forum, I might never have figured this out. Thanks, Ralph.