Multitouch Gestures Stop Working

Sylon · Jul 26, 2012

One 2 separate occasions, one right after the other, multitouch gestures stopped working on my MBP. Both times, they seemed to have occured when my wifi cut out. Now, I am not a reliable test subject for the wifi problem others seem to be having, because my wifi itself isn't reliable here. It could just be coincedence that the gesture problem is happening at the same time as the wifi cutting out, or they could be related. I noticed it both times while I was using Messages and a message I was sending got hung up, because the wifi cut out.

Either way, when it happened the first time, multitouch gestures came back after a few minutes. The second time, they didn't at all. I had to restart the MBP to get them back.

Anyone else?

jennyfer · Jul 26, 2012

I don't know if my issue is the same but I'm having trouble scrolling through pictures in Aperture after the update. It works perfectly if I use the arrow keys but it's hanging when I try and swipe through the photos using the touchpad. Maybe this is a different issue though?

blueeye · Jul 27, 2012

I'm having the same issue. All my gestures configured in BetterTouchTool are working fine, but since I woke my laptop up from sleep, ML has not been recognising the built in gestures (like four fingers to switch between screens etc.). The only thing that works is two finger scrolling...

I tried turning them all off then on in system prefs but to no avail. Quite a stupid bug.

east85 · Jul 27, 2012

Have you guys tried resetting the PRAM?

http://guides.macrumors.com/PRAM

I don't know if it will help, but it might be worth a shot.

Michaelgtrusa · Jul 28, 2012

Same issue here.

thesystem · Jul 29, 2012

Same here, but it seems that only the gestures for mission control and notification center stopped working. Pinching and scrolling works fine.
I can enter both, notification and mission control via app / icon

I tried reconnecting magic trackpad and changed batteries.

sleep and wake up doesn't fix it.

Michaelgtrusa · Jul 29, 2012

thesystem said:
Same here, but it seems that only the gestures for mission control and notification center stopped working. Pinching and scrolling works fine.
I can enter both, notification and mission control via app / icon

I tried reconnecting magic trackpad and changed batteries.

sleep and wake up doesn't fix it.

I could not get it to work for the mouse or icon.

thesystem · Jul 30, 2012

...and it works again. Don't know why

Lightning350 · Jul 30, 2012

same issue

I'm having the same problem. Some times when I wake my iMac it works but most times it does not. I hope a patch comes out soon. I find myself annoyed after I learn these gestures and now I can't use them, it sucks. I even tried to go back to the old mouse and forgot how sucky it is lol

Sylon · Jul 30, 2012

Oddly, the problems I was having with multi-touch gestures cutting out seemed to have gone away (knock on wood). And my internet has cut out several times since making this thread (I have poor internet where I'm at right now, so its common), so it wasn't the internet causing it.

Hopefully the problems stay gone. And hopefully the problem goes away for the rest of you guys as well.

macattack71189 · Aug 2, 2012

Pull up the Terminal and type in "killall Dock". Its worked for me every time.

spotsphill · Aug 7, 2012

I've been seeing this problem pretty much every other morning when I wake up my sleeping MacBook Pro since I installed Mtn Lion. Today for the first time I tried using the hot corner I set up to activate the screen saver and when I moved the trackpad again the gestures were working. This is probably a coincidence, but I thought I'd share it anyways.

I bet (hope) that Apple will release a bug fix for this soon.

Sylon · Aug 7, 2012

spotsphill said:
I've been seeing this problem pretty much every other morning when I wake up my sleeping MacBook Pro since I installed Mtn Lion. Today for the first time I tried using the hot corner I set up to activate the screen saver and when I moved the trackpad again the gestures were working. This is probably a coincidence, but I thought I'd share it anyways.

I bet (hope) that Apple will release a bug fix for this soon.

I wonder if it would be beneficial to keep your MacBook from falling asleep until Apple pushes 10.8.1 or something. I have to keep my MBP from falling asleep for other reasons, as I'm sharing internet from my MBP to my Airport Express (I'm away on a trip, its so I can use the restricted internet with my iOS devices), but if my MBP goes to sleep, like when I close the lid, the Airport Express goes nuts and I have to reset it to make it work again. Very annoying. So I installed NoSleep.

I don't let my MBP go to sleep, and whether it has anything to do with it or not, but I haven't had my multitouch gestures go out on me since making this thread.

polycat33 · Aug 12, 2012

macattack71189 said:
Pull up the Terminal and type in "killall Dock". Its worked for me every time.

Thanks for the tip, this worked for me, and even though it's not idea, it's a better workaround than logging out and back in, which is what I was doing before. Hoping for an update with the fix soon though!

MBM007 · Aug 17, 2012

this happens all the time on my iMac with trackpad....how was this not caught in beta testing? I updated on launchday and figured this would be fixed weeks ago....ridiculous!!!!

leumas27 · Aug 18, 2012

Killall Dock

I ran killall Dock in terminal and it reset gestures...Working.

MBM007 · Aug 18, 2012

I've had to use killall Dock 3 times in the past 2 days

Sylon · Aug 19, 2012

Mine went out last night for the first time in a while. Luckily Terminal fixes it.

Sych0 · Aug 19, 2012

same for me, gestures stop working but the icons work, scrolling works etc, also running mountain lion. killall dock also fixes for me...

tmiles81 · Sep 7, 2012

My Macbook Pro had this issue as well. I ran the killall Dock process and its fixed. Hope that a fix is released real soon.

Kelmon · Sep 10, 2012

I've just come across this issue with an iMac and Magic Trackpad. I tried the killall Dock command but that didn't seem to help matters. A reboot of the iMac did the job. Oddly, 2-finger scrolling doesn't seem to have been impacted, and I think the pinch-to-zoom was OK, but I was really seeing the issue with Mission Control/Expose and Notification Centre.

kolax · Sep 11, 2012

This keeps happening to me too. Sure, I can fix it with a Terminal command but bit of a pain.

10.8.2 should hopefully fix it.

brent0saurus · Sep 23, 2012

Yep, same thing here. Looks like a common issue with only one slightly annoying fix...

0fuchsiallycute · Mar 16, 2013

macattack71189 said:
Pull up the Terminal and type in "killall Dock". Its worked for me every time.

Thanks for the fix!

JonnyMD · Sep 8, 2014

This is the quick solution

macattack71189 said:
Pull up the Terminal and type in "killall Dock". Its worked for me every time.

THIS. 1000x's THIS! Been bugging me for over a year and reboot fixed. Thank you for the quick fix.

Multitouch Gestures Stop Working

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