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

[Fishrrman]

We won't really know "the answer" to this until OS 16.

If "the problem" is still "there", then my guess is that:
1. it's an intentional change by Apple (for some reason they haven't disclosed)
and
2. they're not going to "fix" it.

I have no knowledge of iOS.
Is there such a thing as "right click" in iOS?
How does it work?

 

[chrmyr]

@TehBrian I was not able to reproduce your issue shown in your video. Can you please check if click by tapping is disabled?

 

[chrmyr]

I want to make clear cut and summarize what is known at the moment:

Issue Description: When holding a secondary-click, macOS is constantly observing if a hold click is still in the secondary-click area. The behavior is different to the prior macOS version where a hold click cannot transform from a secondary-click to a primary-click. This behavior only routes a secondary-click to a primary-click, not the other way around.

The following interaction translates to this behavior

Initiate & hold right-click on lower-right corner Trackpad (1 finger)	MouseDown - secondary-click
Hold & move finger away from lower-right corner Trackpad (1 finger)	-
Finger enters primary-click area Trackpad (1 finger)	MouseDown - primary-click [This is the exact behavior that should NOT happen under macOS 14]
Finger lifts from the Trackpad completely (1 finger)	MouseUp primary-click MouseUp secondary-click

This actually means an interesting finding. Even though the finger does not click a second time, the pure movement of the finger away from the secondary-click area initiates a MouseDown Event for the primary-click. Such behavior leads to the assumption that the issue roots in the detection of a MouseDown event in this case for the primary-click.

Or in simpler terms: It could be that not the secondary-click is bugged, it could be the initiation of the primary-click that is bugged.

You can even try this out. When right-clicking on your background, the context menu opens at the mouse, as soon as you move away from the secondary-click area while holding the click, it initiates a primary-click and clicks the option the mouse is at.

 

[TehBrian]

@TehBrian I was not able to reproduce your issue shown in your video. Can you please check if click by tapping is disabled?

Tap to click is definitely disabled. Here are my trackpad settings.

 

[TehBrian]

You can even try this out. When right-clicking on your background, the context menu opens at the mouse, as soon as you move away from the secondary-click area while holding the click, it initiates a primary-click and clicks the option the mouse is at.

That's an excellent observation. It's almost like holding right click enables tap to (left) click outside the right click zone.

 

[Eddie Beeps]

This issue (or a very similar right-click issue) affected my MacBook Air M2 for two years--up until around the time of Sequoia's release, when the issue went away. Now my right-click works normally.

Assuming the issue is affecting MacBook M1 in Sequoia, could it be that Apple fixed the right-click issue on M2 Airs like mine, and broke the M1 right-click as a result?

 

[1nfinity0nhigh]

the issue was happening to me on my M1 Pro macbook 14-inch (2021 model). when I updated to sequoia, if i right-clicked, and moved the pointer around (which is how you move cameras in most games), the click right-click ends.

this made gaming impossible. so i had to wipe my computer and revert back to Sonoma so I could play world of warcraft using my trackpad.

 

[chrmyr]

this made gaming impossible. so i had to wipe my computer and revert back to Sonoma so I could play world of warcraft using my trackpad.

This is the exact use case for me, too. @1nfinity0nhigh I can only suggest to switch to two-finger secondary click. It took me around 2 Weeks to get used to it but it feels pretty native now while playing WoW.
However, I am still motivated to push Apple to fix this mess.

I will be having a check-up call with the Support Engineers around this or next week.

You can also set up the trackpad to react to both inputs as right-click (two-finger click + lower-right corner). This has to be done in the .plist I posted on page 2 of this thread. I am not sure which line exactly it was but chatGPT helped me do it then. It will also give you the terminal lines to change it. You need to restart then.

 

[Mythics9]

This is the exact use case for me, too. @1nfinity0nhigh I can only suggest to switch to two-finger secondary click. It took me around 2 Weeks to get used to it but it feels pretty native now while playing WoW.
However, I am still motivated to push Apple to fix this mess.

I will be having a check-up call with the Support Engineers around this or next week.

You can also set up the trackpad to react to both inputs as right-click (two-finger click + lower-right corner). This has to be done in the .plist I posted on page 2 of this thread. I am not sure which line exactly it was but chatGPT helped me do it then. It will also give you the terminal lines to change it. You need to restart then.

This is pretty similar use case for me as well though a different game and two finger clicking is just not something you can do for it. I noticed it less than an hour into getting my brand new M3 when it came out I was on the phone with support instantly. They were pretty sure it was physical and wanted me to send it back but I was just not convinced at all due to all the threads I'd read about the issue before calling.

