Bizarre Dragging Behaviour

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I'm wondering if anyone else has this problem. It sounds somewhat familiar to me: occasionally when I drag a window or a scroll thumb, the system will lose track of what I'm actually doing and start manipulating something else on screen.



For example: I had one Safari window open with only the desktop behind it. I dragged the Safari window to move it, but in the middle of the dragging operation, without letting up on the mouse button, the Safari window lost focus and the Finder started drawing a selection rectangle on the desktop, as though the drag events had fallen through the window.



A second, stranger example: I tried to reproduce the problem as I was writing this post. I dragged the Safari window by the title bar. The window moved, but so did the scroll bar. The AppleInsider logo graphic was then erroneously selected.



This doesn't happen often enough for me to know if it only happens under certain conditions. My two examples involve Safari, but Safari is also the application I use most often.



I'm using 10.3.2 on an iMac 500. I have had no other such problems with the system.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    This is the first time I hear something like that. Before checking whatever else, I would try to use another mouse to see if the problem persits.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    Yeah, I'm wondering if the button on your mouse/trackpad loses contact briefly while depressed and it registers as a new click even though you never did anything.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    Quote:

    Yeah, I'm wondering if the button on your mouse/trackpad loses contact briefly while depressed and it registers as a new click even though you never did anything.



    That would be a possibility in the first case. Dragging large windows is a bit choppy, and the cursor could have been above the Safari window for an instant. I thought it was a problem with the mouse until the second thing happened. I was dragging the window slowly, making sure the cursor was always over the title bar, but there were mouse events being sent to completely different areas of the window.



    I don't have any other mice handy at the moment to fully test this, but I need a new mouse and keyboard for my PC. When I get the new mouse, I'll re-open the case.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    You can always try the old Repair Permissions et al to see if they help any.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    This has happened to me before on an iMac. It turned out to be a bad mouse button. As others have suggested, I'd try out another mouse to see if that solves the problem.
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