Magic Trackpad 2 - delay/lag with starting input?

[itdk92]

Very interesting thread.

Had the same problem for a while with my MT2, and I couldn't for example go back or forth in safari, because the trackpad just wouldn't "pick" the page firmly.

Also using apps like Clear was kinda frustrating, since I was also not able to make two fingers gestures.

Tried the trick of turning it off, connecting the cable, turn the MT2 on and disconnecting, and now it's working like a charm. Thank you!

Now every gesture seem actually more accurate and reactive

I am on a Mac Pro 5.1 with 10.12.4 and BT4.0

I will update if anything changes.

 

[sneak3]

Very interesting thread.

Had the same problem for a while with my MT2, and I couldn't for example go back or forth in safari, because the trackpad just wouldn't "pick" the page firmly.

Also using apps like Clear was kinda frustrating, since I was also not able to make two fingers gestures.

Tried the trick of turning it off, connecting the cable, turn the MT2 on and disconnecting, and now it's working like a charm. Thank you!

Now every gesture seem actually more accurate and reactive

I am on a Mac Pro 5.1 with 10.12.4 and BT4.0

I will update if anything changes.

Can you further explain those steps? Disconnect what? The cable or the bluetooth connection?

Can anyone really lay down the current magic trick to make it work 100%

 

[rick987611]

I have this going on with my 2016 MBP. It’s maddening. Plug it in and it’s perfect. If I use Bluetooth there is always a slight delay. I bought the trackpad right when they came out. Are newer ones better?

 

[benz240]

I've had this problem since buying one earlier this summer. Using it with a brand new iMac 5k, and have to use it corded to avoid frustrating input lag or occasional unresponsiveness. I think this is something inherent to the design of the trackpad, either power management or bluetooth, but it seems like a lot of people have the same problem. None of the fixes posted work, so I just have to keep it plugged in all the time. Luckily it doesn't move much, but that cord gets in the way and is an eyesore.

 

[drasl]

I have this going on with my 2016 MBP. It’s maddening. Plug it in and it’s perfect. If I use Bluetooth there is always a slight delay. I bought the trackpad right when they came out. Are newer ones better?

I purchased one today and found this thread by googling "trackpad 2 unresponsive" after finding the new trackpad unresponsive at best.

I found this issue right away, and am surprised that such an obvious issue is still a problems so long after the release of the MT2.

Makes the old trackpad seem magical, works wirelessly and is always responsive.

 

[harriska2]

Huh. I’ve been using it with a charging cable plugged into a powered usb hub. Thus far I’ve found no lag.

 

[the_omj]

just wanted to touch on this real quick... I'm having the same issues, lagging on the 2 finger scroll and sometimes on just moving the pointer around (not as bad as the scroll)

I tried holding the MTP2 in my left hand off the desk and using my right hand to duplicate the problem, and wallah, the issue is gone. Today I also moved my MacBook Pro to the left side of my thunderbolt monitor (to dock vertically) and just today I've started to notice the lag (hence why I am on this thread today)

So this is an issue with interference I believe, seeing I can't reproduce it when it's off the desk in my hand. Only when it's on the desk do I experience issues.

 

[Jiri Pospisil]

I'm just here to crush your hopes that Apple might have fixed it in the meantime. I've just bought a brand new Magic Trackpad 2 and I'm having the same issues when connected via Bluetooth to a MacBook Pro 2016 running the latest macOS.

As others have suggested, it's most likely an interference issue but I've tried turning off pretty much every device I have in the office including my 2.4GHz Wi-Fi router (and disabled Wi-Fi on all devices) without any effect.

So for now I use the trackpad connected via USB, like an animal. Also, if you have the issue and want to go with USB instead, make sure the trackpad is actually removed from your connected Bluetooth devices (or just turn off Bluetooth completely). It seems the trackpad will still communicate via Bluetooth even when it's then connected via USB.

 

[harriska2]

I'm just here to crush your hopes that Apple might have fixed it in the meantime. I've just bought a brand new Magic Trackpad 2 and I'm having the same issues when connected via Bluetooth to a MacBook Pro 2016 running the latest macOS.

As others have suggested, it's most likely an interference issue but I've tried turning off pretty much every device I have in the office including my 2.4GHz Wi-Fi router (and disabled Wi-Fi on all devices) without any effect.

So for now I use the trackpad connected via USB, like an animal. Also, if you have the issue and want to go with USB instead, make sure the trackpad is actually removed from your connected Bluetooth devices (or just turn off Bluetooth completely). It seems the trackpad will still communicate via Bluetooth even when it's then connected via USB.

