OS X: Intermittent Issues with Magic Trackpad 2
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In this post I’ll talk about a nuisance issue I discovered while working with Apple’s new Magic Trackpad 2. Intermittently, it doesn’t register clicks or drag and drop events.

When I was battling Bluetooth connectivity issues with Apple’s Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad, I thought the problem may be hardware-related. When Apple released the new Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad 2, I decided to upgrade, hoping it would fix the problem. As we know now, the issue was not caused by hardware but by a bug in OS X that has meanwhile been fixed.
Sometime during the OS X El Capitan 10.11.x beta cycle, I started noticing the following intermittent issues:
- Trying to drag and drop files in Finder wouldn’t work. It appeared as if the “click and drag” event wasn’t registered by OS X or Finder and I had to re-grab the file a couple of times
- Clicking on certain UI elements, such as the minimize, maximize or close buttons wouldn’t work. The click just wouldn’t do anything and neither would a force click.

Magic Trackpad 2 & El Capitan
I was hoping that the GA release of 10.11.4 would fix the problem but it didn’t. So I called Apple Support to see if they had heard about this issue at all.
I had low expectations because front-line support usually can’t help with these type of issues. I guess my tone of voice and attitude already signaled that because neither the guy who picked up, nor the senior advisor I was transferred to made much effort to really understand the problem.
Their recommendation was to try to reproduce the problem with a different user account and, if need be, to re-install OS X. That is absolutely reasonable from the perspective of isolating the problem. That being said and having gone through days of troubleshooting the Bluetooth connectivity issue, which turned out to be a bug in OS X, makes me wary of wasting another couple of days.
If it Smells Like a Bug…
I shouldn’t jump to conclusions but the following symptoms, in my humble opinion, point to a bug in OS X’s input event handling and not to an issue with my user profile or configuration:
- Apple just fixed a number bugs related to input devices
- Magic Trackpad 2 and force click are brand new technologies
- The problem is intermittent
- Neither OS X nor the application are freezing or become unresponsive
It just seems like somewhere along the event handling line, the “physical” click on the Magic Trackpad 2 does not get forwarded to OS X and/or the application. To me, that just has bug written all over it.
Workaround
A workaround for this problem is to temporarily switch applications. For instance, if Finder doesn’t register clicks I would switch to Safari and then immediately back to Finder. After the switch, click events in Finder register again. Hours or sometimes even days later, the problem would occur again.
What’s Next?
When I blog about issues like this one, I usually have a solution or idea of how this problem could be solved. Not in this case! But before I start investing hours and potentially days in troubleshooting, I’d like to find out if there are other users out there who are affected. If I’m the only one with this issue, I’ll perform the following troubleshooting steps to narrow down the issue:
- See if problem persists with the older Magic Trackpad
- Create a new user profile on my Mac and see if issue still occurs
- Re-install OS X
But I’m guessing that I’m not alone, and so I’ll file a bug report with Apple and then patiently wait for them to fix the problem in one of the next releases.
I Need Your Help!
If you have experienced similar issues with Apple’s Magic Trackpad, I’d appreciate if you let me know by leaving a comment below. That will help me argue the case with Apple and will hopefully lead to a fix in the near future.

Yes I have the same issue and it’s driving me mad…i went back to my old Trackpad until a fix is available. Would be very interested to hear about any findings on this
Thanks for the info! I’m glad to hear I’m not alone. At least now I don’t have to waste time re-installing OS X.
Same here. Trackpad 2 intermitted lags and hangs. After clicking a few times or swiping it’s live again.
Odd…. 🙁
Should add that I just installed the latest 10.11.5 update. Issue still persisting….
Still not sure that it’s not a hardware or firmware problem of the trackpad.
I read somewhere else about people returning it to Apple and the new one was working fine.
Anyone?
Odd indeed! My issues almost completely disappeared after upgrading OS X. Intermittently my trackpad doesn’t register clicks but even that has become a rare occurrence. If in doubt get the trackpad replaced and see if it fixes the problem…