Q: macbook pro retina erratic trackpad issues

tdinneen: May I please ask what you did to clean your trackpad?

Thank you mvial, thought some kid had hijacked my mac for the chuckles, your solution worked like a charm it must be the battery glue but 2 quick presses on the top corners and good to go again so cheers again love a good quick fix

mvial, BRAVO ! you just got the nobel prize of brilliant corrector of Apple's (numerous) stupidities

It has taken my head for months .....

Incredible, but it really worked on my MBPr 15"....I would like to thank you for the valuable tip.

Thanks Mvial! Your trick solved my rather annoyingly erratic trackpad controversy. However, the normal functioning state for the trackpad seems not to last long, as it becomes erratic again minutes after or even seconds, depending (I am guessing) on the use. Any suggestions?

This has happened to me recently. my macbook is now out of warranty and the genius bar were looking for £370 to replace the whole uppercase to fix the trackpad, I am now finding it increasingly difficult to carry out my job as I am always on the go and can't always whip out a usb mouse.

I have tried the pressing on the corner but this was only temporarily fixing the problem and now isn't helping at all, does anyone have another fix?

Thank you good sir. I believe you have fixed my issue.

*buys you a virtual beer*

A short term fix is, use a USB or Bluetooth mouse, and set the Mac to ignore the trackpad if the mouse is present (in"Accessibility"). This is actually a great fix until you can get something else to work.

Thank you, now I can finally use my computer in a reliable way again! My erratic trackpad was driving me crazy. I wiped off my computer (Retina Display MBP 15" 2013) with a cloth that was a little too wet, and it just went crazy and has pretty much stayed that way since (this was two weeks ago), with some periods of intermittent normal behavior. I guess some of the circuits underneath the trackpad got fried when I wiped it.

Is there a way to test this conclusively? I find it strange that it works just fine sometimes, sometimes for most of a day, then all of a sudden the mouse pointer just goes berserk or stops working, or both the mouse and the trackpad starts acting in weird ways. If this is due to fried circuits, it shouldn't work normally at all, should it? There seems to be something triggering this behavior, I just can't see a pattern to it.

Follow up: I've now been able to use the trackpad on my Mac Book Pro normally ever since I changed the Accessibility setting for the computer to ignore the trackpad when a mouse is present. For some reason, this makes the trackpad behave normally even though I'm not using a mouse, very strange but it works.

The only issues I've had was some erratic pointer movements and unresponsive trackpad behavior when my computer was running very hot once, which was solved by my wife using her finger to reset the trackpad (mine didn't work for some reason - too damp maybe), and a few times where it didn't recognize the mouse when I plugged it in.

Either way, it now works and I'm very relieved. Thanks again for the tip!

Pretty funny - none of the fancy fixes were working, but then this post reminded me that I also had an old Magic Mouse in the drawer.  I had it fired up for a while and then forgot about it.

Thanks

MVial,

Thanks so much for this tip. Suffered the same, was looking for instructions on how to crack open my MBP as I'd come to the conclusion that the trackpad connector must have come loose. In my search I came across this thread and thought I had nothing to loose so I gave it a try. Whilst pressing on the upper corners I noticed that there seemed to be some grunge caught in the small gap between the trackpad and the frame; particularly the lefthand side inch and a half. With a screen wipe and my fingernail was able to run along the groove and clear it all out. After this my MBP is no longer bipolar. :-)

So again, thanks so much; who would have thought the tolerances are so fine?

WWL

AMAZING!! I have no idea how you got it. I think there is an inherent flaw in design of touchpad. MANY THANKS

Hi Guys, I tried absolutely everything, pressing corners, accessibility settings, cleaning with alcohol, etc, etc...

What finally DID fix the weird trackpad behaviour was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmgRnJaGnpg

1. SHUT DOWN your macbook pro.

2. TURN ON your macbook pro.

3. When chime sounds, immediately PRESS and HOLD (for like 4 seconds) the following keys all together SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + L + POWERBUTTON.

4. While holding these keys down your computer should turn off. Then RELEASE ALL KEYS AT THE SAME TIME.

5. Turn your back back on and.... voila!