MacBook Trackpad Problems? Quick Fix for that Stuck Trackpad

165 Responses to “MacBook Trackpad Problems? Quick Fix for that Stuck Trackpad”

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1. 1
   matthew Says:
   February 5th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

   worked like a charm good tip and thanks, saved me a trip to the genius bar at mac store.

   m

2. 2
   Rami Says:
   February 6th, 2008 at 9:00 am

   Thank you, helped for me as well:)

3. 3
   Kevin Says:
   February 25th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

   Me too! Many thanks!

4. 4
   danny Says:
   March 23rd, 2008 at 12:40 am

   Think it just worked for me too! Thanks!

5. 5
   L Says:
   March 29th, 2008 at 9:25 pm

   This fixed my soft trackpad button, thanks

6. 6
   John Broady Says:
   April 3rd, 2008 at 10:07 am

   Worked great! Thanks for the tip… this saved me a trip to the Apple Store.

7. 7
   James Says:
   April 15th, 2008 at 9:31 am

   Worked for me, too. I had to upgrade from a piece of paper to something a little more robust to really get into the crack, though.

8. 8
   jason pitt Says:
   April 25th, 2008 at 2:37 am

   damn!!! thanks that worked a charm….my gunk was on the bottom edge, but paper worked great there too!

9. 9
   Partyboy Says:
   July 21st, 2008 at 1:29 pm

   Thanks for the tip, i need to do that 5-6 times with different kind of paper, but it finally works – thanks!

10. 10
    poop Says:
    July 27th, 2008 at 10:49 pm

    AWESOME. it worked. mine was sticking a little

11. 11
    levi Says:
    August 15th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    This unfortunately didn’t work for me (couldn’t get the paper far enough under the button), but it was apparent something was jamming it (the origami star trick didn’t work either). Here’s my solution: I took the battery out and blew very quick hard bursts of air into the small openings on each side of the track pad button’s area. A very small piece of resin or something that appeared to be resin (hard flat amber substance) came out and the button works perfectly fine now. Hope this helps someone else!

12. 12
    treve Says:
    September 1st, 2008 at 10:20 am

    fanx. this was pissing me off!

13. 13
    Anand Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 6:55 pm

    Hey Man,
    Great tip, worked quite well.

    thanks again,
    Anand

14. 14
    Adam Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 2:59 pm

    Holy crap. Totally worked. Had the problem several times before and just stuck to the trackpad tapping. Eventually it would go away. Apparently it went away after being jostled around or something. Awesome tip.

15. 15
    Chad Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    I thought I was going to have to take my laptop apart to get it cleaned. I had to use a couple of pieces of paper to get it to work, but now it works like new once again… Thanks!

16. 16
    Jafman Says:
    September 8th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    Brilliant solution. I’m very finnicky about my things not functioning the way I want them to and your solution got my trackpad button functioning good as new.

17. 17
    Pepijn Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 8:29 am

    seems to work good!!

18. 18
    Karl Says:
    September 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 pm

    You’re awesome! This has been driving me nuts. and works great now!

19. 19
    adam Says:
    September 28th, 2008 at 6:34 am

    I finally got it to work but be careful not to let the paper tear off under the button, it took me about 10 minutes to pry out a small corner of paper.

    Thanks!

20. 20
    gemma Says:
    September 30th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

    thank you so much you just saved $160!

21. 21
    JustElwood Says:
    October 10th, 2008 at 5:51 am

    I can’t believe it was that fucking simple. I’m buzzed the fuck up on Jameson and I did it because I was so annoyed with no problem.

22. 22
    JustElwood Says:
    October 10th, 2008 at 5:52 am

    BTW’
    Used the corner of a pack of zig zags, perfect, sturdy and not going to tear off in there.

23. 23
    stone Says:
    October 24th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

    If you take out the battery and take a long thin strip of paper and thread it through the opening in the metal and basically floss the gunk out it also works. I actually just did this about 2 minutes ago after struggling to do it the way the initial post suggested… this way is much easier!

24. 24
    Hithah Says:
    November 7th, 2008 at 9:46 pm

    Wonderful! Worked like a charm. Thanks for saving me a trip to the Apple Store!

25. 25
    Steve Says:
    December 1st, 2008 at 3:29 pm

    OMG you are a legend! I thought my trackpad button had actually broken, was searching around and gave your suggestion a try. 10 seconds later my trackpad is as good as new!

26. 26
    Jeff Sidlosky Says:
    December 18th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    Worked great! I got my screw driver set out to take apart this thing (which is NOT trivial) to clean the trackpad button somehow.

    Then I decided to search google, you came up #1 and I grabbed a business card, jammed it around the edges, and wow! It worked great.

    My button isn’t sticking/making noises it shouldn’t be making anymore. Wonderful.

27. 27
    Craig Says:
    December 24th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    Thanks a million!!!! You just saved me about $100, maybe more.

28. 28
    dummy Says:
    December 29th, 2008 at 9:42 am

    it works!

