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New right click on trackpad in Sequoia drives me nuts. Am I the only one?

@iTris6666 : Check my reddit post on this where I documented what I tried. But to make it short: I do not think it is hardware related and I do believe it is fully macOS software-related. I have a MacBook Pro M1 2020 13" which was affected just after upgrading to macOS 15. After downgrading back to macOS 14 it was working again.
This week I received a MacBook M4 Pro 14" which had macOS 15 out of the box. It had the same issue as well. I put both devices side by side (macOS 14 vs macOS 15) and filmed it. The documentation is uploaded to apple and a supervisor of the German Apple Support sent two forms (Bug reports) to Cupertino: The first form contains the information about the trackpad bug under macOS 15 (including a link to this post, to the reddit post, a 3min video to reproduce the issue, and my system diagnostics + both .plist files under macOS 14 and macOS 15). The second form contains a question to manually transplant the AppleMultitouchTrackpad Driver from my macOS 14 device to the macOS 15 device.

Some more Information on what can be done at the moment

1. Editing the .plist which stores the settings for your Trackpad​


If you want to fiddle around and check if you can find a solution, you can try editing the
com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad.plist
Click to expand...
which is located under Macintosh HD > User > Username > Library > Preferences. Go to Folder
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences
Click to expand...
and fill in your username for "YourUserName". After editing the .plist you have to restart the device (or use a terminal command that restarts the process, which I do not know) to have the changed become effective.

In the .plist there are several hidden settings e.g. you can set your Trackpad to have secondary-right click on the bottom-right AND bottom-left corner by editing the TrackpadCornerSecondaryClick (it goes up to "8") 1 is bottom-left, 2 is bottom-right if I remember correctly. You can try something like.

<key>TrackpadCornerSecondaryClick</key>
<integer>5</integer>
Click to expand...

When you click in the macOS Trackpad Settings UI it will override the .plist again, so do not make changes in the UI and only the .plist if you try this. You should also copy-paste the original .plist to have a duplicate in place if you mess around here.
I tried a lot of different setting combinations but none achieved the effect to resolve the issue. So my guess is, we have to wait for Apple to update the AppleMultitouchTrackpad Driver


2. Looking at the Multitouch Driver​

My guess is this is the exact root issue.
The driver should be located here (I think this should be it)
Drivername

AppleMultitouchDriver.kext
Click to expand...
under
/System/Library/Extensions
Click to expand...
However, I cannot find anything specific there or it is hidden for me. I also cannot replace that file with the same file that I have under macOS 14 (which would solve this I think). Editing System Library Extensions is not allowed for standard users (or maybe someone knows a way to do this?)

So these are my breadcrumbs, maybe someone else has further ideas.

3. Downgrading to macOS 14​

If you can, downgrade to macOS 14 to solve this. However, if you have a M4 Mac you do not even have to try this: Downgrading a M4 Mac to macOS 14 is not possible. I tried it multiple times. The moment it tries to load additional contents from the web, it fails to do so (which is a necessary step). No chance.
 
Ho ! So all Apple Silicon laptops are concerned it seems. I've tested on my colleague MacBook Pro M1 and it reproduce as well. Since it did not reproduce on my MacBook Pro intel and it was not fixed swiftly, I was expecting it to not be that widespread but it is. At least it improves the chances that it will be fixed. Especially since I don't see any case where the new behaviour could be better. I wonder why/how they broke thing since there is not new visible features on trackpads in Sequoia.

For the driver, since Big Sur, System Files are put in a read-only volume that is merged with a read-write volume with users files, as one can see in Disk Utility. the partition can only be written to in recovery mode (Which is why any system update will require two reboots). I will try to make the hack in recovery mode, putting the Sonoma driver in Sequoia, but I'm not confident the system will boot that way.
 
Good news everyone:

Apple Customer Care Germany just received information from the Apple engineers. The issue is known, it is seen as an issue not a feature. They expect it to be fixed in macOS 15.2 Public Release and their guess was a release by beginning of December 2024.

Is someone on the Beta of 15.2 and could share if it is happening there, too (@iTris6666 ?)
 
Then my guess is that the fix by the Apple engineers is simply not finished yet. We will have to wait for another beta or the release candidate.

In my call yesterday, Apple Customer Support Germany mentioned that the Apple engineers stated receiving multiple messages about this issue from across different countries.

So atleast there is hope that this is indeed something they are aware of. My next follow-up with Apple Customer Support Germany is by the beginning of December.

