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Flyview

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 20, 2018
83
21
I just noticed something really strange on my new (to me) 16" M1 Max MBP running MacOS Sequoia 15.2. When tapping into an inactive window with the trackpad, sometimes the tap actually does something in that window, and sometimes it just makes the window active. This only seems to happen when tapping the trackpad with "tap to click" enabled (trackpad section of Settings). Clicking the trackpad just makes the inactive window active every time. I also tested this on my 15" 2014 MBP running MacOS Sequoia 15.2 and the behavior there consistently just activates the window whether tapping or clicking the trackpad.

Test steps:
1) Open up Notes.
2) Open up Settings.
3) Tap on a note in the left hand column of Notes that is not already selected.
4) Tap on a settings category in the left hand column of Settings that is not already selected.
5) Repeat steps 3 & 4 until you notice different behavior as it is inconsistent.

Expected behavior:
The taps on the inactive window don't actually switch the note or the settings category, they just make that window active.

Actual behavior:
Sometimes the tap actually switches the note or settings category, and sometimes it just makes the window active.

Preferred behavior:
I would actually prefer tapping/clicking into an inactive window to click on what I've hovered over directly instead of having to click once to activate the window and then clicking again. This would actually be more in line with what happens when double clicking into an inactive window. If I double click into an inactive window, it just works (double clicks on the item). You don't have to click once to activate the window and then double click, so I think it should be the same for single taps/clicks.

Can you guys replicate this? Thoughts?
 
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It's the Force Click option (I think that's what it was called) misbehaving. Since I prefer Tap to Click, I turned Force Click off and ever since taps have worked as I'd expect them to.

This is both on a MacBook and a desktop Mac with the Magic Trackpad.
 
It's the Force Click option (I think that's what it was called) misbehaving. Since I prefer Tap to Click, I turned Force Click off and ever since taps have worked as I'd expect them to.

This is both on a MacBook and a desktop Mac with the Magic Trackpad.

I tested turning that off and it did not make a difference for me unfortunately.
 
I tested turning that off and it did not make a difference for me unfortunately.
I had to go and double check that I didn't give you bad advice. I got the setting right, but while testing I'm again seeing the inconsistency. So much for that solution.
 
I had to go and double check that I didn't give you bad advice. I got the setting right, but while testing I'm again seeing the inconsistency. So much for that solution.

So you're seeing the same thing I wrote about? What's interesting is it's not happening on my older Intel MacBook so I wonder if it has something to do with the trackpad itself??

I also noticed it doesn't happen in all apps or on all elements. For example, tapping on different conversations in Signal while its window is inactive always just activates the window. Tapping on an inactive Note's window on the note's actual text always only activates the window, it doesn't move the cursor to where you tapped.
 
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Yeah I'm seeing the same. I can't say for sure if it started happening on Sequoia or if it was already present earlier. I primarily use the keyboard for window switching so it took a good long while before I even bothered to look for a solution. That's probably also why I didn't realize my fix hadn't actually fixed anything.
 
Alright I submitted feedback there. Sucks that they have a character limit so I hope I made it clear enough.
 
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As it is with everything Mac OS. All the claims apple zealots have about everything being more consistent in apple land are simply the opposite. It's entirely at the discretion of the app maker to decide what click through actually does, often this happens without the consideration of other nuances of the OS itself.

Slack is a great example of an app the just breaks whenever you try to CMD click anything to copy when another window is active.

With Windows and Linux, clicking a window or anything inside that window has the same consistent result.
 
It's entirely at the discretion of the app maker to decide what click through actually does...
While that's also true, the actual bug here is inconsistent behavior within the same app. Like when clicking into a list of files in Finder when that window is not in focus, sometimes the clicked file is selected, sometimes it's not.
 
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