Brand new (refurbished) MBA 13" Invalid Right Click Activations

[Mike Richardson]

Two activations today.

I am speaking of, when the trackpad improperly activates the right click functionality (secondary click - click with two fingers), when two fingers are not being explicitly used.

This forced me to disable the feature before.

I had no issues with this on an old 2007 type MacBook Pro.

Why is Apple selling defective trackpads?

 

[macdemon]

Two activations today.

I am speaking of, when the trackpad improperly activates the right click functionality (secondary click - click with two fingers), when two fingers are not being explicitly used.

This forced me to disable the feature before.

I had no issues with this on an old 2007 type MacBook Pro.

Why is Apple selling defective trackpads?

[doublepost=1488975450][/doublepost]Hi
click on link below to
How, When, & Why to reset the PRAM & SMC on your Mac
https://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/20...reset-the-pram-smc-on-your-mac/#.tnw_iq6k0ukh

try if it works
good luck

 

[Mike Richardson]

I think I figured this out. Thanks to insomnia, MagicPrefs and absolutely no one/nothing else.

This picture demonstrates my expectations for how "Secondary Click/Click with two fingers" should work. http://mikerichardson.name/screenshots/Screenshot_at_04-04-35_IUiGqa5y.jpg. I basically use the lower third of the trackpad as the "clicking area". The design of the trackpad (being far easier to click at the bottom than it is at the top) is consistent with my usage.

The problem is that Apple's option for "Secondary Click" is too literal. If I press anywhere on the trackpad with two fingers at the same time, the menu activates. (http://mikerichardson.name/screenshots/Screenshot_at_04-06-00_Kfa5iCHf.jpg) I was doing this absentmindedly sometimes, for whatever reason. Note that it also activates if you press with three fingers, or four. Apple has no options for what to do when more than two fingers click, so any number more than two, are treated as two.

I never had problems with spurious contextual menus on a 2007 MacBook Pro (RIP), and the old iBook G4 that I keep around. They have actual clicking areas! You could not click on the main trackpad portion!

The solution is MagicPrefs. Disable Apple's rubbish option first. The trick is then to enable "Three Finger Click" and set it to "Ctrl Left Click".

The "real time graphical display" of MagicPrefs was indispensable to diagnosing this problem. I just can't believe that I put up with it for nearly 5 years on my old MBA, when I could have fixed it. I never considered that what I was doing was a "three fingers click", because I never considered the clicking finger (usually a thumb) as one of the fingers - because in my mind that thumb is in the virtual "clicking area" and not considered (but actually is) on the trackpad.

I go to bed now.

Can a moderator change the topic title to: "SOLVED: MacBook Air Spurious Contextual Menu Activations" or something? Thanks.

Edit 2: Nope.

 

[Mike Richardson]

Well, it's still F**king activating sometimes.

This is intolerable.

 

[DeltaMac]

Yes, most trackpad gestures did not exist yet your older MBPro.
The newer trackpads don't even have a hinge point, with no mechanical switches in the trackpad, so no preferred "clicking area" like you might know from earlier types of trackpads.
Bottom line - You simply can't place finger tips just anywhere you like with a trackpad that is waiting for multiple pressure points (and knows what to do with them )
You can (I think) still turn off all gestures, so it just clicks when you need it to click. The two (or three) finger click might be something that you just have to live with. BUT, you might see a difference, too, if you turn OFF "tap to click"
(I think you will need to disable Magic Prefs for a bit to see the difference when you have that native function "tap to click" turned off.)
The Magic Prefs may even be application-aware (I'm not sure), so there may be some difference in how it reacts, depending on what you are doing. If so, should be in the settings somewhere.

 

[racoop]

Two activations today.

I am speaking of, when the trackpad improperly activates the right click functionality (secondary click - click with two fingers), when two fingers are not being explicitly used.

This forced me to disable the feature before.

I had no issues with this on an old 2007 type MacBook Pro.

Why is Apple selling defective trackpads?

If it's defective, why not just return it?

 

[Mike Richardson]

If it's defective, why not just return it?

Because - they're ALL "defective". Old MBAs, new MBAs, 2015 MBPs. And the only "fix" is to completely disable "secondary click". And I can use control click, that's fine, except that control click doesn't work in XQuartz, or TeamViewer, or Remote Desktop.

Yes, most trackpad gestures did not exist yet your older MBPro.
The newer trackpads don't even have a hinge point, with no mechanical switches in the trackpad, so no preferred "clicking area" like you might know from earlier types of trackpads.
Bottom line - You simply can't place finger tips just anywhere you like with a trackpad that is waiting for multiple pressure points (and knows what to do with them )
You can (I think) still turn off all gestures, so it just clicks when you need it to click. The two (or three) finger click might be something that you just have to live with. BUT, you might see a difference, too, if you turn OFF "tap to click"
(I think you will need to disable Magic Prefs for a bit to see the difference when you have that native function "tap to click" turned off.)
The Magic Prefs may even be application-aware (I'm not sure), so there may be some difference in how it reacts, depending on what you are doing. If so, should be in the settings somewhere.