Hmmm good point. I have bluetooth on but never paired the trackpad 2 with my mac mini. I simply plugged it in from the get-go and never had a problem. I don’t care that it’s plugged in because it never moves anyways. I really like it.

 

[Ledgem]

Also, if you have the issue and want to go with USB instead, make sure the trackpad is actually removed from your connected Bluetooth devices (or just turn off Bluetooth completely). It seems the trackpad will still communicate via Bluetooth even when it's then connected via USB.

That's interesting, I haven't seen that one... usually once you plug it in, it automatically disconnects from Bluetooth and favors USB. Are you sure you had yours plugged in all the way? I suppose it's possible that Apple did a silent update to the trackpads and that it's some newer "feature," but I'd be surprised if they intentionally had that happen.

 

[Jiri Pospisil]

That's interesting, I haven't seen that one... usually once you plug it in, it automatically disconnects from Bluetooth and favors USB. Are you sure you had yours plugged in all the way? I suppose it's possible that Apple did a silent update to the trackpads and that it's some newer "feature," but I'd be surprised if they intentionally had that happen.

It's possible I was just imagining it but the issue seemed to have gone away completely only after I disabled Bluetooth... ‍

 

[Peter Gagiano]

I recently bought a new iMac and chose to go with a Magic Trackpad 2. Previously, I had been using the original Magic Trackpad for a number of years, and figured that the added surface area and Force Touch might be nice features.

There's a bit of a problem, however: occasionally - sometimes multiple times per minute - the trackpad acts like it either isn't connected or as if it isn't picking up my finger. It's always brief, but very noticeable. Sometimes the cursor doesn't move for about a second; other times it will respond in less than a second, but the acceleration of an action like scrolling will feel "off" (because I've already been moving my fingers, but the screen just starts responding a split second after my motion, so the acceleration is a bit behind what it should be).

I was prepared to go through a bunch of trouble-shooting, including swapping out for my old Magic Trackpad and testing with that... however, I found that at least one other person had this issue. The solution that worked for him was to exchange the trackpad for a new one. It's a bit of a hassle that I'd rather not go through, if I can help it.

So I put it out to the community: has anyone else experienced this issue? Was there an easy solution, like some way to reset the trackpad? I've tried shutting it off and turning it back on, but that doesn't seem to do it.

I have the same only with starting initial movement and then it responds satisfactory. This started after upgrading to Catalina. It might be a coincidence. Find it a bit irritating

 

[rawan]

I have the same only with starting initial movement and then it responds satisfactory. This started after upgrading to Catalina. It might be a coincidence. Find it a bit irritating

I experienced the very same thing after upgrading to Catalina. I landed on this this thread in hopes of finding a solution. Nothing worked.

But then I checked if there were any system updates, and behold...there was a system update released a few days ago.

Updated, restarted, and what do you know...problem solved.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

[BigMcGuire]

Very interesting thread.

Had the same problem for a while with my MT2, and I couldn't for example go back or forth in safari, because the trackpad just wouldn't "pick" the page firmly.

Also using apps like Clear was kinda frustrating, since I was also not able to make two fingers gestures.

Tried the trick of turning it off, connecting the cable, turn the MT2 on and disconnecting, and now it's working like a charm. Thank you!

Now every gesture seem actually more accurate and reactive

I am on a Mac Pro 5.1 with 10.12.4 and BT4.0

I will update if anything changes.

Just bought a Magic Mouse 2 and ... when connecting it to my 2017 MBP for the first time (via USB cable) the mouse paired just fine. However, I noticed that it would just stop responding to movement every 4-5 seconds for a few seconds, then wake back up. Reboot didn't fix it, nothing fixed it.

Disconnecting the Magic Mouse 2 in bluetooth, turning it off, plugging it in via USB, turning it on and repairing with my computer fixed the problem.

I use a MT2 on the left and a MM2 on the right.

OS Catalina.

 

[grizgza]

Read through all the replies here and chiming in with my experience. I just bought the MTP2 new last week. Immediately started noticing the issue with a initial delayed/missed response when the trackpad is idle. I can recreate this 100% of the time by letting the trackpad sit idle for a few seconds and very lightly swiping my finger up or down. The cursor does not move, I've done more than 20 swipes before it starts moving. However, once it starts moving and is "active", the same exact light swipes register completely fine. If do a hard deliberate swipe it "wakes it up" right away. This is the same for scrolling two-finger swipes as well, maybe worse because it needs to register two fingers correctly.

