Steps To Get Your Mac’s Trackpad Working Again
Mac trackpads are very efficient and reliable, but even they can stop working. And as you can see, there are situations when you either have trackpad damage, hardware issues, MacOS issues or even a dirty trackpad. But our tips and tricks shown here will help you deal with the problem and make the trackpad work again.
Try to Disable Force Click
From the System Settings you go to Trackpad, and here you want to choose Point and Click. Toggle the Force click as well as the haptic feedback on or off. See if this solves the problem. You can adjust things like the tracking speed, pressure and so on. If you have a Bluetooth trackpad, you can set it up here. Force click is one of those features that can be very easy to dismiss, but it does have a lot of importance. When you see that the trackpad is not working, you do want to ensure that you disable this feature. It might be the right thing to do and the option will help more than expected.
Restart the Mac
Restarting the Mac might be the obvious thing, but a lot of people just don’t do it. If you restart, you will refresh some things and that might help spruce stuff up. That alone is going to help solve any random software issues. You can also run some maintenance scripts before restarting, as those might help. A quick restart is usually the solution for a lot of potential problems. Thankfully, it’s not as hard to do as you might expect, and you may want to restart first before trying something else.
Use a Mac Cleanup Tool
Such an app helps because it will identify errors and fix them. Sometimes these errors are related to the trackpad not running. So it never hurts to use this kind of tool, as it will solve some of the issues and that alone can be extremely helpful in a situation like this. There are situations when your trackpad might not be working due to malware, so it makes a lot of sense to try and fix it. Yes, it will take a bit of a trial and error to identify any problems, but in the end with a cleanup tool like this it can be very hard to go wrong. And that’s exactly where you want to be with this type of tool.
Run a Few Maintenance Scripts
Maintenance scripts can be a good option because they will help ensure your Mac is running smoothly. There are many maintenance scripts that you can download online, and you can also create your own. That’s the idea, you always want to add a unique and immersive style to it, and in the end you will be very impressed with the results and the process as a whole.
Update Your Mac
A software update might help your Mac too, since there are times when software issues bring these trackpad problems. So the quicker you update your Mac, the easier it will be. You should also consider checking the trackpad for any signs of dirt and damage. If that’s the case, cleaning up the trackpad will solve most of the problems.
Check for Any Dirt or Damage
The truth is that sometimes your trackpad is not working because there’s some dirt in it. Or it might have damage from liquids that were spilled accidentally. These things happen and in the end you need to find a way to address the situation the best way that you can. Thankfully, you can try to repair it yourself, but you may need to go to the Genius Bar to repair it if things are a bit too complex to repair on your own.
Disconnect Peripherals
Sometimes these issues come from peripherals not being hooked properly. Granted, it can be a long shot, but it makes sense to try and disconnect the peripherals right away. Then you slowly put them back and see what works and what is not ok. Sometimes peripherals can be conflicting and that is the problem that you will end up facing. The faster you try to address that, the easier it will be. But you will need to restart your Mac after disconnecting peripherals, just to ensure that everything is ok.
Reset the SMC
You can also try to reset the system control manager, that might solve trackpad problems too. Shut down the Mac, and then press and hold Power, Shift, Control and Option all at once. Keep the keys pressed for 10 seconds, and then release. Then that will help reset the SMC and hopefully solve your trackpad problems. You can also reset the PRAM or NVRAM. Shut down the Mac, and hold Option, Command, P and R for 20 seconds. Release after you hear the startup sound.
Reset the Trackpad
You can also reset the trackpad if you feel that it’s not working the way it should. Resetting the trackpad is the best approach because it will help save time, and it will bring you a great way to ensure it works the way it should. A fast reset like this is not that hard to do, but it does give you all the benefits you want. You can go to the Desktop, and then choose Go To Folder. From there you enter Library/Preferences/ and here you want to delete com.apple.preference.track.plist and com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad.plist. Restart the device and you will reset your trackpad successfully. It’s a very solid option and one that can help solve any possible problems with the trackpad in most cases.
Aside from these tips, you can also try to check your Mac for any malware, as that might also lead to trackpad problems. At the end of the day, addressing such issues is always going to help, and it will prevent any possible problems that can appear if you just leave things the way they are. Use it as an advantage, and ensure that you implement all ideas for the best results!