Q: Reinserting dislocated TrackPad feet?

I woke up this morning and noticed my foot on my track pad had some how managed to come out. I found this very strange as it sets on my desk and I take very good  care of my equipment.

It was so much larger than the opening, I still do not understand how this could have happened.

I searched every where looking for the answer and found it at " I Fix IT". You have to take a small stiff piece of plastic, there is a tool for this, and insert it between the white platic bottom and the metal, near the corner where the foot goes. Gently pry on the side first and move towards the corner and pry up. The plastic will displace itself enough to let you slide the foot back in place.

Gentle snap the bottom plastic base back on and your done. Took about three minutes once I saw how to slip the bottom of the plastic away from the metal.

I must admit, after seeing the way the foot is constructed I still can not figure how it came out in the first place.

Hope this helps.

James

James,

Same thing just happened to me. Your solution worked perfectly!

Thanks,

Tom

Same thing happened to me.  I used the bladed end of an orange peeler.  Insert it into the hole itself and gently lift the white plastic bottom of the trackpad until the side of the plastic bottom lifts up enough to catch it with a fingernail or small flathead screw driver.  Then reinsert the pastic blade of the orange peeler on the side you're holding up. Lift up gently with the plastic blade until the bottom tab holding the white plastic on pops out.  You can then easily reinsert the rubber foot.  Press the white plastic bottom firmly and it snaps back into place.

I think what happens is that the foot "sticks" to the surface of your work table enough so that a side load causes the silicone gasket to pull back from between the plastic and metal bottom; then it just rolls out the hole for the foot.

Irritating but quick fix

mtm

James,

Same thing happend to mine. The fix worked great, but only took me 30 seconds.

Thanks!

As to how the little "foot" got out, I can tell you how mine escaped and stayed nearby so I found it.  I've got a cat that likes to walk across the keyboad and Magic trackpad when I'm not around.  I've created a low "stand" for the monitor with an upper shelf for the MacBook and a lower shelf (on the desk) to slide the keyboard and MTP under the MacBook.  I'm sure that sliding the MTP back and forth over time caused the silicon "foot" to slide out.  I'm now turning the KB and MTP over on their top and sliding them into my out-of-the-cat's-way hidey hole.

THE REINSERTION: The suggestions in this discussion about prying up the bottom of the trackpad worked fine for me but the foot popped out again a few days later.  Couple of suggestions.

When prying up the bottom plate, pry from the side of the trackpad not the edge opposite the battery end.  I've pried it up a few times now and one time pried from the side oppostie the battery pack and the tab that snaps into the top broke off.  The bottom still goes back on tightly but that tab is now history.  Message:  Pry from the side and work the tab on the bottom out.

REPEATED POPPING OUT.  Just today, I've put a very small dot of Elmer's glue at the joint of the rubber foot and the bottom on what I would call the top and the bottom of the foot - when holding the trackpad vertically with the batteries up.  The track pad action seems to be fine but if I suspect the small dot of glue is preventing the mouse-click action from working, I can carefully scrape off the glue.  However, I'm trying to keep the rubber foot from popping out again for the 10th or so time.

SURFACE OF DESK ISSUE; After the glue dried, I tried sliding the trackpad around in a "normal" fashion and could feel the rubber feet "skittering" a bit on the surface of my desk.  The desk is a composit wood with plastic surface as many modern desks.  Wanting to reduce the friction of the desk surface, I walked around my basement looking for brainstorms and noticed the old can of car wax - remember when we used to wax our cars?  Turtle Wax it is.  I applied a light coat of Turtle Car Wax to my desk surface as I would to a car fender, then polished it with a soft cloth.  The desk surface does not look nearly as good as my old '47 dark green Pontiac, BUT the rubber feet on both the track pad and the bluetooth keyboard now slide almost effortlessly.  I don't feel those rubber feet skittering now.  I'm hopeful that the glue and the light car waxed surface combine to eliminate, or at least reduce, the rubber feet pealing themselves out of their hole onthe bottom of the trackpad.

I had the same flimsy silicon rubber that fell out. There is no need to take out the white plastic cover which I've seen it on the "Ifixtit". Instead, I just used a micro small slot screw and with lots of patience to squeeze in the outer ring! ( Without a scratch )

Dito...simple.

The thin rubber flange had split on mine and so it kept popping out. I put a tiny weeny touch of super glue on mine and its not popped out since!

I did the fix Pete suggested - pryed apart the white layer through the hole for the pad, which worked fine.

Small warning, just in case this helps anyone avoid a mistake that I made. 

This may be obvious to others, but when I popped the white plastic (bottom of the trackpad) straight down, back into place, the little tab of white plastic on it (pictured, broken off) broke off instead of inserting into its slot in the body.  I should of bent the white a bit to direct the tab into the hole, instead of pushing straight down.  Seems to be holding together ok so far...

I found abeautifulday's method worked best. No need to dismantle the case, just used a wooden skewer and poked in one part at a time slowly rotating and wiggling until it was all in 

This "insert from the side" method worked for me.  I haven't had to use glue yet, but if it falls out again I'll try that.  Notice everyone who is prying up the plastic says to do it "gently"  That white plastic on the bottom is ~very thin.  I could see my tool starting to poke a hole if I used too much force.  probably a flat head screwdriver is best to avoid putting direct pressure on the underside of the plastic deep inside. 

Thanks for your tip. I used your method and the entire process took less than a minute. It saved me prying apart the trackpad and perhaps breaking the tab as was described in an earlier post.

Had the same issue last night.

Before reading this thread, I tried to put it back in place without opening the plastic cover and I did it, using a thin flat screwdriver helping to slide it in place and a lot of patience.

Seems to be safer than lifting the back.

I used a small screwdriver inserted into the opening where the foot goes, prised the white plastic up enough to insert a small screwdriver into the side of the plastic and eased the foot back under the plastic - about 10 seconds from start to finish.

Thank you.