Force Touch Trackpad input while typing

It may be placebo. But the gestures I set up with BTT work reliably, so why shouldn't its trackpad settings? Anyway, I've had very significant relief from the jumping cursor so far using BTT, and if I need perfect control while I'm working on a crucial document I'll temporarily disable tap to click. As I have nearly a full year on warranty, I'm not worried - if the jumping gets out of control I'll bring it to an Apple Store and they'll figure it out.

My first Mac was the first gen white macbook in 2006. There were lots of things wrong with this first gen machine - it snapped off randomly, for instance, and the magnets holding it closed were too strong, splintering the plastic case multiple times. In some, the battery swelled, but not in mine. Apple corrected all these defects over time - they even replaced a fan and the case - for a fourth time - for free after my 3 years of AppleCare were up. The snapping off problem was traced to a defective heat sink, which they replaced right away. Every repair was completed while I waited. I'd had two Sony laptops before that, but since that experience I've stuck with Apple. BTW, my next Mac, a 2011 11" Air never needed a repair in the 4 1/2 years I used it, and it still works great today - I just filled up its tiny 128 gig flash drive and needed a bigger one.

I don't think we should have to deal with jumpy trackpads, or come up with workarounds. The Genius that gave me this machine in trade for my first with a truly manic trackpad told me to have zero tolerance for problems while on Apple Care. I guess I think this is a software problem, or I would bring it back and ask for a third machine. But I trust Apple to eventually recognize and correct problems like this, so I'll use BTT and disable tap to click, and wait for a while before doing that.

This is sooooo frustrating. Before I purchased a $1700 macbook, I had read wonderful things about mac's ability to disable the trackpad while typing. I was really looking forward to that specific feature after having the same problem on my pc laptop. Then I get this and the problem is even worse. I have to move the cursor back to the end of the document over and over--every time I'm p.o.ed. Turning off tap to click is not a solution!

Hey guys,

I have been dealing with this issue for a long time. I finally got frustrated enough to take the time out of an already hectic schedule of programming work, school work, relocating jobs, and relocating our family, to call AppleCare to see if they could offer any insight that I have thus far failed to find via Google and standard troubleshooting. It's just very frustrating, a huge waste of productivity, and a feature that I've seen in every OS and every laptop I've ever used as long as I can remember.

According to this Apple Support article, the option was removed from OS X. While it's supposed to be enabled by default, apparently somewhere down the line it messed up again. Since the one common theme among the complaints that I've seen is that they all have the newer force touch trackpad, there may be a correlation there.

The "Ignore accidental trackpad input" trackpad option no longer appears in System Preferences. Functionality for "Ignore accidental trackpad input" is enabled automatically, by default for these computers.

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015).

It's upgraded to the latest version of Max OS X released (at least the latest version right this minute), which is OS X El Capitan, 10.11.3.

AppleCare was very sympathetic to my issue and at first asked me to change the System Preferences > Trackpad > Click option from Medium (the default) to Firm and reboot. This had no effect on the issue. At no point did they ask me to reinstall, take it in for service, etc. They then put me on hold while they spoke with an engineer and their product team.

When they got back on the phone with me, they said that this is a known issue, there is no known solution, and offered me some workarounds. Here is a list of workarounds they offered, or that I've seen in this and other threads:

1. Disable System Preferences > Trackpad > Tap to click. (This is the only workaround that makes sense, since it's the culprit, but it also means you lose the feature that you probably enabled because you wanted it. AKA: It's too buggy to use.)
2. Enable System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Enable Mouse Keys and Options... > Press the Option key five times to toggle Mouse Keys. (This option seems like a huge hindrance and I would never resort to such measures, ridiculous!)
3. Enable System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present. (Great workaround if you're not on a laptop, however... then you don't have a large trackpad sitting underneath the keyboard and it's not an issue to begin with.)
4. Use alternative drivers or see if there is an option in the program to disable accidental input while typing. (This is an OS feature, so this suggestion was a long shot and not an option as there are no alternative drivers for Mac OS X that I know of, nor any options in any of the software I use to accomplish this, let alone system-wide).

To those wondering: I also use Better Touch Tool and have for a long time. I am on version 1.56 (471) (also the latest version right this minute). This software neither causes the issue nor fixes it.

There is no known solution that I nor AppleCare could find. I have submitted an Apple Feedback for the Macbook Pro as a Bug Report and referencing this thread. While I don't expect to hear anything back, I can only hope this issue is eventually resolved!

I've gone through exactly the potential solutions you have, with one addition - I tried to learn to type with my hands held far above the keyboard so as not to accidentally brush the trackpad! Unfortunately, that slowed me down too much, so for now I've settled for disabling 'tap to click' and over the last couple of weeks I've become accustomed to clicking again. It's not too bad, set on 'light' it needs only a little more pressure than a tap, and it's a lot better than chasing the cursor all over the place.

I also have Better Touch Tool, which ultimately did not solve the problem well enough to rely on it. But I like its other functions very much! :-)

I mentioned above that the first time I went to the Apple Store with the cursor problem, they immediately replaced the computer (it was new). But, sadly, the replacement has the same problem. I love EVERYTHING else about this 12" macbook, and so have decided to live with clicking instead of tapping for the time being. I've also filed a bug report, though, and hope they manage to find a way to fix it.

