Yosemite 10.10.2 Update - Trackpad Not Working Properly

Go step by step and test.

1. Shut down the computer.

Clean the trackpad with moist not wet microfiber cloth.

System Preferences > Point & Click

Try turning off three finger dragging and then turning it on after testing.

2. Is there any Bluetooth device nearby with failing batteries? If so, replace the batteries.

3. Reset PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14222

4. Reset SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Choose the method for:

"Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".

5. Close all windows and quit all applications.

Click the Spotlight -the magnifying glass icon- in the menu bar. Enter Disk utility in the box.

Select Disk Utility from the drop down. When the Disk utility window opens up,

select Macintosh HD, then First Aid.

Click Repair Disk Section: "Try Disk Utility" Permissions button.

Ignore the time remaining estimate.

Last 1 minute may take longer.

I have the exact same problem since upgrading to 10.10.2 a couple of days ago. Now I can no longer swipe to go back in a webpage, or use the three finger swipe to change screens. Is very frustrating.

Scrolling still works.

I am on an iMac (one year old) with a BT trackpad.

I am certain this is a bug in 10.10.2 - it all worked fine in 10.10.1.

I too had problems with gestures after updating to 10.10.2. Mission Control would not launch with the 3-fingered upwards gesture & I could not navigate between my other desktops by swiping left or right, Notification Center would not launch with the 2-fingered swipe to the right gesture, scrolling in Safari worked for a minute or two while I researched the issue and then that broke too! Mission Control and Notification Center worked but the gestures didn't activate them. I tried toggling the gestures off and on several times in System Preferences > Trackpad but that didn't work! I tried rebooting 2 or 3 times but that didn't have any affect either! Below is what I did to solve my problem.

1) Repair your disk permissions. (Don't worry -- this is really easy and will not harm your computer. It just might look scary if you're not used to doing this type of thing!) Open up Spotlight and search for Disk Utility. Open Disk Utility and click on your hard drive. Click First Aid and then click Repair Disk Permissions. This shouldn't take too long, and once finished, reboot your computer.

2) Go to System Preferences > Trackpad and check to see if any gestures have been changed. I had Mission Control set up to launch with a 3-fingered upward gesture. This had been changed to a 4-fingered upward gesture and I had not noticed! My other gestures worked perfectly after completing step #1.

Repairing permissions worked for me,

Many thanks.

I tried this a few times over. My experience was

1. SMC reset via the keyboard with *just* not work. When I press the 3 keys and try to press power, it just won't start/ boot up. However if I release the three keyboard keys, the laptop boots up with all its problems intact
2. Same goes for trying to do a PRAM reset. I tried both of these on a colleagues Macbook Pro which pre-dates mine by a few months, but updated to Yosemite only a few days ago. SMC reset and PRAM reset work as stated on that machine
3. A few days ago, while booting up, the system automatically went to a menu for disk utilities. I ran verify disk (no problem) twice over on all drives, and got no option for repair disk. I did the permissions repair, but that has not helped.
4. I'm typing this on an external windows USB keyboard. Everything works just fine on this. My trackpad starts behaving funny as before e.g. a single tap or press anywhere brings up 'right click/ option' instead of 'select'. I have to keep hitting Esc on the windows keyboard, and the trackpad starts working fine again.

Any help is appreciated.

I'm in the same situation as you, except this is a late 2009 27" iMac with the bluetooth trackpad and a USB keyboard. The system recognizes one finger trackpad swipes and moves the cursor. It recognizes two finger swipes and scrolls Safari, for example. Three finger swipes are completely ignored (left to right and up/down), as are four finger / three finger + thumb ones. The remedies posted here have not worked.

I'll keep searching the web looking for other answers.

I did find MagicPrefs (http://magicprefs.com/), and by setting it up for three finger trackpad swipes it now works. Yes, I agree I shouldn't have to do that, and it seems like a bug in Yosemite. Nevertheless, it did work.

Separately, in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist I noticed a key USBMouseStopsTrackpad. It happens to be zero on my machine, and disconnecting my USB gaming mouse + logout/login did nothing, but I thought I'd point out its existence in case anyone else might benefit.

It works after repairing the permission and restart my laptop! thanks!!!