Trackpad on mac book is going crazy!

Ahh, yes, I see that. Didn't read the end of your post carefully enough.

Thanks. After uninstall Google Drive everything work fine.

Sorry, I think this is a malware such as we start in safe mode everything is fine. we stop firefox then it will be ok so we remove that.

My wife has this problem. She normally uses an attached USB mouse, not the trackpad. But she had just used a hand lotion and briefly used the trackpad and it started going totally nuts. I'd never seen this behavior, but after reading the Apple support document on erratic trackpads, I used a mild glass cleaner to clean her trackpad and all was well. Hand lotion can do in a couple seconds what it takes weeks of skin oils and such to build up.

Another reason to keep things clean!

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. 🙂

Super-thanks, this solved my friend's problem.

Could not thankyou enough! Saved me hours of trips to apple stores (only for them to tell you need to replace the whole mac!) never thought would work!! 😀

Thanks for this.

I had the same problem, and the trackpad was completely dead. Turned on a hairdryer and it came back in 10 seconds.

Thanks.

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.

I'm having this same problem, with erratic movements, clicking/right-clicking, dragging. It started randomly overnight (was working one night and not the next morning) and has been 2 days now with the problem. 4-finger corner press not working, neither are SMC/PRAM resets. Safe Mode sometimes has the issue and other times doesn't. Deleting Google Drive doesn't seem to accomplish anything. No bluetooth devices connected, and this happens with both the magsafe plugged and unplugged (plus it's an Apple charger anyways). Also tried the receipt trick around the edges; however one of the edges seems to be a little too pressed to the left side and I can't seem to move it. As far as I can remember though it's been like that for ages without any problems.

I took a screenshot of the Better Touch live view to demonstrate where it's doing interference, it seems to be all along that center horizontal.

I've ordered some 99.7% isopropyl and lint-free wipes, going to try removing the battery next and cleaning the trackpad. However they won't arrive for a couple of days, anything else you'd recommend I try in the meantime?

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.