Three-finger drag gestures working sporadically on 2016 MacBook Pros, users say

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AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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in Current Mac Hardware
Some buyers of Apple's new MacBook Pros are finding that the three-finger drag gesture is working inconsistently on their trackpads, if at all, according to complaints on Apple's support forums and elsewhere.




Where the problem is intermittent, it may manifest only on some parts of the trackpad. Some owners, including people on MacRumors forums, have speculated that the issue is related to palm rejection technology.

Either way it's unclear if the issue is a hardware or software defect, and Apple hasn't officially acknowledged the situation. Both 13- and 15-inch systems are being impacted.

Three-finger drag is available with OS X Yosemite or later, and can be used to reposition windows without moving the mouse cursor and clicking. It can be toggled through OS X/macOS's trackpad settings, located under the Accessibility section of System Preferences.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 21
    leptonlepton Posts: 111member
    Perhaps if you keep your three fingers close together, it thinks it is a palm and rejects it..
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  • Reply 2 of 21
    boboliciousbobolicious Posts: 1,190member
    I am surprised this personal trackpad preference favourite was moved to the 'Accessibility' section of the settings ? No issues yet here... If anyone has an option for USB-C DisplayPort output I'm all ears with thanks - hard to understand the lack of support in Apple's own TB3>TB2 adapter for their own LED Cinema Displays, as it is also part of the default TB spec...?
    edited November 2016
    ivanhnumenorean
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  • Reply 3 of 21
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    bobolicious said:
    I am surprised this personal trackpad preference favourite was moved to the 'Accessibility' section of the settings ? 
    That would explain why it's an issue. That's stuff Apple likely doesn't test much.
    perkedelbdkennedy1002ivanhtallest skil
     4Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 4 of 21
    mbtskysurfermbtskysurfer Posts: 5member
    I am returning my MBP 15 w/TB, due to constant crashes, this touchpad issue, and a nagging problem with the internet connection.. that really was the last straw. I work remote, and spend most of my time on Google Hangouts. Anytime I would open a new Safari (or Chrome) window and type into the search bar the traffic from the auto search bar would cause the connection to drop. Usually it was just an interrupt in audio and video but a couple times it resulted in the loss of connection. My late 2014 MBP never exhibited this problem.
    bdkennedy1002perkedelnumenoreandigitolaknabibb-15ktappe
     7Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 5 of 21
    digitoldigitol Posts: 276member
    We at Apple call this a "Feature"  :) 
    perkedelnumenoreanaknabi
     3Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 6 of 21
    bdkennedy1002bdkennedy1002 Posts: 543member
    mbtskysurfer said:
    I am returning my MBP 15 w/TB, due to constant crashes, this touchpad issue, and a nagging problem with the internet connection.. that really was the last straw. I work remote, and spend most of my time on Google Hangouts. Anytime I would open a new Safari (or Chrome) window and type into the search bar the traffic from the auto search bar would cause the connection to drop. Usually it was just an interrupt in audio and video but a couple times it resulted in the loss of connection. My late 2014 MBP never exhibited this problem.
    I saw a blogger had recorded a video of the 15" MB Pro and ripped it to shreds over the internet connection dropping when using Safari. When he plugged something into one of the ports, it also dropped the connection. POS
    digitolnumenoreanaknabiavon b7
     4Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 7 of 21
    macplusplusmacplusplus Posts: 2,118member
    When in the Accessibility preference panel Enable Dragging is enabled with three finger drag, but then disabled, the three-finger swipe gesture (switch between full screen applications) does not restore, swipe remains tied to four fingers. In order to restore the three-finger swipe, one needs to select it again in the Trackpad preference panel. This is the Swipe between full-screen apps option. Select Swipe left or right with three fingers in that menu. 

    That rumour may result from the confusion between three finger drag and three finger swipe. These are not the same. Three finger drag is an accessibility option. If one has some weakness in fingers and dragging with one finger is troublesome for example, the three finger drag may help. Do not use three finger drag to switch between applications, this is not how it is used. Three finger drag is when dragging a window or an icon, three finger swipe is when switching between applications.

    I don't have that machine so I cannot say anything further regarding the existence of the malfunction.
    jay-tforegoneconclusionration albb-15command_f
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  • Reply 8 of 21
    trashman69trashman69 Posts: 161member
    Try the middle finger drag gesture
    digitolaknabipulseimages
     3Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 9 of 21
    djkfisherdjkfisher Posts: 131member
    OMG, a problem with a three finger drag, OH no, the sky is falling.......Run for the hills......Dump Apple......It is so so bad...... Seriously, this is something to write about........
    ration alwatto_cobra
     2Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 10 of 21
    shikotsumyakushikotsumyaku Posts: 45member
    djkfisher said:
    OMG, a problem with a three finger drag, OH no, the sky is falling.......Run for the hills......Dump Apple......It is so so bad...... Seriously, this is something to write about........
    Why is it so unthinkable to you that you want a completely functioning product? They report about 3 finger drag issues and you need to exaggerate? Why?
    numenoreandigitolaknabibb-15pulseimageslamboaudi4zoetmb
     7Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 11 of 21
    sirozhasirozha Posts: 801member
    bdkennedy said:
    mbtskysurfer said:
    I am returning my MBP 15 w/TB, due to constant crashes, this touchpad issue, and a nagging problem with the internet connection.. that really was the last straw. I work remote, and spend most of my time on Google Hangouts. Anytime I would open a new Safari (or Chrome) window and type into the search bar the traffic from the auto search bar would cause the connection to drop. Usually it was just an interrupt in audio and video but a couple times it resulted in the loss of connection. My late 2014 MBP never exhibited this problem.
    I saw a blogger had recorded a video of the 15" MB Pro and ripped it to shreds over the internet connection dropping when using Safari. When he plugged something into one of the ports, it also dropped the connection. POS
    I think the reason may be that the MacBook thinks that the device plugged in to one of its ports is a network card and tries to route network traffic via that device. Someone suggested to that dude to check network preferences, but the dude was sitting so high up on his Apple bashing horse that he didn't even understand what was suggested to him. 
    ration alpulseimageswatto_cobra
     3Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 12 of 21
    sirozhasirozha Posts: 801member
    macplusplus said:
    When in the Accessibility preference panel Enable Dragging is enabled with three finger drag, but then disabled, the three-finger swipe gesture (switch between full screen applications) does not restore, swipe remains tied to four fingers. In order to restore the three-finger swipe, one needs to select it again in the Trackpad preference panel. This is the Swipe between full-screen apps option. Select Swipe left or right with three fingers in that menu. 

