Left-Click Won't Work!

[whatawonder]

left click not working

Same problem here. Mac desktop, OSX, six months old, 10.6.5

Had this problem for about 2 weeks, it can happen at any time - at start up, or mid session.

Really irritating - and complete waste of my time - reboot x times till it works. gggrrrrr

 

[Everlasting]

For me, the fat battery syndrome seemed to apply!

I have an aluminium MacBook with Snow Leopard.

An aside: I regularly have the problem that things get selected as if I was holding the left button down when I'm not. I usually 'fix' that problem by pressing all the non-alphabet buttons on the keyboard (e.g. shift, Caps Lock on and back off, Ctrl, Alt, Cmd etc...); this seems to resolve the issue (the original idea I had was that the shift button was stuck somehow but I don't know if that's actually the case).

But today I ran into the issue described by the OP: things got selected but now the Mac didn't respond to left-click at all. Right-click worked fine though, as did scrolling and swiping and all the other stuff you do with your trackpad. Thinking I could fix it in the preference pane I went and got a USB mouse, but the computer still didn't recognise the left-click. A few soft and hard restarts didn't help either. So I went googling and stumbled on this thread.

Once I removed the battery and started the laptop back up, everything worked fine. I've now put the battery back in and am allowing it to drain completely, and everything still seems alright. I hope I don't have to get a new one, I already replaced it once a year ago.

I have been a bit bad with keeping the laptop continuously hooked up to the power cord for the last few months, and it has also been running quite hot so maybe that was the issue?

Anyway, long post just to let you know how I sorted this. I thought it might be helpful though.

 

[kiki7]

having the same issue here, with my new imac, I find that it happends when i have been working on it for a while.. and usually when i have firefox open and am working in an Adobe program. I can right click to my hearts content but i cant left click, not with my wacom tablet or with my mouse. The only fix is to restart.. but its hard to close down stuff w/o a left click. I had this issue with my macbook pro as well.. which is almost three years old.. whats the deal?? I doubt its a bat problem if my new desk top is having the same issue, and my macbook had a new bat as well.

 

[upgradedimages]

Found the problem for my MacBook Pro.

I too found this forum because I was having the same problem with my 3-month-old MacBook Pro. I know what happened with mine is gonna sound lame to most of you, but hey... maybe someone out there is dealing with the same thing.

When working in Firefox and Adobe, left-click stopped working on my trackpad and on my Logitech mouse. Restarted. Unplugged external mouse. Cursed. Etc. Then I walked across the room to grab my "computer junk bag" to look for the install disks, and what did I find inside??? The bluetooth Apple Mouse that came with my iMac. Turns out it was switched on, and my French Bulldog had rammed into the bag, which knocked it over, activated the mouse and applied constant pressure to the mouse button. Turning off the mouse restored functionality to the left-click button on the trackpad and the Logitech mouse. Voilà!

Again, probably not what's happening to most of you, but maybe??

 

[SmokinX]

Turn of bluetooth first!

I too found this forum because I was having the same problem with my 3-month-old MacBook Pro. I know what happened with mine is gonna sound lame to most of you, but hey... maybe someone out there is dealing with the same thing.

MacPro: same thing happened! Put my trackpad in my bag and accidentally switched it on. Left mouse was stuck until I found your story!

 

[wilkerlucio]

I too found this forum because I was having the same problem with my 3-month-old MacBook Pro. I know what happened with mine is gonna sound lame to most of you, but hey... maybe someone out there is dealing with the same thing.

When working in Firefox and Adobe, left-click stopped working on my trackpad and on my Logitech mouse. Restarted. Unplugged external mouse. Cursed. Etc. Then I walked across the room to grab my "computer junk bag" to look for the install disks, and what did I find inside??? The bluetooth Apple Mouse that came with my iMac. Turns out it was switched on, and my French Bulldog had rammed into the bag, which knocked it over, activated the mouse and applied constant pressure to the mouse button. Turning off the mouse restored functionality to the left-click button on the trackpad and the Logitech mouse. Voilà!

Again, probably not what's happening to most of you, but maybe??

Wow, thanks for remembering that! I was going crazy here, so, I remembered that I have an Magic Trackpad that was boxed here, and tada! It was on!! I mean the problem is fixed now (but I still a little afraid, it's trying to eject CD on startup...)

 

[gardh]

I too found this forum because I was having the same problem with my 3-month-old MacBook Pro. I know what happened with mine is gonna sound lame to most of you, but hey... maybe someone out there is dealing with the same thing.

When working in Firefox and Adobe, left-click stopped working on my trackpad and on my Logitech mouse. Restarted. Unplugged external mouse. Cursed. Etc. Then I walked across the room to grab my "computer junk bag" to look for the install disks, and what did I find inside??? The bluetooth Apple Mouse that came with my iMac. Turns out it was switched on, and my French Bulldog had rammed into the bag, which knocked it over, activated the mouse and applied constant pressure to the mouse button. Turning off the mouse restored functionality to the left-click button on the trackpad and the Logitech mouse. Voilà!

Again, probably not what's happening to most of you, but maybe??

haha! same thing here! Thanks for posting this! I was going insane trying to figure out how to navigate my mac with just the keyboard and right mouse clicks.

Gard

 

[andy81563]

RE: Left mouse click not working

I too found this forum because I was having the same problem with my 3-month-old MacBook Pro. I know what happened with mine is gonna sound lame to most of you, but hey... maybe someone out there is dealing with the same thing.