It was like my right click would just stop working if more than one finger was on the pad and just be recognized as a left click despite being in the secondary click area. I got frustrated after going through so many applications and attempts to make it work. I finally just threw myself at swift and made my own fix for it so it works as expected. If you want to try out my fix just let me know I've only tried it on my M3 for obvious reasons. Please do update with what they say when you call either way though.

 

[chrmyr]

This is pretty similar use case for me as well though a different game and two finger clicking is just not something you can do for it. I noticed it less than an hour into getting my brand new M3 when it came out I was on the phone with support instantly. They were pretty sure it was physical and wanted me to send it back but I was just not convinced at all due to all the threads I'd read about the issue before calling.

It was like my right click would just stop working if more than one finger was on the pad and just be recognized as a left click despite being in the secondary click area. I got frustrated after going through so many applications and attempts to make it work. I finally just threw myself at swift and made my own fix for it so it works as expected. If you want to try out my fix just let me know I've only tried it on my M3 for obvious reasons. Please do update with what they say when you call either way though.

@Mythics9 : What approach did you choose to fix this? Can you send us the fix or give more insights on how you did this?

 

[Mythics9]

@Mythics9 : What approach did you choose to fix this? Can you send us the fix or give more insights on how you did this?

It's more like a bandaid or a workaround. I have my program intercepting/monitoring clicks on the trackpad and I calculate where the clicks are on the trackpad and am mutating the event and sending it back as it should be. I will say, I don't know if it's a quirk of swift or not. However, I figured the event monitor system would be able to get me all the information I need but for some reason the global one could not or at least it was missing or something was weird. (Unless it's just my understanding? tbh I don't really know swift all that well)

Interestingly the local monitor did have the correct information so take that for what you will. So I had to go deeper and not use the api but the private framework (MultitouchSupport.framework, specifically) to get accurate details to even put the bandaid on in the first place. Unfortunately that isn't telling of how to fix it at all really.

If you want to use it of course I wouldn't have offered otherwise. Just dm and I'll send you it.

 

[1nfinity0nhigh]

It's more like a bandaid or a workaround. I have my program intercepting/monitoring clicks on the trackpad and I calculate where the clicks are on the trackpad and am mutating the event and sending it back as it should be. I will say, I don't know if it's a quirk of swift or not. However, I figured the event monitor system would be able to get me all the information I need but for some reason the global one could not or at least it was missing or something was weird. (Unless it's just my understanding? tbh I don't really know swift all that well)

Interestingly the local monitor did have the correct information so take that for what you will. So I had to go deeper and not use the api but the private framework (MultitouchSupport.framework, specifically) to get accurate details to even put the bandaid on in the first place. Unfortunately that isn't telling of how to fix it at all really.

If you want to use it of course I wouldn't have offered otherwise. Just dm and I'll send you it.

this sounds super useful. could you please upload the code to github or something, and describe how to install/use it?

 

[chrmyr]

Update from Apple Support Germany​

Yesterday my Apple Support Germany Contact filed another Bug Report. This time we reproduced the issue as mentioned above with native macOS Apps. The report was sent to the Apple Engineers who are focusing on bug fixing. After only 14 hours or so he received a reply (which is unusual) stating that Apple indeed does confirm this as a bug and not expected behavior.
This was information already known but what is different is that now the report is not stuck on the third-level support ticket hell but it is actually on the desks of the people who fix it. The engineer mentioned he was able to reproduce the issue on his own machine as well and also has several reports stating the same which leads to a higher pressure to solve it.

There is no timeline when the fix will come, but from my understanding a fix will come.
My Apple Support Contact mentioned that the Support Ticket on his side will stay open as long as the bug is not fixed and he will receive direct information from the Apple Engineers when a fix is coming (which is unusual as they usually state "We got the bug report, please keep your machine updated, ticket closed").

This means I will receive a call as soon as a fix is deployed so that I can give feedback if the issue is fully solved.

If I interpret this correctly: A bug fix will find its way on to the machines within the next releases hopefully. My personal guess is within the next 3-4 version releases / months. If you look at the version history of macOS Sonoma almost every month a new version came out.

I will update you here as soon as I have further information on a deployed fix in sight. Also please keep me posted if you have Betas installed and try out new Beta version if the issue is fixed or not (as I do not install Betas on the machine I have here).

 

[1nfinity0nhigh]

Apple indeed does confirm this as a bug and not expected behavior.

BLESS 🙏

There is no timeline when the fix will come, but from my understanding a fix will come.

i remember in 2022, there was allegedly* an issue with Apple's Metal API, which made gaming in windowed mode impossible**. if you resized the game window, the game window would never respond to clicks inside it again. So you would have to fully close the game, and restart it, if you accidentally resized the windowed application.

