2016 Macbook Pro 15" Palm Rejection Issue

Agree with your complaint. Someone at apple seems to think that if a large-ish trackpad was good, then a hilariously oversized trackpad must be better.

I tried covering the edges of the trackpad with paper but the trackpad (mis-)senses input through the paper.

Hopefully apple will put out a software update that will allow users to simply reject most of the hilariously oversized trackpad area. I dont need more than the usual small rectangle in the center of the trackpad.

Also hitting touch bar buttons by accident all the time. I basically disabled touch bar as much as possible in preferences to avoid this.

A lot of awful design decisions in this new macbook. Removal of magsafe, the new keyboard is horrible, etc.

Actually here is a solution I just came upon that helps mitigate this issue for me.

I took some electric tape and taped off the edges of the trackpad, where my palm tends to accidentally hit it.

The first piece of electric tape doesnt work - trackpad (mis-)sense through it. However a second piece of tape over the first one seems to do the trick.

I just taped around the edge of the trackpad and now my "palm rejection" is much more satisfactory thanks to a physical barrier blocking off most of this hilariously oversized track pad.

It also peels off pretty easily and has not left a mark on the machine either (I peeled off once just to see).

Hopefully this may help others as well.

Now if I could figure out how to block off accidental input to the touch bar, that would be excellent so I could use it without accidentally sending off emails I am in the middle of composing, etc.

This is my temporary workaround.

I disabled the trackpad whenever I had an external mouse or the apple bluetooth trackpad connected. Palm detection now becomes a thing of the past. However, I still tap on the touch bar buttons periodically even while simply tapping on the number rows, delete key, etc.

Once I switched to the bluetooth apple keyboard I realised just how wonderful that was and how noisy the macbook butterfly keys are.

It's just frustrating to have one issue done away with only to have a few others bear their head.

Edit:

I am experiencing a myriad of problems now with this setup.

Do not recommend.

With the original apple bluetooth trackpad and keyboard connected the entire system has started to behave erratically. Gestures are activated randomly every few seconds even with my hands off the peripherals. Screen keeps flashing due to focus constantly switching to reflect gestures being detected and apps opening here and there. It was chaos.

Removing the batteries from the said peripherals and re-enabling the macbook touchpad stopped the symptoms. So now I'm back to square one.

Further to my earlier comment, I was at Genius in order to drop off my new laptop to replace the entire "top sheet" as the keyboard is malfunctioning.

When speaking with the Genius, enquired about palm rejection. He had no solutions but did state the requests are through the roof, and it would not surprise him Apple s working to fix.....

David Pogue has an inelegant fix for this problem:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/david-pogue-macbook-pro-apple-174918745.html

Scroll down to 'Trackpad'.

After being used to tap-to-click, having to keep it off is a drag. Hope there's a fix for this very un-Apple like problem.

I'm trying another work-around: I turned off two finger right click and turned on bottom right corner-right clicking. I still have touch to tap active. This may be helpful, at least for me, as I've noticed that the cursor is less likely to hop around to another part of the screen as I'm typing.

Shame on Apple for making me look at a PC for the first time in over a decade. I currently have 7 macs in my house, for work and personal use, and I'm actually looking at a PC....argh.

Worth a Try:

System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse and Trackpad:

Check "Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present"

I have no mouse or wireless trackpad 'present'. (Just power and USB-C adaptor cords plugged in). But if it isn't my typing self-correcting over time, then this seems to improve the skittish cursor ailment. Will be curious if it makes a difference for others.

Yes, this problem still exists. I just got the top MacBook Pro 15” yesterday and have been disappointed in it. While turning off the tap to click might avoid the problem if you graze the trackpad at the wrong moment (the moment at which whatever is going wrong is going wrong). But if your palm hits hard enough to register a click this feature makes no difference. It’s kind of disconcerting. Assume your cursor is at or below but within the form, field, or window where you are typing. What happens then is as you type, you feel the Taptic engine fire in the trackpad and your brain goes “Oops… too many keys were pushed” and it throws you off. But if your cursor is above where you are typing or over a button or over another window, your palm will push down, you’ll feel the Taptic click, and something unexpected and undesired happens. Either you are suddenly inserting letters where they don’t belong or you’d sent your email, changed tabs, closed the window, etc. I called Apple and I believe they are looking into it. I suggest others consider calling in. They probably could use more data to figure out the circumstances in which this happens.

This is the worst MacBook pro Apple has ever made, I know many people say this but fi Jobs was still with us, this machine would have never seen the light of day. OK- not happy they took away mag -safe, not happy they took away my lighted Apple on the back of the screen, not happy they took away my SD card slot, not happy they took away ll of my USB ports. Don't give a **** about the tour bar, all of this I don't care about but could live with, this **** new trackpad is creating so many **** problems with emails beings send before completed and documents being changed or the screen changing. what the F were they even thinking this made any kind of sense. Tempted to return this computer.

My adaptions for email, do not fill in the name of the recipient until the email has been composed or use Airmail and send my messages up for a 30 second delay to allow me to cancel send. Should to have to be this way. Have been a loyal Mac user for a long time, this new machine is testing my patience.

Thank you Bob. I’m aware that you are not Apple. I wrote and added my experience because I think it will help Apple understand the problem and that it’s happening to more than one or two people. It would be great if everyone who had the problem spoke up and said so. This is an official Apple forum. They DO read it, even if they usually just let people rot here looking for answers that rarely come. (At least nobody said “Have you zapped your NVRAM and reset your PMU?”)

Saying that someone may have purchased a product that does not meet their needs is unhelpful and ridiculous. The suggestion to tell Apple is useful, but if you read my post, I said I am talking with Apple about this.

I also have this issue (2017 15.5" MBP) and it's driving me crazy.

I've submitted feedback to Apple.

Spent $4.5K on my laptop, and it's beyond frustrating to spend that much and not be able to get something as simple as knowing whether the trackpad is going to respond predictably when I click or gesture.

This is something that isn’t a setting, or a matter of us using it “wrong”. It’s 1) a design error in making it too wide and 2) a software issue in having some cases where palm rejection fails. If they get 2 right, then 1 won’t be as big a deal.

First off these people who are posting saying that it is a user problem and not an Apple design / implementation are ... okay won't go there - BUT i think i have CRACKED THIS NUT ...

I have a way more elegant solution than the electrical tape on the track pad...

And it solves another apple design problem - sharp edges always cutting into your palms when using the Macbook while laying down or in "non-traditional" usage modes (which is what these things get used in all the time!)

There is a product you can buy on Amazon ... put this into Google

GRIFITI Palm Pads are Apple MacBook Wrist Rests and Notebook, Netbook, and Laptop Wrist Pads Made with Silicone to Easily Reposition and Remove while Travelling

Really nice gel pads about 1 mm thick that not only keep your palms from being cut by the sharp edge nearest you / your palms... But if you overlay them by about half inch on both sides of the track pad, you effectively cut the size of the track pad back to a Macbook 13 oldschool version size. And thus resolve the false touches by palm that move your cursor around.

Thank me later! I have gone all day now with out issue.. Prior was 10-20 times per day my cursor going somewhere else in middle of email... really piXXing me off.

Funny thing? I have had these pads on my new Macbook pro 15 since i bought it (becuase it is long term problem, they don't put a rounded edge down there, so just cuts the S$@# out of my palms)

Lovely jubly ... easy peasy lemon squeezy ...

Fixed.... and looks better than electrical tape!

And NO, I am not a shill for that company .... I have just used these things for a couple years now and they are kick asX.. don't cost much, work great... and fix an apple design problem ... now happy camper... no more false clicks or cursor moving around !