Tap to click was never on. Whoever came up with that feature (with some intent for general use) should be shot. (I understand it might have some "accessibility" uses though).

Also, the MacBook Air does contain a mechanical switch. It's the last Apple laptop to have such a thing.

Being able to right click, and being able to scroll are really the only "gestures" I care about. I would immediately sacrifice all other gestures just to have perfect right click and scrolling. (scrolling is never a problem though, just the right click).

I noticed I can hold my finger 1 or 2 mm off the trackpad, and it still registers. But there is NO sensitivity adjustment anywhere, not even in MagicPrefs.

One side effect of the trackpad having gotten so massively oversized (much more so on the vapid 12" MacBook) is that it reduces the area where you can rest your hands, and so by extension, your fingers. For now, I am going to try working with the MagicPrefs real time display opened in the corner, and try to observe that when I have one of the invalid right click activations.

I've been putting up with this problem for almost 5 years. I thought my old MBA had just gotten warped (the battery had to be replaced - twice - for swelling, and this caused some screws to strip and fall out).

A SEPARATE POINT IS MADE BELOW, WHICH IS WHY I USED A SEPARATE POST, BUT THE POSTS WERE THEN MERGED.
[doublepost=1489312304][/doublepost]Whatever happened to, "ignore accidental trackpad input"?

Is that enabled all the time now, or is it "disabled" all the time now?

 

[DeltaMac]

OK...
your thread title DID say brand new (refurbished) - so I was going on the assumption that this was something new for you. And, would legitimately give the impression that you might have a defective system that you just purchased.
But, then you now say this is five-year-old news.

You may be better off using a mouse. At least that would work without needing to hold your hand in perhaps uncomfortable positions, eh?

 

[Mike Richardson]

OK...
your thread title DID say brand new (refurbished) - so I was going on the assumption that this was something new for you. And, would legitimately give the impression that you might have a defective system that you just purchased.
But, then you now say this is five-year-old news.

You may be better off using a mouse. At least that would work without needing to hold your hand in perhaps uncomfortable positions, eh?

Well, I thought that maybe, it was due to the old MBA having gotten warped and stuff from swollen batteries.

But the fact that this occurs on a brand new (refurbished), eliminates that theory.

I did notice on one of these improper activations, that my hand was just slightly touching the trackpad, causing a "third finger" to be detected when I then clicked on something (using the MagicPrefs settings so that three "fingers" are necessary and not "two").

Like I said, they've made it too large. It's even worse on the other models. Maybe this will be my last Apple laptop. RIP Steve Jobs.
[doublepost=1489328132][/doublepost]I'm just gonna do another post because it gets merged anyway.

I noticed it again. This time, I had my left thumb resting on the space bar. But that caused a slight touching, or maybe even just "almost-touching". I'm going to have to mess with MagicPrefs zone feature a lot and try to tweak this s*it down to something acceptable. If I can't get it working without me wanting to smash the damned laptop against a rock and throw it into a volcano, then I'm returning it to Apple and going on strike.

It's acceptable that sometimes the right click menu does not activate but it's NEVER acceptable that it activates when unwanted.

 

[Mike Richardson]

Not like anyone here gives a sh*t, or maybe you're just all too drunk on the kool-aid, but after a few days I realized that it seemed like MagicPrefs was making things worse.

So I'm back where I started. I am sick and tired of having a laptop with trackpad features that are so defective I have to turn them off.

 

[michaelsviews]

Not like anyone here gives a sh*t, or maybe you're just all too drunk on the kool-aid, but after a few days I realized that it seemed like MagicPrefs was making things worse.

So I'm back where I started. I am sick and tired of having a laptop with trackpad features that are so defective I have to turn them off.

Your hilarious ROFLMAO. Based on your posts you mite be better off getting a return or making a trip to the local apple store where you MITE find an apple rep that's going to assist you with your 3rd party application.

Good Luck either way

 

[albebaubles]

The trackpad is stellar. You're using it wrong.

 

[Johnny365]

LMAO. THANKS FOR THIS TOPIC. FULL OF WIN!

 

[LT_Smash]

"Maybe this will be my last Apple laptop." -- I sure hope so, because you come off as a massive tool.

"I think I figured this out. Thanks to insomnia, MagicPrefs and absolutely no one/nothing else." -- But you're still posting here? Oh and it turns out you didn't figure it out... because you still don't know how to use a trackpad. Calling it defective because of clear user error.

"Because - they're ALL "defective"." -- That means YOU are defective. You're the only one with this "defect" on ALL your laptops? You see the trend here?

"Not like anyone here gives a sh*t, or maybe you're just all too drunk on the kool-aid, but after a few days I realized that it seemed like MagicPrefs was making things worse." -- Once again, the problem clearly stems from something YOU are doing.

Something not acting like YOU want, yet it's acting like how it was designed, doesn't make something defective.