Tap-To-Click in Login Screen OSX Mountain Lion

Question

Tap-To-Click in Login Screen OSX Mountain Lion

I need to enable Tap-To-Click in the OSX Mountain Lion Login Screen after booting up.

I have searched and tried all the available options online; mainly referring to proceedures made for Leopard and Snow Leopard, with no luck.

I have gathered that I need to somehow set the System Wide Settings to enable Tap-To-Click as default...

... Does anyone know how or has been able to do so on Mountain Lion?

Thanks.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 25, 2012 3:33 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 26, 2012 7:45 AM in response to Mr. Apple iMac

Run this command from Terminal:

sudo defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad Clicking -int 1

That answer was lifted from MacRumours (Trackpad tap-to-click on login screen). Worked for me on Mountain Lion, 2008 Mac Pro.

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Answer 2

Jul 26, 2012 8:13 AM in response to Jason Hendriks

Thanks Jason.

I've tried that command already but gave it another go with no success. I did however go through the long process of accessing the hidden GlobalPreferences.plist file and editting it manually; with it not working I reverted the settings back to its original state. Do you think that might have effected this easier Terminal command? Would there be any reason why the command you gave me won't work?

Possible Mountain Lion re-install?

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Answer 3

Jul 26, 2012 8:15 AM in response to Mr. Apple iMac

Just to confirm -- you tried it as sudo? ie you were forced to enter your password? writing to defaults is a privileged command.

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Answer 4

Jul 26, 2012 8:23 AM in response to Jason Hendriks

I typed the code you gave me into Terminal, which then subsiquently asked me to enter the password (assuming that it's the master password for my account)... No errors were shown in Terminal after entering the password.

Is there anything would have needed to have done? Sudo business has gone over my head in all honesty.

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Answer 5

Jul 26, 2012 8:58 AM in response to Mr. Apple iMac

Seems that the solution I posted is only for the Magic Trackpad, not the one built into the MacBook. I tried it on my 2010 Macbook Pro and it didn't work. I also tried this solution from GitHub with no success, though you might want to try it too.

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Answer 6

Jul 26, 2012 9:22 AM in response to Jason Hendriks

I had no luck with that one either. Maybe Mountain Lion is not longer accepting that particular command setting. Thanks for trying to help though. If you ever find out please give me a shout.

To recap, the Terminal commands...

sudo defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad Clicking -int 1

and

# Enable tap to click on a Magic Trackpad

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad Clicking -bool true

# Enable tap to click for the active user

defaults -currentHost write NSGlobalDomain com.apple.mouse.tapBehavior -int 1

# Enable tap to click on the login screen

defaults write NSGlobalDomain com.apple.mouse.tapBehavior -int 1

... have not worked when using OSX Mountain Lion.

Has anyone else got any other options we could try?

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Answer 7

Jul 26, 2012 10:01 AM in response to Mr. Apple iMac

For what it's worth, that didn't work for my MacBook Pro in Lion either, nevermind Mountain Lion. The only working solution I have is for the bluetooth-enabled Magic Trackpad in Lion and Mountain Lion.

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Answer 8

Apr 2, 2017 11:55 AM in response to Mr. Apple iMac

I know this is a super ancient post, but it is funny to think there is even still an option to not have "tap-to-click" turned on.

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