Magic Trackpad Cursor Jumps or Moves Without the Trackpad Being Touched

[mdaus]

Magic Trackpad Cursor Jumps or Moves Without the Trackpad Being Touched.

Try turning off your Bluetooth mouse or other nearby devices, especially if you find the cursor on your screen jumps or moves without the trackpad being touched. The cursor may also act strangely when the trackpad is touched.

The closest I found to a solution was in an old Apple support article from March 2009 (TS1449), but it was through pure luck and MacGuyverism that I figured out my wireless Mighty Mouse was still on, nearby and thought it might be interfering with the signal to/from the Magic Trackpad. Sure enough. Turned it off and the problem instantly went away! Turned it on and the problem came back. Not sure if more distance would make a difference, but I saw no need for both on my desk anyway.

 

[RaceTripper]

I also find the Trackpad to be flakey now and then, with or without my Magic Mouse on. The software is buggy. It's locked up twice forcing me to reboot, once in the middle of making adjustments in the prefs pane. I love the trackpad, but it still needs work on the software end.

 

[Fuchal]

I haven't had the problem you're describing - I would possibly wipe down the surface in case there is anything conductive sitting on the top (water, sweat, etc).

I have however had the trackpad disconnect in the middle of using it once - but it hasn't happened again yet.

 

[KRDHarris]

Wireless keyboard + magic trackpad cursor jumps; not bluetooth related

I too experience very annoying cursor jumps with the Apple wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad. Typically, I suddenly find that I am typing several words or lines back in the text, thus messing it up. A similar problem was reported here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12338043&#12338043 but the discussion was closed by Apple because the question was supposedly answered with 2 "helpful" answers and 1 "solved" answers, when in fact there were only 2 questions.

Since Apple closed that thread, I am posting to this one.

The only Bluetooth devices in my house are the wireless Apple keyboard and Magic Trackpad that came with my 27" iMac a few months ago. I do not use the Magic Mouse I was forced to buy with the iMac, since the Magic Trackpad is far less strain on my fingers.

Any true "Helpful" or "Solved" answers would be much appreciated; even to know whether this is a hardware or software problem would be nice!

Thanks

 

[C15JON]

SOLVED - Jumping Magic Trackpad Cursor

In my case, it started jumping soon after a battery change in the trackpad.

The cursor would randomly jump while I was trying to move it, and randomly see two fingers when I was only touching with one.

I turned off my wireless keyboard, which lives right next to the trackpad and, hey presto! The cursor started working properly and has been ok ever since, even after powering up the keyboard again.

I have a theory that the first (or only) connected bluetooth device gets the lion's share (no pun intended lol) of the bandwidth - and so when changing the trackpad battery you should always reboot the wireless keyboard afterwards so the trackpad gets priority - which it should have, as its bandwidth needs are obviously greater...

This is repeatable with my setup. I'd love someone who knows more about Bluetooth than me to comment...

Hoep this helps you folks - I was tearing my hair out, I can tell you.

Kind regards,


Jonathan

 

[JronMasteR]

I had similar issues with my Trackpad. The curser randomly started jumping while moving.
At first, I thought I just got a faulty unit. So I went to my local AASP and they replaced it. But the issue did not disappear.
Started trying out several things. I could not recreate the issues without having my MBP connected to the Thunderbolt Display.
However, I ended up trying out the 10.7.2 GM update and the issue seems to be resolved now. Hopefully it'll stay that way.

 

[tonyjhughes]

Turned off bluetooth on my iPhone, which was also in my room, and the problem disappeared!

 

[nnangeroni]

Same problem here

I too experience very annoying cursor jumps with the Apple wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad. Typically, I suddenly find that I am typing several words or lines back in the text, thus messing it up.

Me too, periodically when editing in Mail or TextEdit and I position with the Magic TrackPad then begin to type, the typing inserts at a spot higher up on the page, most often within the same paragraph. This seems to happen in clusters, it becomes a repeating annoyance and draws my increasing focus on careful positioning of the cursor until I finally have to stop writing and focus on carefully transitioning from positioning the cursor to typing on the wireless keyboard. Then the problem might recur or things return to normal and the problem disappears for days.