Sticky Cursor

[rpmurray]

I'm running into a problem that I call Sticky Cursor. Every so often I'll try to select and drag something in either an application or the Finder and the object that I've selected will "stick" to the cursor and move with it, after I've released the mouse button. I can't seem to drop it anywhere to get it to release from the cursor.

This is on Monterey 12.3.1, and I haven't nailed down any potential suspects yet since it's so random. One clue is that if I hit command+. the item will drop back to where it was. But the next thing I select will then exhibit the same behavior.

Anyone seen anything like this? Have any ideas where to check or what to try? Logging out is a workaround that clears the problem. I have an application called Yoink that I thought might be at the root of this but I've quit and haven't used it in awhile but still have this happen every so often. This doesn't seem to be related to the sticky keys or mouse keys settings in Accessibility. I have them both disabled.

 

[rpmurray]

OK. This has officially grown from just an irritant to seriously bugging me. I'm assuming that I'm accidently pressing some keyboard combination that toggles this on but don't know what keys to use to reverse it. Anyone have a simple key-logger they can recommend? I'm not looking for a big complex application that records my screen, keypresses, mouse-clicks, what I had for breakfast this morning, etc. Just something simple that records what keys (including control/command/shift/etc. keys) I've pressed so when this happens again I can check to see what I did to cause this.

 

[svenmany]

Could it be related to the "Enable dragging" setting in Accessibility? Could you somehow be turning on drag lock? That's in Accessibility > Pointer Control > Trackpad Options...

No idea why that would happen though.

 

[BanditoB]

If drag lock is on, you simply need to click again to release the object after selecting and moving it.

 

[Vidnez]

I have the same bug in a MacBook Air M1 running Monterey 12.4 and the bug is there in 12.5 also. It's only present if I have "tap to click" checked. I tried everything, fresh install OS, tried multiple options in accessibility, delete .plist, nothing works. I opted for uncheck "tap to click" option and so far so good.

 

[rpmurray]

I don't have a trackpad attached to this iMac so don't see any trackpad options in Accessibility. It could still be related somehow. Maybe some hotkey combination that I'm inadvertently typing (I'm not the greatest typer, "fumble-fingers" was coined to describe me).

 

[svenmany]

Could Yoink have left something in place that is in effect even when it's not running? I looked up what it is, since I didn't know about it. Their website keeps mentioning how it handles dragging.

I wonder, do you see any keyboard shortcuts that they might have set up in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts?

You might try completely deinstalling it with something like AppCleaner and then rebooting.

 

[wnmills3]

I believe I fixed this by using System Preferences > Accessibility Keyboard (Shortcut) Accessibility and deselecting Sticky Keys and Mouse Keys

 

[rpmurray]

Coming back to this because it just happened to me again. None of the solutions suggested here seemed to work for me at the time, so the only guaranteed solution was a reboot. Then it went away for awhile so I forgot about it. And then just had it happen again now, tried all suggestions again and nada. This first happened in Mail as I was dragging various emails to different mailboxes.

When it happened it's always with the mouse drag working but the drop failing to drop. Hitting the Escape (esc) key or Command and . (Period) will cause the item to drop and then return to its original location, but the next item I select will then be stuck to the cursor again. Having some time to play with this I decided to search for possible solutions that may have arisen since my last report. After much googling and baring and gnashing of teeth I found several reports of the same issue but no confirmed solutions.

In my case, I have a REAL three button mouse (not one of those that has a scroll wheel act as a third button). HP used to sell these (model DY651A, and that's what I have) and there is one that Elecom also sells.

Once this happens it shows up in all applications, including the Finder, so I figured it was either some keyboard combination triggering it or something when clicking the mouse. Starting with the mouse first I found that, for me, clicking the Left and Middle buttons simultaneously caused the issue to stop. Tried various combinations of clicks to see if I could get the issue to reappear, so I could confirm this actually was a fix, but haven't been able to make it happen again.

So I'm posting this here as a note to myself for when this rears its ugly head again. But if anyone has this happen to them and clicking the Left button and the scroll wheel simultaneously fixes it, let me know.

Edit: Running Monterey 12.6.6

 

[svenmany]

This is happening on just one computer, with just one mouse? If so, it could be a hardware problem.

 

[rpmurray]

This is happening on just one computer, with just one mouse? If so, it could be a hardware problem.

Ah, I should have tried changing out the mouse. The mouse hadn't been giving me any other problems so I wasn't thinking about hardware. I'll give that a shot when/if this happens again.

 

[migdmz]

Mouse = Logitech M355

I powered off the mouse and turned it back on, and that fixed the sticky-cursor problem for me.

Remarks, above, about possible mouse problem lead me to try turning it off/on.