Text cursor/Name edit when trying to open file

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Level 1

7 points

Text cursor/Name edit when trying to open file

Hello all,

I've been having this odd problem on my 2017 MacBook Air running High Sierra 10.13.3 (but has also been happening on previous versions of High Sierra):

Every once in a while - there seems to be no rhyme/reason/pattern to this - when I'm trying to single- or double-click a file in the browser, it won't select or open the file, but it will make the file name editable. Basically, I have to then double click (or Command-O) in a space of the file that doesn't have any text/file name. Hopefully that makes sense; I tried to explain it the best I could.

At first I thought this was because maybe I was accidentally holding down a shortcut key or something, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's not with certain files - it just happens randomly, then if I go to open the file later, it will select/open normally.

So to sum up, if I single-click on a file in the file name space, this will be what happens:

It's not much more than a minor annoyance, but I'm really curious as to why this is happening or what I'm doing to cause it (or if it's just a weird bug). Thanks!

MacBook Air, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3), 2017, 1.8Ghz

Posted on Mar 13, 2018 8:42 AM

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Answer 1

sheacago Author

Level 1

7 points

Mar 13, 2018 11:31 AM in response to VikingOSX

Right, I could do that (and have been, when this happens). However I'm not so much looking for a workaround as I am just trying to find out if this is caused by something I'm doing that I'm unaware of, or if it's a bug. It's only started happening pretty recently, which is why I'm curious.

Thanks for your reply though.

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Answer 2

Mar 13, 2018 12:33 PM in response to sheacago

In that case, follow macjack's advice, as I have seen this random name selection issue for years, not just with the last few major OS releases, and I would agree that this likely input device sensitivity tuning.

Also, file selection is intended to be a rapid double-click, not a click, pause, click process. With a rapid double-click on the filename, the text is not selected for me, and the opening application takes over. My Magic Mouse II tracking speed is set to 3 increments from the fast end of the tracking speed settings.

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Answer 3

sheacago Author

Level 1

7 points

Mar 13, 2018 1:30 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks for the reply. I think I might not have been completely clear, though - this doesn't happen when i click, pause, then click again - that would be normal. This happens with one, single click. In other words, with one click, it has the same action as a click-pause-click. Not all the time though, and not with every file - it seems to be completely random.

Not that big of a deal to work around, but I just thought maybe someone was having the same thing happen.

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Answer 4

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Mar 13, 2018 8:48 AM in response to sheacago

A double-click will do that. Try changing your Tracking Speed in System Preferences > Mouse and see if that helps.

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Answer 5

Mar 13, 2018 9:51 AM in response to sheacago

Just double-click on the icon, not the actual text part of the filename.

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Text cursor/Name edit when trying to open file

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