When working in Firefox and Adobe, left-click stopped working on my trackpad and on my Logitech mouse. Restarted. Unplugged external mouse. Cursed. Etc. Then I walked across the room to grab my "computer junk bag" to look for the install disks, and what did I find inside??? The bluetooth Apple Mouse that came with my iMac. Turns out it was switched on, and my French Bulldog had rammed into the bag, which knocked it over, activated the mouse and applied constant pressure to the mouse button. Turning off the mouse restored functionality to the left-click button on the trackpad and the Logitech mouse. Voilà!

Again, probably not what's happening to most of you, but maybe??

Imagine my surprise upon searching the internet for a solution to this strange problem I was having with my left mouse click and seeing the above-stated solution. After reading that, I reached into my briefcase and what did I find, but my bluetooth Apple Magic Mouse, turned on and in such a position that the left button was depressed. I proceeded to turn off the mouse, the bluetooth connection was lost and the problem went away. Thank you "upgradedimages" for the A-Ha moment. The problem is fixed!

 

[yha]

How it worked for me

My MacBook's left click stoped working since I copied a file to my Mac via Bluetooth from my phone, and even ejected the DVD from startup.

I Spotlighted Bluetooth (Command-Tab)

then made a Bluetooth test and the left click worked again.

I think the firmware configuration was mangled.

 

[Doctor Q]

I just started having this problem. No other mice or trackpads are in range yet left-clicking stops working now and then on my wireless Logitech mouse, while right-clicking works fine. When it happens I use mouse-keys to restart and the problem is fixed, but than happens again later. I'm looking for a prevention or easier remedy.

 

[Doctor Q]

^ The problem I described above turned out to be the problem described here. My aging battery was swelling when it got warm, then pushing on the underside of the trackpad.

New battery ... problem solved!

 

[dekal99]

Same problem and my fix

I had the same problem everyones been having for a while now. I have an iMac running OS X version 10.7.4. I would be going about my business and all of a sudden the curser would jump to the upper left screen and drag a box if it had generated on the desktop (highlight text if it generated on a text box) and from then on it would lock the left click button as if it is constantly being pushed down. I tried replacing the battery in the magic mouse, turning it off and turning my track pad on, and even tried plugging in a third party mouse but to no avail. the only thing that would fix this is restarting my computer( which is a pain to have to do over and over again).

On another note (don't know if its related), whenever watch anime on crunchyroll.com and the video setting is on 1080p (sometimes on 720p) the screen would go black (not sleep) i could still hear the video playing and the computer still has full functionality however the only way to bring the screen back is to hold (command+option+eject) which sends the computer into sleep mode, wait a few seconds and press any key to wake it up and viola! screen is back.

So when the curser locked up again I decided to try my black screen fix and YES it did work. and even though I can fix it, it is still annoying and would like if someone could fine a more permanent fix.

 

[lander]

No Left Click

Hi all,

My 2009 MacBook Pro was having the same problem, no left click. At times right click was unresponsive too. So I found this forum and read about "fat battery." The battery stopped holding a charge about a week before the clicking problems.

Low and behold, I took out the battery and all clicking worked fine. Looks like the dead battery had warped and was pushing up against the trackpad assembly. Interesting. New battery is MUCH cheaper than a new Macbook Pro...though, it might be getting time for that too.

Thanks for the help!

 

[shaz13]

That is really odd. It seems to be some sort of hardware problem, because holding left click is what makes the CD eject.

Try going into your system preferences and activating the Universal Access preference. Then click on the Mouse & Trackpad tab. Turn on Mouse Keys, and you'll be able to control the cursor with 789uiojkl after pressing numlock. Also check the ignore trackpad when Mouse Keys is on option.

This should allow Mac OS X to ignore your trackpad's input entirely. There's an ignore trackpad when mouse is present option as well that you might want to try if you missed it before, in the Trackpad tab of Keyboard & Mouse.

Good luck.

Any clues on how I can turn mouse keys on without clicking on the dot?
I have no left click at all. I can navigate to the correct screen but can't figure this last bit out.
Thanks in advance

 

[greatful]

I too found this forum because I was having the same problem with my 3-month-old MacBook Pro. I know what happened with mine is gonna sound lame to most of you, but hey... maybe someone out there is dealing with the same thing.

When working in Firefox and Adobe, left-click stopped working on my trackpad and on my Logitech mouse. Restarted. Unplugged external mouse. Cursed. Etc. Then I walked across the room to grab my "computer junk bag" to look for the install disks, and what did I find inside??? The bluetooth Apple Mouse that came with my iMac. Turns out it was switched on, and my French Bulldog had rammed into the bag, which knocked it over, activated the mouse and applied constant pressure to the mouse button. Turning off the mouse restored functionality to the left-click button on the trackpad and the Logitech mouse. Voilà!

Again, probably not what's happening to most of you, but maybe??

I created an account just to thank you, if you ever see this message.

GF thought her mac was broken, ran back and forth between the apple store thinking it was some sort of software malfunction. I would never have thought it would be the mouse causing it. Still cant find the mouse though, its somesomewhere in the house but Ive disabled the bluetooth and everything works fine.

thanks again for the help

 

[Toddman876]

Thank you!!!!!

Had to register just to thank you all. Magic Mouse got turned on in my book bag causing left click to not work. I was going nuts and was about to reinstall OSX!