If anyone can share an update here when a new beta fixes the issue I would be very happy (since I do not have a machine running the beta versions).
 
chrmyr said:
Good news everyone:

Apple Customer Care Germany just received information from the Apple engineers. The issue is known, it is seen as an issue not a feature. They expect it to be fixed in macOS 15.2 Public Release and their guess was a release by beginning of December 2024.

Is someone on the Beta of 15.2 and could share if it is happening there, too (@iTris6666 ?)
Click to expand...
Thank heavens. I'm so glad that this is on Apple's radar.

I noticed issues with the trackpad (specifically, right click being cancelled if another finger left the right click zone) the moment I "upgraded" my 14" M1 MacBook Pro to Sequoia (which was a pretty frustrating experience itself: in short, the upgrade from Sonoma bricked my laptop with an instant kernel panic upon logging into my user account—neither running first aid on all drives, nor booting into safe mode, nor reinstalling macOS fixed the issue, and the laptop was only functional after a complete disk erasure), and I was praying that this wasn't a permanent change.

I've always loved Apple's trackpads; I think they're far superior to every other laptop trackpad I've tried. Despite the slew of bugs, slowness, and poor design decisions arriving with every update to macOS since around Catalina, I've always found Mac hardware reliable and robust, especially with the M-series' full-sized keyboards. (Though, I did skip their icky butterfly phase by jumping from a 2012 MBP to a 2021 MBP. :p) However, the trackpad change was a straw large enough to break the camel's back, or at least make me contemplate my 12-year loyalty to Apple's laptops.

I wonder what Apple is doing mucking around with their trackpad drivers, anyway. I'm also pretty surprised that this issue wasn't caught during development, since I'd assume that any modification to such core functionality would be subjected to rigorous regression testing. As a (studying) software engineer, I'd love to take a look at exactly which line of code was changed to cause this issue, and why they made that change to begin with. All curiosities I'm sure I'll unfortunately never get the question to, though, unless I somehow manage to get hired at Apple. Doubtful.

Anywho, thank you very much for the update, and thanks for reading my reply (if you made it this far).
 
TehBrian said:
Thank heavens. I'm so glad that this is on Apple's radar.

I noticed issues with the trackpad (specifically, right click being cancelled if another finger left the right click zone) the moment I "upgraded" my 14" M1 MacBook Pro to Sequoia (which was a pretty frustrating experience itself: in short, the upgrade from Sonoma bricked my laptop with an instant kernel panic upon logging into my user account—neither running first aid on all drives, nor booting into safe mode, nor reinstalling macOS fixed the issue, and the laptop was only functional after a complete disk erasure), and I was praying that this wasn't a permanent change.

I've always loved Apple's trackpads; I think they're far superior to every other laptop trackpad I've tried. Despite the slew of bugs, slowness, and poor design decisions arriving with every update to macOS since around Catalina, I've always found Mac hardware reliable and robust, especially with the M-series' full-sized keyboards. (Though, I did skip their icky butterfly phase by jumping from a 2012 MBP to a 2021 MBP. :p) However, the trackpad change was a straw large enough to break the camel's back, or at least make me contemplate my 12-year loyalty to Apple's laptops.

I wonder what Apple is doing mucking around with their trackpad drivers, anyway. I'm also pretty surprised that this issue wasn't caught during development, since I'd assume that any modification to such core functionality would be subjected to rigorous regression testing. As a (studying) software engineer, I'd love to take a look at exactly which line of code was changed to cause this issue, and why they made that change to begin with. All curiosities I'm sure I'll unfortunately never get the question to, though, unless I somehow manage to get hired at Apple. Doubtful.

Anywho, thank you very much for the update, and thanks for reading my reply (if you made it this far).
Click to expand...
So the reason might be that this issue is simply not reproducable when using standard actions. Try dragging a folder on the desktop around. The right-click will not break even when lifting one of two fingers from the trackpad. I really do not understand why (from a technical perspective). It made me wonder whether macOS "Game Mode" (atleast for my use case) does apply changes on how the trackpad behaves (since I observe it almost only in games) similar to how "Game Mode" on iOS disables the "Camera Control"-button on iPhones.

Another reason is, since it is mostly observable in games, I do not know many who people game on macOS let alone use the built-in trackpad to game. It is really the niche under the niche.

What really surprises me is: Some behaviors of macOS and other OS are so built-in and we got used to it that we never think about what it takes behind the curtain. I can actually see letting right-click holding break when a finger moves out of right-click area or is lifted to be a "works-as-design" function because the system actually detects a "MouseUp" action. So you need to specifically include a case around that use case to prevent the MouseUp breaking the holding (like it does now).
I never thought about this in 15 years of Mac usage.
 
