Trackpad on mac book is going crazy!

I have 2 mac books 2011

have gone through all the fixes and the only one that works for both of mine is replace trackpad !

its a common fault and apple know it !

if your under warranty they will change it no questions if your out you will have to pay for a new one!

its the only thing that lets the mac book down!

I'm having the same issue with my trackpad. The cursor is jumping up and down the screen (and moving vertically), opening the apps one after the other. It is completely beyond my control. I tried all the options that you suggested, but nothing worked. I even tried cleaning the corner of the trackpad with a piece of paper.

Fortunately, my machine is still under Applecare protection plan. I'm afarid to open the case as the protection might be voided because of that. I've logged a case with them. Let me see if it helps.

I also vote for the potential cause of the mousepad going wild that some moisture collects around the edges. I often show a habit of cleaning my Macbook Pro using Window Cleaner spray that together with a micro fiber cloth returns the finish to a satisfying as-new splendor. But these actions have more than once coincided with incidents of a mousepad with a life of its own. What speaks against this in my case is that a reboot often reinstalls stability. I have seen cases where the phenomena starts after doing a two finger gesture on the keyboard such as sliding a view to the next one.

I had the crazy track-pad issue on our 13" Macbook Pro (mid 2012).

I could see a noticeable bulge in the battery and pushing down on all 4 corners of the track pad caused the problem to go away for a few minutes. This proved that the issue was hardware related.

I replaced the battery. But that didn't fix anything.

I then removed the track-pad and gave it a good cleaning. Lots of hard gunk had built up in the little gap between the track-pad and the metal case. I had to use a knife blade to scrape the gunk out.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Unibody+Model+A1342+Trackpad+Replacement/63 38

The cleaning seems to have fixed it good as new! I only wish I would have tried the cleaning BEFORE I bought a new battery.

Mine's a 2011 iMac - I had the bluetooth trackpad constantly acting like I was holding it in 'click & drag'. Checked everything including the obvious. It started to behave normally when I moved a USB hub with a couple of (older) HD's away from the Mac. Only to about 18" away, but that seems enough.

Cheers!

Hi

The same thing happened to me after using some kind of household cleaner to clean the mousepad. My MacBook seemed possessed! Took it to the Apple Genius bar, and apparently, all household products can leave behind chemicals that affect the contact with the mousepad (i.e. they have an electromagnetic effect). The fellow said to use only clear isopropyl rubbing alcohol (90%), which evaporates quickly and does not leave behind any residue. He did that and that fixed things immediately for me. There is also a test you can run (don't know which one it is) to make sure that the grid which lies under your mousepad is fully functional. Mine was.

me bought the macbook air 11 (mid 2012) yesterday on second market. It was unused for 3 months before I turn it on. I've updated the Mavericks to ver 10.9.4 and then the trackpad problem appears(not sure if maverick update is the reason, but previous owner said the macbook worked fine and was unused last 3 months). Sometimes cursor loose control and jump over the screen, randomly generating two touch swipes. I tried to update os to yosemite but the bug is still there. I noticed that the issue appears most frequently while the macbook is getting hot while performing heavy operation.

Tried to deassemble my macbook and clean the trackpad properly, checked the battery - looks fine, no bulges.

Still no solution for the problem found.

At this moment, I'm performing clean installation for maverick 10.9.4. Already got the trackpad issue at installation screen, so definitely not a software problem at all.

Looks like the only one solution is to replace the trackpad

First, be aware that you should never use a second-hand machine as-is. You don't know what state the previous owner left it in. There could be malware on it, perhaps even intentionally placed there by the previous owner. There could be all manner of crap software installed. And the system's state is unknown - it could be damaged somehow.

What you need to do is erase the hard drive, then reinstall whatever system it originally came with. Although written for the seller's perspective, see How to prepare your Mac for sale for information on how to do that. Do not try to restore backups of anything on the machine... unless the licenses were transferred legally to you, none of the third-party apps are yours, and cannot be legally used by you. Besides which, it's often not easily possible to restore apps from a backup. If the licenses were transferred, you can reinstall those apps from scratch once you have a clean system in place.

This may very well solve your problem. If it doesn't, it's likely to be a hardware problem of some kind. For more information on possible causes, see:

My mouse keeps moving around on its own, as if someone is remotely controlling my Mac!

