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Three finger swipe no longer works on Mavericks

I have just updated to Mavericks.



Prior to installing Mavericks, I was able to do a 3 finger swipe left or right to go back or forward in a Finder window.



After I have installed Mavericks, I can no longer do this. I have checked in System Preferences/Trackpad and the settings are exactly as they were before I updated to Mavericks.



I was wondering if anyone else has run into this issue and if so have you found of solving it.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9), iMac 27in Late 2012 Fusion Drive

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 9:58 AM

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206 replies

Oct 23, 2013 11:09 AM in response to tal1971

same issue. my settings are all the same as they were (system preferences>trackpad>more gestures>swipe between pages>scroll left or right with two fingers) and while i can still navigate between webpages this way...i cannot go back and forth between finder folders/subfolders like i used to be able to before the mavericks upgrade.


not sure if 1) it's no longer possible (seems unlikely) 2) it's now a different sub-option that i'm not seeing or 3) it is just a bug that'll be patched shortly...just wanted to echo the sentiment/affirm that i'm having the same issue.

Oct 23, 2013 11:14 AM in response to rockchalk76063

From someone I was talking to on another forum. They told me that the 3 finger swipe in a Finder window, has been a bug in all the Maverick beta's.


I also got recommended a free Application called Better Touch Tool.


By using this, I have been able to get back the 3 finger swipe in a Finder window. You can do a lot more besides with BTT, seems an excellent little Application 🙂

Oct 23, 2013 1:31 PM in response to aSmilar

aSmilar wrote:


Same problem here. I can do 3 finger swipe on Safari and Chrome but not in Finder window anymore after Mavericks upgrade today.



A workaround for the time being, is to install the free Application "Better Touch Tool".


This has allowed me to get back the 3 finger swipe functionality in Finder.

Oct 23, 2013 3:15 PM in response to tal1971

same issue. upgraded from Mountain Lion, before had no issue, and now i can't go back or forward with three finger. in fact, can't even use two fingers.


checking the box in for this feature in System Preferences seems to do absolutely nothing either.


perhaps it's just a bug that can be fixed soon but this is seriously my most used gesture so it is dearly missed.


i'm going to try a clean install later and see if that solves any issues.

Oct 23, 2013 5:09 PM in response to tal1971

It's a four finger swipe now...for some dark reason...


edit: Actually, it is a four finger swipe by default now. But you can change this to a 3 finger swipe in the trackpad settngs. If you look closely the four finger swipe is a dropdown that lets you choose a number of options. this is how you can change the swipe functionality


User uploaded file


Message was edited by: gkbob

Oct 23, 2013 7:51 PM in response to tal1971

so here's what i did to get three finger swipe to work as web navigation.


  • initially i had "Swipe between pages" set for three fingers and "Swipe between full-screen apps" set to four fingers.
  • i then switched "Swipe between full-screen apps" to three fingers which automatically unchecks the "Swipe between pages" box.
  • then i checked the "Swipe between pages" box again which set the web navigation to two fingers. i then confirmed that the two finger swipe did actually work as it, along with three finger, was NOT working before.
  • then i changed the "Swipe between pages" to three fingers which automatically changes the "Swipe between full-screen apps" to four fingers


now everything works as it did before!!!


EDIT: must note though since a lot of the comments on here are about navigating finder, i've never really used three finger gesters to navigate within finder since i almost always use column view with the arrow keys. i did test it though and it still appears that three finger gestures do not work in finder. all in all, there are a lot of areas which could use two, three, or four finger gesters to navigate from page to page in mavericks and even in previous OS X versions, most notably the Mac App Store and the iTunes stores. the solution above does however fix swiping forward and backward within Safari and Chrome.

Oct 23, 2013 11:13 PM in response to Livebox

Livebox wrote:


I'm really not liking the idea of having to install a third-party workaround in order to restore a massively useful and time-saving feature.


Oh no, I think Apple Feedback has a gripe on its way.



Neither am I, but in the meantime if a third party workaround works, its better than losing the functionality altogether 🙂



The 3 finger swipe in Finder window not working on Mavericks is apparently a bug, as its been present in every beta of Mavericks from what I got told elsewhere on another forum.

Three finger swipe no longer works on Mavericks

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