* according to Blizzard (who makes World of Warcraft). they claimed it was a change made with Apple's Metal API,
** but I didn't notice any other Windowed-mode (as opposed to Full-screen mode) applications being affected by this.

Anyway, the fix (which was allegedly on Apple's side) took over a year to fix...

but yeah, i can NOT update my OS until this is fixed... cool lol

 

[chrmyr]

SOLVED*​

There now is a solution.

@Mythics9 created a small App that is able to mimic the right-click behavior. The result: It works flawlessly. I tried it on World of Warcraft and it was like the right-click is working as before. Just simply deactivate secondary-click in the macOS settings.

@Mythics9 sent the app via DM to me for me to try out. So if anyone wants to look into it, you might want to contact @Mythics9 via DM here.
*Solved in terms of: There now is way to achieve the right-click working as before. Not yet fixed by Apple.

 

[TehBrian]

SOLVED​

There now is a solution.

@Mythics9 created a small App that is able to mimic the right-click behavior. The result: It works flawlessly. I tried it on World of Warcraft and it was like the right-click is working as before. Just simply deactivate secondary-click in the macOS settings.

@Mythics9 sent the app via DM to me for me to try out. So if anyone wants to look into it, you might want to contact @Mythics9 via DM here.

Not that a third-party solution isn't fantastic, but I wouldn't quite say that the issue is solved until Apple fixes the mess they made of macOS without requiring users to do any extra steps.

 

[1nfinity0nhigh]

SOLVED*​

There now is a solution.

@Mythics9 created a small App that is able to mimic the right-click behavior. The result: It works flawlessly. I tried it on World of Warcraft and it was like the right-click is working as before. Just simply deactivate secondary-click in the macOS settings.

@Mythics9 sent the app via DM to me for me to try out. So if anyone wants to look into it, you might want to contact @Mythics9 via DM here.
*Solved in terms of: There now is way to achieve the right-click working as before. Not yet fixed by Apple.

that's amazing!!!!! is the app publicly hosted anywhere?

 

[Flyview]

that's amazing!!!!! is the app publicly hosted anywhere?

I second that.

Also @Mythics9 it sounds like you know a bit about how the trackpad (touchpad?) works. I'm hoping to get some devs together to write a small app that will reduce the trackapd area of the gigantic trackpad on M-series Apple silicon MacBooks. Yes, it's good at palm rejection while typing, but it's not perfect at it when actually using the trackpad. It's constantly missing clicks cause it thinks I'm dragging, etc. I will start another thread on this but for now, here's our GitHub project:

GitHub - skylatian/tbtouchpad_shrink: an attempt to shrink the touchpad area on M-series macbooks. keep an eye out in a few months when I actually have time for this!

an attempt to shrink the touchpad area on M-series macbooks. keep an eye out in a few months when I actually have time for this! - skylatian/tbtouchpad_shrink

github.com

 

[1nfinity0nhigh]

so any update on whether Apple has implemented a fix yet?

 

[iTris6666]

Not in 15.4 beta :-(

 

[chrmyr]

I received a call today that Apple is planning to fix it in the next minor release (current public release is 15.3.1 as I am writing) and that I should look into it whether it is fixed then. Not sure if the beta version is a good proxy for this or if it is implemented into the 15.4 Release Candidate. My guess is that the bug ticket was pushed to "ready-to-deploy" now. Let's wait the next two minor releases if its fixed. Please also provide feedback here or directly to apple whether the behavior of the trackpad changed with the new releases.

 

[iTris6666]

🎉 Finally fixed in 14.2beta2

It is not impossible that it arrives in a 15.3.2 as well if such update ever exist.

 

[Flyview]

Cool! Can we use your insider line with Apple to request other trackpad changes? 😂 It would be soooo cool if they would implement a way to reduce the size of the touchpad to whatever you want.

 

[Fishrrman]

I have a 2021 MacBook Pro 14", and after I installed the Sequoia beta 15.4 (2nd release) yesterday, the "right click problem" seems to have been fixed here, as well...

 

[chrmyr]

I finally tried macOS Sequioa 15.4 Beta 2 (Public Beta) myself and I can confirm that the issue is resolved. Finally.

What a journey and it took nearly half a year. But I am happy that this was addressed and handled by Apple. In my next call with the Apple Support Team, I will ask the ticket owner to mark the ticket as resolved.

I think everything is working as before.
But if not: Please provide information here if there is any deviation from the expected behavior.

Thanks everyone here contributing to push Apple resolving this.