Finally, note that you should never trust what a seller says about a computer they're selling. They may tell you there's nothing wrong with it, but before you hand over your cash, you should verify that. Not turning the machine on for three months after purchasing it gives a dishonest seller plenty of time to hide his/her tracks.

(Fair disclosure: The Safe Mac is my site, and contains a Donate button, so I may receive compensation for providing links to The Safe Mac. Donations are not required.)

i barely write to blogs or forums and i am not tech person but i was facing the same problem 6 hours ago. i was drinking a cold german beer whilst i had my mac book pro on my lap. drops of water was dripping all over my keyboard and trackpad. 5 minutes later, the laptop started acting up and at first i thought i was hacked. so i disconnected from internet and the same thing was happening.

i backed up my files and tried every trick i found on the internet:

reset SMC

reset NVRAM

erased my computer and reset to factory default.

tried receipt cleaning between the pad and frame.

nothing. absolutely nothing. then i noticed one common issue in all treads and that was moisture. i thought why not blow dry it. so used my blow dryer in cold setting (DONT USE HOT SETTING) and placed the blow dryer very close to the trackpad between the frame and trackpad. slowly move around the edges. you will notice the erratic movement, its normal. don't panic, its just the water(moisture moving around). do it until the cursor stops moving completely. shutdown the laptop and turn on again. DONE. worked like magic.

i hope that helps as your thread helped me solve the problem in unconventional method.

p.s if it works for you. you owe me a beer. 🙂

I see that there are many different replies/suggestions here. This is mine. I removed all bluetooth devices at the "bluetooth preferences" panel of system preferences by highlighting and clicking the "-" button. All of them, even those not on or active including the mouse.. Solved my problem FWIW.

Ok, I know this sounds ridiculous, but I think I have just fixed this problem. Based on some of the suggestions about some moisture or minute debris getting in the narrow space around the border of the trackpad… I gently blew in to the space a couple times and it seems to have dislodged whatever crud was making the trackpad respond so strangely.

I wonder if a short blast of dust-off or compressed air would be more fictive because as we know one's breath does have a bit of moisture in it as well.

I ended up taking out the battery and checked that it wasn't from a deformed battery by running the computer with the battery out. Still had the same issues. I then took out the trackpad and cleaned it thoroughly including the chip, which had blue ink on it, with isopropyl alcohol on lint-free wipes. After I put it back in and booted up the computer, I noticed the issue for a bit that day and so ordered a new trackpad.

Since then though, the trackpad has been working fine (2 days after cleaning). I'm not sure if I should still replace it. The trackpad seems very responsive and with no erratic behavior since then.

Thanks for this tip of cleaning around the edges. It worked for me almost instantaneously. The Apple store wanted 2 days to diagnose the issue but since I did not have so much time, I browsed through the support forum and found this tip. Extremely grateful for your help.

You could also try to push down firmly on the track pad with all your finger tips and try to slide the trackpad over with just your hands instead.

I even saw some say that if you press down on all four corners of the trackpad firmly might be enough to align it back in place.

Yes! This did it, thank you so much!

Just stumbled on this thread while googling for solutions to the jumpy cursor issue after cleaning the trackpad, your solution worked perfectly so just thought I'd leave a note to recommend it to others.

I used fingers only, first pressing as if to "slide" the trackpade a little around, and then pressing with all four fingers on the four corners, and kind of alternating the pressure (a bit like when you're standing trying to keep your balance on the subway or something like that).

And, before doing that, following another bit of advice in this thread I also slid a piece of paper around the edges of the trackpad to clean/unlock it, not that there was anything to clean but just sliding the paper around (glossy paper works best as it won't break or get stuck), then applied just enough pressure with my fingers, but not pressing too hard. So I can't be sure which part of it it was that worked, but it did work.

Thanks!

I tried everything anyone posted here...the only thing that really helped - I started using "Safari" as my browser. Whenever I'd turn on Chrome or Firefox - boom - trackpad/cursor madness started - moving on it's own...clicking and opening stuff all over my Mac Book Pro...very very frustrating. I have a theory - that after each update, before the "other" non-Apple browsers patch up and update, the trackpad issues are gonna happen. Howgh.