Macbook Pro left (primary) click not working

Question

Two days ago, I noticed that my left clicking was acting off. When I would click something, it wouldn't register and I'd have to click repeatedly for it to actually work. Additionally, when I'm highlighting text, I'll still be holding onto the left click, but it'll cut out and I'll have to press down harder for it to continue registering.

The left clicking I use is the physical pressing down of the track pad. I prefer this method to the magic clicking because my hand can accidentally touch my track pad without it clicking on something eslse while I'm typing.

I thought my problem might be a minor fluke so I restarted my computer multiple times in an attempt to fix it, but nothing happened. I went through forums and only found problems vaguely similar to mine. None seem to have the problem of left clicking just cutting out randomly. Some forum posts suggested running an Apple Hardware Test and mine came back clear. Others have said to make sure there's no external mouse on bluetooth, but I don't have one.

I plugged a USB mouse in to make sure that left clicking as a whole wasn't a problem and it worked fine. I just want to know if anyone's had a similar problem and if there were any solutions to it before I take my computer in to the Geek Squad. I have a plan with them already, so there's no additional money being spent on taking my computer in, but I'd hate to have to waste their time and be away from my computer when I have school work to do on it.

Answer 1

It was my Magic Mouse. I turned it off and the problem was resolved. I had my mouse in a box with some other things that must have accidentally shifted and was pressing on the button. Once I found it and turned the mouse off, everything was fine.

Answer 2

Does the trackpad click feel normal? Does the trackpad feel recessed or sunken at all?

There are two possibilities here:

1) trackpad needs to be adjusted - there is a little adjustment screw when you take off the bottom case - sometimes it needs to be turned to make better contact with the trackpad. Apple will usually adjust this for free in the store as an attempt to fix the clock issue.

2) the trackpad is failing. What you described is a classic symptom. You might need to have it replaced.

There is a trackpad diagnostic that Apple stores have. Make an appointment and go in. It's free.

Answer 3

I've noticed that I've been having a similar issue with the trackpad on my 2011 Macbook Pro. I thought rebooting would solve the issue and it did the other day. Today I noticed that the issue came back, rebooted and it was still there. That's when it dawned on me that it was more complex than I had thought.

I did some trouble shooting and I realized that I had recently started using a Magic Mouse recently. So I decided to turn off my bluetooth antenna and it seems to have fixed the issue. I would say that my Magic Mouse must have sent some sort of "frozen click" message that was resolved when I turned off bluetooth. Don't know if this applies to your situation but so far, its resolved my issue.

Answer 4

I have this left click not working issue on both my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) and newer laptops with Touch force.

Mine will do this. If I use an external bluetooth trackpad and click, it will work and so will my internal track pad. I use two external track pads. One is left at work and the other left at home.

My boss' laptop did this as well and a USB Mouse did not work either. I somehow got it fixed by logging into another user. And after the mouse was working, I reset bluetooth using SHIFT+OPTION on the Bluetooth Menu and Debug Menu-> and removed all bluetooth devices. Then rebooted to her user and things have been fine since.

Sometimes Zapping the P-RAM will work. Reboot Command-Option-P-R

This is a concern as it is not limited to just one type of Mac laptop. Recovery Mode does not fix it. It seems to be a hardware problem and it may or may not be a stuck mouse. The hardware device might just think one is. My guess this is really bluetooth radio interference which runs a similar band as WiFi. So there could a signal that the Mac receives thinking a left click is on somewhere and that disables the real device. One thing you will notice when this happens, right click still works.

Answer 5

Check your Mac's system report by clicking the Apple logo located in the top left corner of Mac OS then check the power tab and note your battery health condition to ensure it is normal. If it is not, your battery may be failing and it's cores are expanding thereby putting pressure on the bottom of your trackpad.

I had this happen to me on my Mid 2010 MacBook Pro a little over a year ago and replaced the battery to relieve the pressure on my trackpad, now everything is running great.

Answer 6

It might be caused, by a bluetooth link between another unknown mous. and that mous to be put under something, so it's left click i presed. essentially holding left click. It can be fixed by stopping bluetooth, or forgetting the device from the bluetooth menu.

Answer 7

the same behavior may also occur it seems when you would have two bluetooth mouses linked to your mac, (which could occur frequently), and both online, and close to the bluetooth antenna. I had no effect on left click, with right click ok, both on trackpad and bt mouth on my 2015 macBook Air. I just had to reinitialize BTooth module through debug mode, forget the second mouse on the list, and all was ok from now on.