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Nertz Author

Level 1

0 points

TrackPad physical click not working after upgrade to Mountain Lion

Does anybody know how to get my trackpad working again after upgrading to Mountain Lion?

I recently upgraded my MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009, Intel Core 2 Duo) from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. Everything seems to have gone well, except for trackpad behavior.

The primary problem is that the physical click of the trackpad is now erratic. Sometimes a physical click will work, and other times it will not work.

Note: The "tapping" of the trackpad DOES work consistently. I have confirmed that System Prefs > Trackpad > "Tap to Click" is enabled, and so tapping is not the problem. (The "tap to click" selector does exhibit a unique behavior however--if I DESELECT "tap to click," then the physical click no longer works at all. It looks like the "tap to click" selector can completely disable the physical click of the trackpad, but cannot enable the physical click completely.)

I have also checked the settings on System Prefs > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad, but none of those settings affect the physical click of the trackpad.

I tried zapping the PRAM, but that did not change the problem with physical clicking on the trackpad.

Grateful for any ideas...

Nertz

MacBook (13-inch Late 2009), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 27, 2012 8:49 AM

40 replies

aharn

Level 1

0 points

Nov 4, 2013 6:02 PM in response to Nertz

My 2012 retina macbook pro wakes from sleep or occationally crashes and the trackpad appears to be held down by an invisible force... this is particularly frustrating as many applications are difficult to save or close without a mouse on a Mac.

Fixes: If i put the computer to sleep and wake from sleep repeatedly I get a few seconds of clicking, then failures again. Repetition of this sleep attempts seem to get back on track.

Quite a feature. Restarting has not solved it. What i thought was surely hardware to be terrible software error. This is running osx 10.8.3.

Dec 26, 2013 7:00 AM in response to eshute

eshute: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! Yesterday all of a sudden my trackpad went wonky. Wouldn't click or respond at all. Saw your suggestion to clean it and VOILA, it's clicking and working like new!!! Truly amazing.

To the poster that mentioned the battery. Mine is showing "replace soon". It will still charge for a 2 hours usage. I won't really need a better charge until June and thought I'd wait 'til then to replace it. Bad idea? I sure don't want it affecting other things like you said.

One last thing. The scrolling is backward now. I remember it being like that before but can't remember how I changed it. How do I change it so when I scroll down on the pad the page scrolls down instead of up?

Thanks to everyone!!

Dec 26, 2013 7:04 AM in response to eshute

Oh shoot, I meant to ask: will a wireless mouse work when the trackpad doesn't? Just in case this would happen again and cleaning it doesn't fix it.

Also, I figured out how to change the scroll direction.

thenut77

Level 1

0 points

May 17, 2014 8:24 AM in response to mjw303

I had this same issue, and it turned out to be that the switch on my bluetooth mouse had flipped on in my laptop bag and was "clicked".

Sep 10, 2014 6:37 AM in response to thenut77

+1, spent the better part of 30minutes trying to figure out what was going on. Figured the builtin trackpad wasn't working so went to grab the external one. The second I started reaching out for it, it hit me. Needless to say, I feel like an idiot.

trexpark

Level 1

4 points

Oct 13, 2014 8:26 PM in response to Nertz

I had the same problem and solved it by unchecking all the options from "More Gestures" under System Preferences / Trackpad.

aliarif1

Level 1

0 points

Nov 29, 2014 2:09 AM in response to Nertz

before doing anything else check trackpad settings i.e. under trackpad gestures check clicking, dragging, tap using two fingers etc

sakwara

Level 1

0 points

Jun 16, 2015 7:38 PM in response to arnie799

Thank you. This was what solved it. I hope a lot of people see your comment. Before this, I unscrewed my laptop (And I have the old archaic one)...and when I got to the battery, the screws were held on too tight. i wanted to just take it out for a few seconds. I was about to just buy a new one till i saw your comment, so thank you!

Yusayg

Level 1

9 points

Aug 25, 2016 9:10 PM in response to Nertz

Hi guys I know its been three years but I also had the problem, started tinkering around in System Preferences, and found something in Accessibility>Mouse and Trackpad. Turn off the "Spring Loaded Delay" setting. I am currently on El Capitan 10.11.6 but I think it should work for older firmwares. Cheers

Nov 15, 2016 6:59 PM in response to Nertz

I'm having the same exact problem! Did you guys find any solution?

TrackPad physical click not working after upgrade to Mountain Lion