My guess, like others have mentioned, is that it goes into a power saving mode after several seconds and the sensitivity is so low that light swipes do not wake it up. I'm wondering if this isn't happening on all MTP2's in circulation and only certain people's swiping habits make it apparent, while others probably just don't notice or ignore it. Or maybe we just have lemons.

I'm on Mojave now and will upgrade to Catalina this morning and see if I get different results, but I doubt it. This seems like a hardware/firmware issue with the trackpad itself, but I hope I'm wrong.

 

[BigMcGuire]

My Magic Trackpad has been flawless except for 1 time where it did the above behavior (in post above mine here). I just disconnected (Forgot this device) and re-paired and it went away. I've had it for 1.5 years and recently ( a few weeks ago ) had to repair it to my MBP and had it not register touches and be sluggish on waking up. A repair fixed it back to normal - now no problems.

 

[grizgza]

After Catalina upgrade, no change. Tried forgetting device and re-pairing, issue persists for me. Tried plugging it in via the lightning cable, issue disappears. Guess I will have to return, possibly try an exchange.

 

[tejaswi.rohit]

My Magic Trackpad 2 has been lagging intermittently when using on a wooden desk. Switching it on and off made the issue go away for a few minutes, but when scrolling it would sometimes take 2-3 seconds to register the scroll.

Here is what I observed:
1. When the Magic Trackpad 2 is sticking to the Magic Keyboard (the aluminum sides) the intermittent lag disappears.
2. When holding the trackpad in hand there is no lag.

Bluetooth RSSI (signal strength) is relatively strong -44db, and link quality according to Bluetooth Explorer app is 100%, so I couldn't understand the reason behind the erratic behavior.

I placed two sheets of aluminum foil (in the shape of the trackpad) under the trackpad and now it doesn't lag anymore. Aluminum is known to not pass signals but it somehow fixes the issue

 

[sixdrum]

Fixed it!

Just got a brand new Space Gray Magic Trackpad 2 and Keyboard and the trackpad input delay / lag was REALLY frustrating me.

Remove trackpad property files:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad.plist
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist

Reboot

Fixed!

Probably corrupted / conflicting preferences from the many years of the life of my user profile.

Adapted from this thread (he was having issues with Magic Mouse 2):

Fixing  Magic Mouse lag in macOS Mojave

3 quick tips to address Apple's Magic Mouse 2 lag/stutter in Mojave: keeping it charged, proper mousepad use, and system files you can nuke ↓

notanother.app

 

[topdrawer]

^ that didn't work for me. still lags. this is terrible quality control.

 

[sixdrum]

Fixed in MacOS 10.15.6!

• Resolves an issue where certain USB mouse and trackpads may lose connection

macOS Catalina 10.15.6 Combo Update

 

[stevetan]

Unfortunately, the problem has NOT been fixed completely yet.
I have been using 2 Magic Trackpad 2 for around 3 years (one silver, then one dark)
The first one (bought 2017) seems to be working fine with 2 different Macbook Pro 2015.
The second one (bought 2019) does not work well with my Macbook Pro 15, 2019. It keeps being disconnected.
Tried to spend hours of researching and realize that what I should do is to disconnect the Macbook from a 2.4GHz Wifi and connect it to a 5GHz Wifi instead.

Then they (the MBP 15, 2019, and MTP 2 dark, 2019) worked well with each other for a while.

Until I changed to a new Macbook Pro 13, 2020 recently.

Now I am facing the exact same issue that the OP has posted. The first finder movement takes around half a second to be "captured" by the cursor.
(This MBP is using the latest version of Catalina - 10.15.6)

After hours of "investigating" I realize that the root cause this time is the new CoolerMaster cool pad (L1 160mm Fan Light-weight Notebook Cooler).

After removing the cool pad, the problem disappears.

SO...

When you have some problem related to bluetooth connection, always try to adjust the objects around your mac book, especially the metal ones. It does not need to be a device wich can generate radio noise, just some metal object can be the cause of the problem.

 

[ght56]

It is kind of amazing how here we are, two decades after it appeared, and Bluetooth still sucks. Arguably, the Magic Trackpad 2 is one of the least sucky Bluetooth devices that operates within direct proximity to devices that cause interference, and yet it still has issues.

These days even light bulbs and refrigerators can cause Bluetooth interference and this issue is probably just going to keep getting worse as more and more household items become 'smart'.

 

[topdrawer]

i just keep it plugged in at all times, i can't work with it otherwise and i don't have any other blutooth device at my desk except for the imac itself. it's a crappy device imo

 

[harriska2]

I also keep mine plugged in at all times with my 2018 mini. No issues.