After updating to El Capitan, the trackpad of my MacBook Air goes to a "sleep mode" after a few seconds of inactivity. "Activating" the trackpad requires clicking it. This is very frustrating especially since the timeout is so short. Is there a way of disabling this behaviour?
I'm currently running OS X 10.11.6 on a 13" MacBook air (mid 2013)
MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)
Were you ever able to resolve this? I have the same exact issue and I cant find any info about this.
Im on Sierra 10.12.3 I think I first noticed this after I upgraded but im not sure. Its really annoying.
I am also having this issue. Of course with the same frustration. This is the only entry I've been able to find with my exact problem. Has anyone found a fix?
I do not believe it is a hardware issue, because I can reinstall my previous version and the trackpad works fine.
I also have a MacBook Air Mid 2013, upgraded to Sierra 10.12.6.
Hello fredrikostlund,
Thanks for upgrading your Mac to El Capitan! If you are noticing some changes in the way your trackpad is working, this can be due to some system preferences reverting to default settings during the upgrade. You can adjust these settings in your system preferences. Since we are unsure what exactly has changed, the links below can assist you with going over and checking all of the relevant settings that can affect how your trackpad works.
Mac Basics: Set your preferences
OS X El Capitan: Change the way your trackpad works
OS X El Capitan: Mouse & Trackpad pane of Accessibility preferences
About Energy Saver sleep and idle modes in Mac OS X
Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities fredrikostlund. Have a great day.
Hi Irina,
many thanks for the quick reply. None of the linked resources could help me solve my problem though. I think my description of the problem was a bit lacking so let me try again:
If not using the trackpad for 3-4 seconds, it "turns off". By this I mean that I'm unable to move the mouse cursor. To "turn it on" again I need to tap or click the trackpad. This always turns it on again (the first tap is not registered as a click). Since the time for this to happen is so short it gets very frustrating.
The behaviour is perfectly reproducible so I don't believe it's a hardware issue (and the fact that is started after the El capitan update also seems to support that)
cheers
No problem, glad I can lend a hand. If the links to change the settings did not change the way your trackpad operates, reinstalling OS Should do the trick. This will not erase any data from your machine at all.
Since this occurred after upgrading your Mac to El Capitan a reinstall should repair it.
Cheers!
Thanks. I appreciate the effort. Reinstalling didn't fix the problem though. I noticed that the trackpad behaviour was also present during the recovery so possible it's not part of El Capitan.
I also tried resetting the NVRAM without success (How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support).
Try resetting the SMC.
Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support
It didn't help, but thanks anyway.
As the behaviour is consistent and somewhat logical except for the very short delay, I believe there must be a setting somewhere to increase the time before the trackpad is disabled, or to turn it off. I have very little experience with OS X though and searching for the problem yields no results as I'm flooded with posts related to the trackpad not working after the computer wakes up from sleep (which is not my problem)
cheers
FWIW, I do have a Mid 2013 MacBook Air I bought on 5/14. Currently running OS X 10.11.6. Its trackpad has never "gone to sleep" after a a short or any other length delay. It actually makes no sense there would be a setting to turn off the trackpad other than when the computer is in Sleep Mode. I think your issue is more likely a hardware problem.
Trackpad "sleep" mode
