Why do I now need to double click app icons in the doc for open apps?

[minie]

Can't switch btwn open apps smoothly anymore with one click on the dock's icons, have to double click. Its maddening. Started a week ago. Then my touch bar, control strip (whatever) froze up so i was forced to go to Monterey. WTH. Is there something I'm missing, is there a way to stop this stupid behavior?

 

[izzy0242mr]

Can't switch btwn open apps smoothly anymore with one click on the dock's icons, have to double click. Its maddening. Started a week ago. Then my touch bar, control strip (whatever) froze up so i was forced to go to Monterey. WTH. Is there something I'm missing, is there a way to stop this stupid behavior?

That sounds like an accessibility feature that got turned on somehow. Check system Preferences and accessibility.

Don't understand your comment about being "forced to go to Monterey" since your post implies the problem happened on another version of the OS but you're posting on the Monterey sub forum.

 

[minie]

Because the last resort to fix the frozen control strip is to "up"grade. Yes, yes, yes, i went thru all the possible fixes. Monterey's visual are really awful so I was trying to stay away but.. so, yeah, forced. As I said, it started awhile ago, but really it was only with a few apps. I went to Monterey to fix the control strip, which it did. But the double click is now incessant, with every app. It is not a setting.

 

[Martyimac]

Because the last resort to fix the frozen control strip is to "up"grade. Yes, yes, yes, i went thru all the possible fixes. Monterey's visual are really awful so I was trying to stay away but.. so, yeah, forced. As I said, it started awhile ago, but really it was only with a few apps. I went to Monterey to fix the control strip, which it did. But the double click is now incessant, with every app. It is not a setting.

It has to be something YOU did. None of my macs require a double click to open an app in the dock.

 

[Fishrrman]

A Fishrrman dumb question™:
Have you tried powering down to "off", and then rebooting since this problem began...?

 

[minie]

nope

 

[Gregg2]

Not a dumb question, but a too concise answer…

 

[minie]

I figured it out. System prefs>Mission Control, must check "When switching to an application....". Maddening.

 

[ppinter1]

So, changing/disabling Mission Control settings didn't fix this for me.

However, I (accidentally) discovered having a Terminal open with 'Secure Keyboard Entry' enabled was the culprit.

Disabling Secure Keyboard Entry was the fix, for me anyway.

 

[_SDK_]

I have tried all previous solutions and again, today, out of frustration I looked again for an answer to my frustration... By chance I reset my dock settings and un-clicked "dock magnification" which I have used from ever since, without problems, until macOS 12/Monterey. That solved the problem for me. All has been well since this morning. One click and all good. Hope my solution will help someone else.