Let me start by saying that I read a number of the posts, but didn't dig through each. I also only have my solution, and it only just worked - so I don't know yet if when my MacBook Air M1 falls asleep, the trackpad will again just stop responding. Caveats over: My pointer had frozen for the second time since upgrade to Sequoia 15 beta 2, less than an hour ago. The first time, multiple restarts with no result and it seemed like it just randomly started working again. Then it fell asleep, and stoped working again. This time, 1 restart - no result. Then, like a pre-DNA detective, I had a hunch.
I fixed it just now, unsure of reliability: I connected my bluetooth mouse (it was off, in a drawer and unused for weeks) - and the pointer begins moving again. Then I went to Settings \ Accessibility \ Pointer Control and disabled 'Ignore trackpad when mouse... is present". I turned off the mouse and the trackpad is working again.

Please let me know if you try this and it fails miserably. I'll call it a fluke and take this down if it fails for enough people.
 
I just tried macOS 15.2 RC (Public Beta).

The issue is not fixed.

I already wrote my apple contact from my support ticket about this.
 
Last edited:
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Damn. Here's to hoping it's fixed soon. I'd really hate to have to revert back to an older version of macOS over this.
 
AM I the very few who isn't getting ths issue?

I've been using the 2 finger tap for right click for many years, and also on my MBP M2 and have no problem.
 
I use an external boot drive for my "experimental copy" of Sequoia to boot my MacBook Pro 14 (m1pro).

I installed 15.2 on it a couple of days' back and... the problem is still there.

Not fixed yet.
 
I have been in contact with the German Apple Support who is taking care of this. We have filed a bug report and got the answer to "Look if it is solved under macOS 15.2". Well, they updated on that bug report that it is not and I also mentioned that it is not under 15.3 Beta (thanks @iTris6666 ).

I also urged that this is something they should fix, communicate and address instead of this back-and-forth. Also offered to jump into this issue with the Apple Engineer via video call / screen sharing if necessary to try to fix this together. Not sure why they aren't just reverting the driver or offering affected users (like us in this thread) to install a custom driver that has the prior version.

Next update from the Apple Support will be on Saturday as then a communication response by the Apple Team handling the bug reports will come in.

PS.: I also added that there are plenty bug reports via the Apple Feedback Tool. Gave them all the report IDs that I had.

So if you want to speed this up, PLEASE, file a bug report via the Feedback Tool and post your Feedback Report IDs here.
I will try to attach these to the bug report of the Apple Support handling this.
 
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Has anyone considered the possibility that this "bug" may in fact be an "intentional" change by Apple's software designers...?
 
Fishrrman said:
Has anyone considered the possibility that this "bug" may in fact be an "intentional" change by Apple's software designers...?
Click to expand...
I should hope not. That "change" would offer no benefits and only serve to make right click, a standard feature on every other laptop and a requirement for creative or gaming apps, nearly unusable.

I've noticed that not only does a finger moving elsewhere on the trackpad cancel held right clicks, but it will also make right clicks count as left clicks. This mix-up between where a click occurs versus where other fingers are resting on the trackpad is inane, and I can't understand how developers could screw up such fundamental drivers without catching it in regression testing. No offense to any individual developers at Apple intended; rather, this bug stems from a systemic issue: lack of peer review, lack of testing, lack of QA.

This completely atrocious multi-touch handling is instantly noticeable upon using the laptop and is not the sort of quality I'd expect from a $2000 machine.
 
chrmyr said:
I have been in contact with the German Apple Support who is taking care of this. We have filed a bug report and got the answer to "Look if it is solved under macOS 15.2". Well, they updated on that bug report that it is not and I also mentioned that it is not under 15.3 Beta (thanks @iTris6666 ).

I also urged that this is something they should fix, communicate and address instead of this back-and-forth. Also offered to jump into this issue with the Apple Engineer via video call / screen sharing if necessary to try to fix this together. Not sure why they aren't just reverting the driver or offering affected users (like us in this thread) to install a custom driver that has the prior version.

Next update from the Apple Support will be on Saturday as then a communication response by the Apple Team handling the bug reports will come in.

PS.: I also added that there are plenty bug reports via the Apple Feedback Tool. Gave them all the report IDs that I had.

So if you want to speed this up, PLEASE, file a bug report via the Feedback Tool and post your Feedback Report IDs here.
I will try to attach these to the bug report of the Apple Support handling this.
Click to expand...
Submitted! Here's mine: FB16119993
 
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