This is the first I've heard they're admitting to an issue. That's progress, at least. I was told I simply didn't know how to type correctly. 😠 That, after using trackpads for fifteen years. I filled out the bug report some time ago. Hopefully others will too. Thanks for the info!!

dobes918 wrote:

I've gone through exactly the potential solutions you have, with one addition - I tried to learn to type with my hands held far above the keyboard so as not to accidentally brush the trackpad! Unfortunately, that slowed me down too much, so for now I've settled for disabling 'tap to click' and over the last couple of weeks I've become accustomed to clicking again. It's not too bad, set on 'light' it needs only a little more pressure than a tap, and it's a lot better than chasing the cursor all over the place.

I tried this as well, but then I lose drag lock. If I go and re-enable it, then it re-enables tap to click, haha. I can't live without drag lock. That feature is so useful with a trackpad, otherwise I just end up fumbling and dropping stuff where I didn't intend to. Now THAT can really get things all sorts of messed up! Just can't win...

anneof28days wrote:

This is the first I've heard they're admitting to an issue. That's progress, at least. I was told I simply didn't know how to type correctly. 😠 That, after using trackpads for fifteen years. I filled out the bug report some time ago. Hopefully others will too. Thanks for the info!!

The person I spoke to was very sympathetic. I actually thanked him for not doing that, as I had read your earlier post about the "Tier Two" adviser. That would have really upset me too.

So, since I posted earlier today I called Apple tech support as well. They also acknowledged the issue to me and said the engineers are aware of the problem and working on it. In the the mean time, I created a keyboard shortcut through Automatic to toggle tap to click on and off, so I can easily switch if I'm going to do extended typing. I had no clue how to do this, do here's an abbreviated tutorial if you want to try the same thing.

1) Open Automator

2) Select create service.

3) set the input pull down at the top to no input

4) Search for application in the search field

5) drag over " launch application " and then set to "system preferences"

6) hit the arrow at the top to carry out that step.

7) press record

8) in the open system preferences window click track pad and then the tap to click check box.

9) hit stop on the record pop up.

10) In the Automator window slide the action speed to 10x

11) Drag over "quit application" and then set to "system preferences"

12) save it as whatever you want. I chose "Toggle_TTC".

13) Close Automator, open system preferences/keyboard/shortcuts/services

14) Your new service will be saved under general, click it and add an unused keyboard shortcut.

15) Voila--Easily toggle the feature on and off.

How could they release this? It's not like 1 out of 10 of new machines has an issue. THEY ALL DO!!! DIdnt they try typing on it? I can expect this from Dell, but from Apple.... /sigh

Let's hope it's a simple firmware fix.

I hope so too. I was just typing a short message to my wife on Facebook and it happened again. Only, there are so many hotkeys inside of the Facebook webpage that if you type a sentence in the main window, you might like a couple things, share a post, and all sorts of other stuff. Talk about frustrating... I couldn't even get through this paragraph without it happening again!

Would be nice to see someone from Apple respond to this thread with something reassuring. I'd love to know they're at least looking into it and put a fix into a future patch or something. Kind of hampers the use of a laptop if the mouse and keyboard don't work properly.

Same issue here. I'm soooo wishing that my 2012 rMBP wouldn't have died because this is sooooooo annoying. In fact, it happened again as I was trying to type in my login info to post this comment. I'd gladly give up Force Touch (which I hardly ever use) for a trackpad that functions properly...

Ditto. Recent rMBP w/ no option to turn off trackpad while typing. I don't use the tap to click option. The problem for me is that my palms brush the trackpad while typing. I think this may be the case for a large percent of laptop users.

When on a table, I take my hands off the computer while typing and the problem goes away so I'm quite sure the palm brushing the trackpad while typing is the issue.

This really is nuts, apple should fix it.

I'm also experiencing this same problem. It's so frustrating to be typing, especially when you're in a groove and to suddenly have the mouse trigger another application window or click somewhere else in the document and type over something else. Turning off touch to click isn't a great solution as that's one of the things the MBP touchpad excels at.

I don't even understand why this is an issue either - I just upgraded from a 2013 MBP Retina 13" and it never had this problem. My suspicion is it has something to do with force touch which quite frankly is a useless feature. Let's fix the basics before we start adding new, unwanted features shall we Apple?

I hope some of you guys are willing to try this and tell me what happens.

It's clear to me that the problem originates in the Force Touch trackpad, since all of us on this thread have Macs with that feature. So about three days ago I went to System Preferences>Trackpad and unchecked Force Click and haptic feedback. Two things happened. First, my cursor has not skipped at all since then. Of course, I have been trying to train my hands not to brush the trackpad so as to prevent that from happening, but it was still happening occasionally. Now it is not, though it has only been three days. Second - I can still force click. I still get haptic feedback. I check over and over, but that box is unchecked, my cursor is behaving normally, and I can still use force click.

Can anyone confirm that this works for them, too? I hope it's not just a temporary thing....

I really hope this resolves you issue. I need to get a new Mac and I'm trying to decide between the force and regular trackpad (refurb). I've waffled a bit because Apple can't tell me what version of OSX a machine will have on it, and that's critical for one stupid piece of hardware I use.

Pretty sad how bad things have gotten.

Yep, I'm getting the same problem here. Using my 2015 rMBP 13". It's extremely annoying. I'd be typing on Facebook, YouTube, or anywhere, and the typing would stop because I've accidentally clicked out of the search or text box. It's just that the joint of my thumb sort of hits the top left corner of the trackpad. Apple should completely lock the entire trackpad whilst typing, and not just the majority of the trackpad.