Jumpy erratic cursor/arrow - Moves & Selects without touching

In my case, Thomas, no, I've never experienced this problem before, it's just manifested during the past couple of days. I checked my calendar to see when I had the battery replaced, and that was back in January, so it's hard to assign blame. Other people are talking about battery swelling and I don't see any traces of that.

I made an appointment at the local Genius Bar for late this morning, will post back later.

Suddenly all is well! The trackpad works fine again and I didn't do anything to fix it. Magic!

Hi Seem to have fixed this on my machine in just a few minutes (well at least for the moment).
I simply attached a mouse and went to the utilities folder in the Applications folder and opened DIsk Utility.

I selected the hard drive and selected 'disk first ai'd and then Veriffied the Permissions and once it have finished verifying I then hit repair permissions. After that it worked fine again. Simple maintanence I know but it seemed to fix it. Hope this helps

Bensterady- I am curious if you are still problem free. I have tried to verify and fix permissions and I still have a useless magic tackpad. In fact I have tried every suggestion out there. I have cleaned it, I have reset the P-RAM, I have reset the SMC, I have changed the batteries, etc... Nothing works and I am having to use the usb mouse that came with a DELL a decade ago. The Magic Trackpad is only a little over a year old and was working completly fine prior to updating my Macbook unibody running 10.6.8 with the 2013 Security update. As soon as I rebooted from the update the Magic Trackpad was broken. It leads me to believe that this is a software bug and not a hardware issue.

Has anybody found a solution that fixes the magic trackpad permanently? Apple, inc. where are you with a fix? Alot of us out here are now having a bad computer experience using your products. This is how you lose customers.

I have an older MacBook (purchased in 2008, yes I know, OLD.) I've been having the same problem off and on for a year. It kept getting progressively worse. Finally movies on my desktop would load and play when I wasn't even at the computer. I couldn't find any common denominator with software programs, system software, hand position, time of day etc. After reading many common problem discussion threads I came upon one that suggested that as the battery degrades it tends to "bluge" and put pressure on the underside of the track pad and keyboard. I popped my battery out and am running on the power cord and have had no problems for the last two days. Wahoo! The keyboard, track pad and button are noticably "looser".

Try taking out your battery and see if that solves the problem. Totally worked for me. Ordering a new battery today. (Much cheaper than the other suggested fixes!)

i have had the same problem. mine has been sent in and the trackpad replaced twice and the problem persists.

i am so ******. what do i do, buy a PC? i can't use it. every time i type my cursor jumps. apple has not been able to diagnose. i"ve been in 4 times. and have 2 weeks of warranty left. brand new macbook pro. *****. i'm out $1200:(

I had the same problem as well. After reading this board for awhile one post stuck out from the rest, It mentioned how dirty our hands (fingers) are so I wiped my trackpad down and probably the most important that was never mentioned yet that I found was to hold the bottom center trackpad down and blow out (with can air) around the edges..... It worked for me and is still working.

Hope this helps all of you.

God Bless :-)

i am so ******. what do i do, buy a PC? i can't use it. every time i type my cursor jumps.

Have you tried any of the solutions that have been posted previously on this topic? Have you taken it to an Apple Store to let a tech look at it?

Yes. I was actually trying to avoid the longer story. but yes.

went to a tech at the store. could not get the problem to re-create while he watched me (and my kids tugged at my side). genius changed a bunch of keypad settings. F keys and such. problem persists.

sent it off. they changed the trackpad, reinstalled os. problem persists

called after a long pause of frustration...they said they would get to the bottom of it this time. they would "dig deeper."

mailed it on a monday and it was back on wednesday with a note saying they replaced the trackpad.

take it out of the box and get the issue in the first email i write.

cursor jumps from first line of email to subject line.

*******

call back. they want me to take it to the local guy. i take it to local guy. he can't find any problem running diagnostics. changes a couple trackpad settings.

get home. problem still happening.

i am not hitting errant keys. i wish i was that good of a typist. my hands are steady. my trackpad settings are on lockdown.

yes. i have tried every remedy i have found online. i have yet to find a solution to my issue.

my issue has nothing to do with the cursor highlighting text. i've never had it do that. mine just always goes to a previous spot in the text when i type. it might happen 10 times in one email and then not again for a week. it might happen every day for 2 weeks, then not again for a couple days. it is obviously a problem with my computer that is not about the trackpad or the settings or computer cleanliness. imail t might happen filling out a form online or in an e and of course, in an effort to make me look entirely crazy, it has not happened once in this lengthy rant and i would have expected to see it at least once.

actually, after writing this post i realize that i am insane. the problem only exists in my mind. just kidding. but i do have less than 2 weeks left on my 1 year warranty. so unless i am ready to fight this battle a 5th time within 2 weeks (think Rocky V), i am going to just live with this issue until i can figure out just what IS the right computer for me. i really just need a good typewriter at this point. that's the only thing i do on my computer.

i RE-READ the thread again and noticed that someone turned off bluethooth. my BT was on but that is not always the case. i have only begin using the b lately and the problme has been around for a year. however, i am going to now pay attention to my BT setting as well.

there. it happened. i went back to enter a sentence 3 paragraphs ago, and i wrote the word "email" and the "mail" part jumped back to the beginning of that sentence. here is the exeprt copied:

imail t might happen filling out a form online or in an e

it was going to read:

it might happen filling out a form online or in an email or pages doc.... and of course, in an effort to make me look entirely crazy....

i was adding the sentence about the fact that it is "multi program related". ( and just to mock me it happens right before the sentence where i curse it for NOT happening.... the irony. )

whatever. this was a great therapy session for me. i feel so much better. better because it happened in the middle of my reply, and happy because i realized that in all reality, maybe a chrome book is all i need for emails and typing. (oh, but wait! my calendar and contacts and .....)

thanks for listening.

...and the bluetooth was OFF when it happened BTW

Your problem is not what is being discussed here. This topic is about the mouse cursor... you're talking about the insertion point. Totally different thing, probably with very different causes and solutions. I'd advise starting your own topic with all the details.

One thing to note: if it's only happening in your usual work environment, and nowhere else, it's something about that environment that is triggering it. Perhaps it's a Bluetooth device you're using, perhaps some wired device you have plugged in at the time is doing it, perhaps something about the way you're sitting makes you more prone to accidentally tap the trackpad (try turning off Tap to Click in the trackpad settings in System Preferences), or perhaps it's something I haven't thought of or a combination of multiple factors. In any case, further discussion should happen in a more relevant thread.

ok. bummer.

the words " erratic cursor, moves without touching " really apply here to me.

as i said, it's not my settings, not my environment, not bluetooth.

after that last word i looked up and the cursor was located after the "r" in really.

i'll stop posting here.

it was just my last ditch attempt:(

also, i've never heard of the word insertion point. i believe many people are experiencing the same problem as i am but do not know to call it the insertion point. i understand now it is not the cursor but i believe it is often being referred to as the cursor.

Don't stop posting here (as in on these forums), just start your own topic so you get responses that are relevant to your problem, rather than answers to a different problem. In your topic, be sure to say "insertion point" rather than "cursor" to avoid ambiguity and misunderstandings. There are many people here who could help you get to the bottom of this, you just have to post in such a way that they'll see it.

This same thing started happening to me today. I finally turned my TrackPad off and am using a USB mouse. I'm not using the TrackPad with a portable; I'm using it with a Mac Mini.

Thanks