How to drag and drop with Magic Trackpad 2?

This helped me! I had set it to "subtle" and it was nearly impossible to avoid to enable the "force click" by accident.

Now with "firm" it's much easier!!

I have found that, when in 3 Column Finder, if ones selects the desired file and then 2 finger (left constant and right to drag) one can move the item to the desired location. The trick is selceting the file from the last column where it the single image of the selcted file. It will then go where ever you want doing the tradition Drag and Drop move. Within a website just force click hold and drag. If a link is associted with the item on the website clicked, it will open, but as long as it's not let go, it can be moved/dragged anywhere.

Thanks to arw54 !

Never thought to look in "accessibility" but that is certainly the way to keep all the new features but also have easy dragging.

Cheers!

(for some reason I'm replying to Tim Hill1 when I meant to reply to arw54)

I'm having this same issue. It's intermittent, can be fixed by plugging the trackpad back in, on/off, etc. Additionally, it seems to only be an issue in list view. I've never experienced an issue when switching to icon view. The whole icon vs text thing does nothing for me. Sometimes it's working like a champ; others it's forgotten how to drag and drop entirely.

Bug report. Save me Apple. You're my only hope.

Like me, I think most people are using the trackpad wrong. Sometimes dragging and dropping a file worked for me, sometimes it didn't. After playing with it a bit, I discovered the secret to get it to work every time:

1) Move the cursor over the file. It doesn't matter where. Can be over the icon or over the name of the file.

Now, here's the trick:

2) Do NOT let your finger leave the trackpad. With the old trackpad, I used pick my finger up and then tap on the file. Do NOT do this.

INSTEAD

3) Push down lightly on the trackpad until you get the first click. Do not push so hard you get the "force" click.

4) Drag and drop to your heart's content.

It takes a little practice (maybe 30 seconds to a minute) but I think you'll find it's better and faster than the old method of dragging and dropping a file.

http://www.cio.com/article/2978840/os-x/os-x-el-capitan-enable-the-three-finger- drag-gesture.html

So, I've bought a new Magic Trackpad 2 as well and just got it. I've read through all of the other posts here and have some of the same issues. I have one computer (Yosemite) where it doesn't do much other than track and click. I've my laptop (macbook pro with El Cap) and it behaves the same way. Using bluetooth or connected pretty much behave the same.

I had to look up some of the preferences settings and found that I don't see any "force touch" settings. Further, I found this

1. Launch System Preferences.
2. Click on Trackpad.
3. Uncheck Force Click and haptic feedback to disable.

Went to look specifically for this (hadn't noticed it before, though I'd been in the settings before). I don't have them, but when I try to download El Cap from the app store, it says I already have it. Could it be that because I've been using a beta (2nd or 3rd developer beta, can't remember now), something just isn't right?

Just curious. I'm downloading a fresh copy of El Cap and will install it again.

Seems that for the Yosemite laptop, I'm out of luck. It's my work laptop and haven't been allowed to upgrade to El Cap yet.

Anyway, thanks everyone for letting me know it wasn't just me thinking things were crazy.

~Mike

Just checked on my mac mini (came with El Cap) and everything was there and the trackpad worked like a charm.

I'm thinking I still have beta residuals on my laptop. Once I reinstall, I'll come back and comment.

Good to know that the trackpad is working correctly!

After installing a fresh copy of El Capitan, things are good and the trackpad is working as designed whether it's tethered or not.

Again, thanks for everyone's comments and observations (not on my specific issue, but enough like mine that I was able to figure it out)!

Cheers!

I've had the same issue and just got it sorted by the Apple Chat advisor.

Basically there are settings to change, which are not in the SYSTEM PREFERENCES / TRACKPAD menu

but in SYSTEM PREFERENCES / ACCESSIBILITY / MOUSE & TRACKPAD

There you find the button TRACKPAD OPTIONS and will tick the box 'Enable dragging'

Why is apple hiding trackpad settings in two areas without linking both?

Poor UX 😢

The answer is to go in to preferences, trackpad and choose firm click. I worked on this for hours and finally figured it out.

I had this issue too. Then I realized ForceTouch isn't only that second click you feel when you push harder, but any kind of additional pressure on the trackpad.

It's a subtle difference, but if I click very lightly on an item with my thumb, and don't push down harder as I use my index finger to drag, it works for me perfectly now. After doing this a couple of times it was easy to master.

I'm fed up with trying this setting that setting etc on this trackpad. I can't get the corner secondary clicks to work at all, only the three finger clicks for secondary. It's pretty poor that Apple put the vital settings in two different places - Trackpad and Accessibility. Why spend hours practising what should be completely intuitive, and what's more, then one needs to remember one set of gestures for this trackpad and different ones for laptops? Back to the Trackpad 1 for me, that seemed fine even though battery charging is a bit of a pain.

I have tried every which way to work with this Track pad 2. I thought it was a faulty device and exchanged it. And Im still having the same issue. I work a lot with audio and do a lot of clicking and dragging. This device is not working as intended. I hope they can either update the firmware or simply recall it..

You have to enable three finger drag:

Turn on "three finger drag" for your Force Touch trackpad - Apple ...

Once you do that, then you simply highlight what you want to drag, "grab" with your three fingers and drop it where you want.

I had to figure this out and look it up too. Not intuitive.

Hope that helps.