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3 and 4 finger gestures randomly stop working on new M1Pro MBP

D

D200

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 23, 2010
24
3
Hello

I run into an issue where the trackpad still works, but I am unable too use the 3 or 4 finger gestures.

This happens after an hour of use, or so. I already talked to support, but, although helpful, they do not have an answer. I have to log out and then log in again to get the functionality back.

I will wipe the Mac clean and reinstall the OS to see if this issue persists. But I'm curious to hear if this is happening to other users, too?
 
Yes!!! I've been experiencing the exact same issue!! Funnily enough, I actually was just checking this subforum specifically hoping to come across a thread about this issue! I'm glad it's not just my specific computer with a hardware defect... it's extremely annoying when the 3/4 finger gestures stop working, it's completely random and as far as I can tell, restarting the computer is the only thing that will fix it...

Do you have the Monterey 12.1 beta installed? Or are you on 12.0.1? I'm on the latest 12.1 beta and I originally assumed that maybe it's an issue that was introduced in the betas... I installed the 12.1 beta the second I got my computer so I have no idea, haha. Either way, I really hope this is a software-side issue and can/will be fixed with an OS update, rather than it being some rare hardware issue that requires replacing/fixing...

It doesn't happen to me that frequently, maybe like once every couple of days or so, but I can't believe you experience it consistently after just an hour! That's awful!
 
Hey!
upsguy27 said:
Do you have the Monterey 12.1 beta installed?
Click to expand...

I am on regular 12.0.1, no beta. And it IS very annoying!

But, after al long while (couple hours), it goes away. I am not always logging out, when it occurs, so the Macbook my sit there without interaction for a while and I realized that the gestures start working again.

I will do a fresh install over the weekend and see if the issue persists.
 
I have the same issue on a MBP M1max running 12.1 Beta.

Super annoying. I had to enable hot corners to be able to get access Mission Control.

The multi finger gestures stop working when navigating to full screened apps, such as News. The gestures work fine on the main desktop, but stop working in any full windows apps.
 
I noticed just the other day that 3 finger swipe upwards wasn't working when it was in Big Sur.
I looked up my trackpad settings and it was unticked! I didn't do that :)
I can only assume that the upgrade to Monterey has somehow knocked it off. I can't think of any other reason.
Anyway it's back on now and working normally as far as I can see.
 
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The multi finger gestures are selected in settings. They work fine on the main desktop, just not in full screen apps. So once I switch to full screen of News.app, I can go back to my main screen using gestures.

What's even more interesting is that the gesture in the full screen app works for like a fraction of a second, but stops working the instant the mouse gets "registered" by that screen. In other words I can gesture swipe in and out of the screens if I do it very fast, but once the cursor is captured by the full screen app, I'm stuck.
 
Quackers said:
I looked up my trackpad settings and it was unticked!
Click to expand...
Not in my case. It works fine for a while and all a sudden the gestures stop working. I can move the curser around and click on thinks, but the 3-4 finger gestures won't work.
outback-gaggle said:
once I switch to full screen
Click to expand...
In my case, it happens in regular screen and in all different window sizes.
 
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I'm not sure if this is related or not, but my tap to click is acting up as well. I will tap and it won't register a click, and then I'll tap again and it will register it on the 2nd or 3rd try. What's weird is that this same problem even happens when using the magic trackpad and an external monitor. Which makes me think it's a MacOS-related issue and not the trackpad hardware.
 
Just got my 16" and seeing similar problems with multitouch on the trackpad. Changing the tracking speed to make it slower seems to improve the tap problem @ahaynes42 mentions. It looks like it is registering a scroll first rather than the two finger tap for right clicks, then the two finger tap happens. Single tap also seems intermittent. This is on the latest beta.
 
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D200 said:
Not in my case. It works fine for a while and all a sudden the gestures stop working. I can move the curser around and click on thinks, but the 3-4 finger gestures won't work.

