Why can't my mouse highlight things anymore?

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Why can't my mouse highlight things anymore?

Hi, whenever I hover my curser over the task bar it doesn't show me the name of the application anymore, it doesn't I guess "preselect" or "highlight" it. Another thing I can't do anymore is using the upper bar of my screen (with the apple icon) and automatically open the options under Finer, The apple logo, Help, Window, etc.

This very same problem also makes me unable to play certain games like Minecraft for instance, where I have trouble selecting the bars in the menu, or even play at all (can't look around).

I didn't have this problem before upgrading to Yosemite a few weeks ago, I haven't used my Mac much since so that's probably why I only find this now

Please help me, thank you. 🙂

PS: I'm kind of sure it's because of the software and not any of my mice nor the computer itself, I use Boot Camp to use Windows and it works just fine there (tested it with the game as well to make sure)

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), null

Posted on Mar 3, 2015 11:29 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

216,548 points

Mar 3, 2015 11:40 AM in response to Thibooms

Boot into the Recovery volume (boot with the Command + R keys held down), select Disk Utility and repair both the disk and disk permissions. Reboot normally and try again.

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Answer 2

Thibooms Author

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Mar 3, 2015 11:57 AM in response to Old Toad

Thank you for the reply!

Sadly, it worked only for like 1.2 seconds.

I did that, I'm a hundred percent sure I repaired both the disk and disk permissions and properly rebooted. However, when logging into my user, it did show me the proper name of one app in my task bar (my cursor happened to be hovering on it) but this ceased to work immediately. So the problem persists.

Edit: "Macintosh HD" (under "Macintosh" or something as well) is the proper disk, right?

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Answer 3

Old Toad

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216,548 points

Mar 3, 2015 2:39 PM in response to Thibooms

Edit: "Macintosh HD" (under "Macintosh" or something as well) is the proper disk, right?

Right. By Task Bar you mean the Dock, right? Log into another user account on your Mac and see if the problem repeats itself there. Does it?

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Answer 4

Thibooms Author

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Mar 4, 2015 4:03 AM in response to Old Toad

Oh yes, the Dock, I forgot how it was actually named.

I tried using a guest user, and yes the problem does repeat itself there.

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Answer 5

Thibooms Author

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Mar 4, 2015 6:31 AM in response to Old Toad

I just found out something that might be useful for solving my problem: clicking!

Whenever I hold the left click the problem is solved. For instance, when going at the upper bar and holding left click I can finally look at all the options by hovering them. I found out when I was looking for why I couldn't look around in Minecraft (since it shouldn't be about highlighting things), turns out I can when left-clicking

Could this help you to find a solution?

Edit: works also with right-clicking

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

216,548 points

Mar 4, 2015 8:36 AM in response to Thibooms

Since the problem is system wide I would Boot into the Recovery volume (boot with the Command + R keys held down) and reinstall the system. Then repair disk permissions afterward. That has fixed some system wide issue for me but it's no guarantee.

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Answer 7

Thibooms Author

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Mar 5, 2015 9:33 AM in response to Old Toad

Tried it, didn't work, might need -when I've got the time- to let someone have a look at it?

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Answer 8

Thibooms Author

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Mar 9, 2015 11:50 AM in response to Old Toad

Hi, today I fixed my problem, thanks for trying to help me out! Turns out my mouse's software was causing it, I just had to download the latest version of it so it goes with the latest OS X version. Thank you so much for your help, because now I know better how to fix these pesky things if they ever occur (first time in 2 years now!)

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