    That rumour may result from the confusion between three finger drag and three finger swipe. These are not the same. Three finger drag is an accessibility option. If one has some weakness in fingers and dragging with one finger is troublesome for example, the three finger drag may help. Do not use three finger drag to switch between applications, this is not how it is used. Three finger drag is when dragging a window or an icon, three finger swipe is when switching between applications.

    I don't have that machine so I cannot say anything further regarding the existence of the malfunction.
    Three-finger drag has nothing to do with any disability or lack of strength. It was a preferred way to drag until recently Apple relegated it to Accessibility with the advent of haptic trackpads. Prior to three-finger drag, there was a double-tap drag that had been relagetaed to Accessibility when Apple introduced three-finger drag. 
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 13 of 21
    robfrommarsrobfrommars Posts: 1member
    Just got my 13 inch Pro. By default, three finger drag didn't work. However, I could turn it on in Accessibility. Here's how... https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204609
    ration alforegoneconclusionbb-15watto_cobra
     4Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 14 of 21
    macplusplusmacplusplus Posts: 2,118member
    sirozha said:
    When in the Accessibility preference panel Enable Dragging is enabled with three finger drag, but then disabled, the three-finger swipe gesture (switch between full screen applications) does not restore, swipe remains tied to four fingers. In order to restore the three-finger swipe, one needs to select it again in the Trackpad preference panel. This is the Swipe between full-screen apps option. Select Swipe left or right with three fingers in that menu. 

    That rumour may result from the confusion between three finger drag and three finger swipe. These are not the same. Three finger drag is an accessibility option. If one has some weakness in fingers and dragging with one finger is troublesome for example, the three finger drag may help. Do not use three finger drag to switch between applications, this is not how it is used. Three finger drag is when dragging a window or an icon, three finger swipe is when switching between applications.

    I don't have that machine so I cannot say anything further regarding the existence of the malfunction.
    Three-finger drag has nothing to do with any disability or lack of strength. It was a preferred way to drag until recently Apple relegated it to Accessibility with the advent of haptic trackpads. Prior to three-finger drag, there was a double-tap drag that had been relagetaed to Accessibility when Apple introduced three-finger drag. 
    OK even if it is conceived as an alternative to double-tap drag, that doesn't change the fact that if there were a trackpad issue, three finger swipe wouldn't work either. All complaints are about three finger drag only, not about three finger swipe. Since three finger drag is now an accessibility option, it is not enabled by default and people may just don't know how to enable it.
    edited November 2016
    foregoneconclusionbb-15
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  • Reply 15 of 21
    johnbearjohnbear Posts: 160member
    hopefully they will make it touch screen in the future. 
    I used to have a touch screen hackintosh some years ago but it was a small computer in terms of power, so yes it works on OS X and they could implement it easly especially on these powerful machines now. It works great at 2732 x 2048 on iPad pro 12" on an inferior software and processor. 
    edited November 2016
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  • Reply 16 of 21
    ktappektappe Posts: 829member
    djkfisher said:
    OMG, a problem with a three finger drag, OH no, the sky is falling.......Run for the hills......Dump Apple......It is so so bad......
    Trolls are troll-y.
    pulseimages
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 17 of 21
    macplusplusmacplusplus Posts: 2,118member
    If three finger swipe is enabled again after setting first the three finger drag, then the three finger drag becomes disabled without warning ! That may be their issue.

    pulseimages
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 18 of 21
    yojimbo007yojimbo007 Posts: 1,165member
    shikotsumyaku said:
    djkfisher said:
    OMG, a problem with a three finger drag, OH no, the sky is falling.......Run for the hills......Dump Apple......It is so so bad...... Seriously, this is something to write about........
    Why is it so unthinkable to you that you want a completely functioning product? They report about 3 finger drag issues and you need to exaggerate? Why?
    he is being sarcastic
    pulseimages
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 19 of 21
    makeintoshmakeintosh Posts: 65member
    djkfisher said:
    OMG, a problem with a three finger drag, OH no, the sky is falling.......Run for the hills......Dump Apple......It is so so bad...... Seriously, this is something to write about........
    Please grow up.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 20 of 21
    bolskevitebolskevite Posts: 27member
    What I've noticed, is that sometimes the palm rejection prevents the three finger swipe to work. As an example, if I have the laptop on my lap, and then if part of my shirt is touching the trackpad then the three finger swipe is rejected. Since the trackpad is huge and comes to the bottom edge of the laptop, this actually happens quite frequently. But ... once you get it to recognize a swipe, it will then start swiping just fine until you take another long pause from swiping, with the shirt or even with a palm simultaneously on the trackpad. It seems to know if you're recently in action or on pause and adjusts sensitivity accordingly.
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