In my case, it happens in regular screen and in all different window sizes.
Click to expand...
Same here, this is a global issue, not fullscreen vs. windowed. At this point, now that you've tested a fresh install with no difference, could this be some sort of super obscure hardware issue? It must be super uncommon given that in this thread so far, you and I are the only ones to experience this exact issue, in this exact way.

ALSO, interestingly, I've noticed that when I'm experiencing the 3-4 finger gesture issue, the Mission Control keyboard shortcut (F3) also stops working for me, which is.... even more bizarre.
 
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Since updating to 12.1 beta 4, I haven't experienced this issue again, but... hopefully I haven't jinxed it now, and it's properly fixed!
 
D200 said:
Hey!


I am on regular 12.0.1, no beta. And it IS very annoying!

But, after al long while (couple hours), it goes away. I am not always logging out, when it occurs, so the Macbook my sit there without interaction for a while and I realized that the gestures start working again.

I will do a fresh install over the weekend and see if the issue persists.
Click to expand...
I have the same issue, even after upgrading to 12.1 after its release (not the beta).
But no need for restart or logging out to fix it.

Go into activity monitor -> find and stop "Dock"-acitivity

It will start it self instantly so, no need to worry. after, the gestures works again :)
 
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Katz245 said:
I have the same issue, even after upgrading to 12.1 after its release (not the beta).
But no need for restart or logging out to fix it.

Go into activity monitor -> find and stop "Dock"-acitivity

It will start it self instantly so, no need to worry. after, the gestures works again :)
Click to expand...
Thank you so much!! It worked for me. I was afraid that updating to Monterey 12.2 bricked this feature.
 
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Katz245 said:
I have the same issue, even after upgrading to 12.1 after its release (not the beta).
But no need for restart or logging out to fix it.

Go into activity monitor -> find and stop "Dock"-acitivity

It will start it self instantly so, no need to worry. after, the gestures works again :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for this tip! Ill try it the next time I experience it.

I did a factory reset over the holidays, which seemed to have helped. However, after a couple weeks, I experienced it again... Although less frequent, it still happens regularly. Non of the MacOS updates seem to make a difference. I activated the 'Hot Corners' to override the issue, but that function is disabled too, when the 3-4 finger gestures are not working properly.
 
Katz245 said:
I have the same issue, even after upgrading to 12.1 after its release (not the beta).
But no need for restart or logging out to fix it.

Go into activity monitor -> find and stop "Dock"-acitivity

It will start it self instantly so, no need to worry. after, the gestures works again :)
Click to expand...
Thank you so much. Gesture working very well again after following these steps.
 
Thanks for this sub, I thought I was going insane! I still experience this problem on 12.3, though it's a little different for me. In particular, force touch and 2 finger swiping stop working every hour or so. I mainly use an external Magic Trackpad. Turning the options off and on again in touchpad settings works for a while, but it keeps getting back. I already altered the lookup/quickview settings from force touch to 3 finger tap which luckily doesn't keep failing.

It is getting so annoying I was actually thinking of buying a new Mac (my MacBook Pro 2017 isn't sufficient anymore for my needs anyways). But now I see it it's also occurring on even the newest MacBook Pro. How is this still a problem? Come on Apple...
 
Update: I guess one of the OS updates addressed the issue. I haven't had any gesture troubles for a couple months now, thankfully! I hope the ones still experiencing it will get it resolved, too!
 
unfortunately this issue popped up again on 14" M1 Pro in Monteray 12.4
edit: if you open a terminal and run "killall Dock" that solves the problem
 
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When that happens to me I usually start with a one-finger gesture. ?

Then I try the top left corner which I set to screensaver.

Pressing the Touch-ID/Power-button/key twice also fixes it.
 
For me I actually didn’t experience any problems for a while now. I bought the MBP 14” in the meantime but still had minor issues, but way less than on my older Intel MBP but they’re gone now. Though I still use my Magic Trackpad wired as the Bluetooth connection with the trackpad is terrible on the new MBP…
 
Been periodically experiencing this since I purchased my 14" M1 Pro earlier this year. Just experienced it few hours ago and it went away on its own after 1-2 hours.
 
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