29. 29
    Matt Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 4:20 pm

    It works but it will stick again. For a more permanent fix take the battery out and carefully squirt a tiny dab of WD40 under the trackpad from behind. Bingo!
    PS – I have black macbook, don’t know if this will work for macbook pro.

30. 30
    Patrick Says:
    January 19th, 2009 at 8:15 pm

    You are a genius sir a genius

31. 31
    Rachel Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 1:07 am

    Thanks so much! This trick worked for my regular (non-pro) MacBook also. I would never have tried jamming a piece of paper under the button. How did I not think of this first? By the way, if there is no visible liquid damage, Apple Care will cover replacing the top-case for a sticky trackpad button. Found out the hard way on my last top-case.

32. 32
    Lucy Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    One more possibility is a swollen (faulty) battery. Check this by taking out the battery using a coin and examining it – mine had a visible bulge, which was causing it to press on the trackpad. Faulty macbook batteries are covered under Apple’s replacement programme if they’re less than 2 years old. See: http://www.apple.com/support/m.....eryupdate/

33. 33
    Andrew Says:
    January 31st, 2009 at 5:07 am

    awesome – had a right old session with a strip of thin card, eventually dislodged what it was – it looks like a tiny rubber mounting, so god knows what its dropped off, that was wedged underneath the button – all working perfectly again now

34. 34
    michelle Says:
    February 7th, 2009 at 3:51 am

    worked for me, as well. took a bit of time and a couple pieces of paper, but just kept moving the corners back and forth until whatever it was finally dislodged and VOILA!!!!

35. 35
    David Hogg Says:
    February 9th, 2009 at 5:47 am

    Fantastic tip! Yesterday my girlfriend and I (we were joint culprits!) spilt a thick, sticky fruit smoothie over the front of my MacBook Pro (15″ old version …. the smoothie covered the front edge of the trackpad button), and although we quickly mopped it up, the button became very sticky / clonky which became pretty irritating pretty quickly

    A quick application of the edge of a piece of paper (had to fold it in half to make it strong enough) and voila!

    Just a quick hint though, make sure you use paper that’s thick enough not to tear off whilst between the button and the laptop body! …

    Many thanks!

36. 36
    Kevin Says:
    February 9th, 2009 at 9:21 am

    This is a great tip. Something so simple too. I was just about take the topcase off of mine! Thanks again for the post.

37. 37
    Mark Says:
    February 24th, 2009 at 11:13 pm

    Great tip,was just about to pull it apart so simple. Many thanks

38. 38
    Sean Roman Says:
    March 3rd, 2009 at 5:22 pm

    Thanks a bunch. Worked beautifully.

39. 39
    Curtis Winslow Says:
    March 6th, 2009 at 8:34 pm

    Didn’t do it for me but set me on a great idea which did work. Go to your local hardware store and get a FEELER GUAGE. Costs about $7.00 and has a bunch of strips of metal in different thicknesses ranging from 3 hundredths of a millimeter to nine-tenths of a millimeter (varies by manufacturer). These also work great when tring to coax a stuck cd (put on of the thinnest metal strips on top of the cd and press the eject button, works every time).

40. 40
    cambocowboy Says:
    March 10th, 2009 at 1:55 am

    Great advice. I was planning a trip to Genius bar tomorrow, but his solves it. However, I’ve torn about 4 corners of paper under there (and had to leave it). Best tool? Plastic playing card. Flexible, thin, and won’t tear off!

41. 41
    Domingo Says:
    March 14th, 2009 at 1:27 pm

    I was planning on sending my MacBook in and even purchasing a new mouse …. now I do not have to send it in and the mouse purchase can wait

    I didn’t see anything on the paper I used … but I’m not really too concerned where the junk went … it is a laptop from work.

42. 42
    WFM Says:
    April 1st, 2009 at 4:25 pm

    Thanks for the great advise. Seemed to help a lot.

43. 43
    Gon Says:
    April 6th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    I was having the same issues as you guys, i tried your tips but nothing worked.

    When i removed the battery I also noticed it was deformed, kind of swelled. This was causing pressure on the trackpad button.

    The link published by Lucy seems to refer only to the Intel Core Duo Macbook Pro’s, mine is a Intel Core 2 Duo.

    I’ve emailed Apple to see if this program would cover me or if there is another one, will keep you posted.

    Is anyone else with a machine like mine having these problems?

44. 44
    Gon Says:
    April 7th, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    I got offered a new battery for free!
    Thank God Apple came through.

45. 45
    TAKE2EDITOR Says:
    April 11th, 2009 at 2:28 am

    RRRRR! IT WAS THE BATTERY FOR ME! IT’S SWOLLEN!

    TOOK OFF THE BATTERY AND IT WORKED FINE… PUT IT BACK ON AND IT JAMMED AGAIN…

    WHOEVER OFFERED THE BATTERY SUGGESTION YOU’RE A GENIUS TOO!

    THANKS GUYS

46. 46
    Alex Says:
    April 22nd, 2009 at 2:42 am

    My trackpad/mouse click problem problem was a SWOLLEN BATTERY in my Mac Book Pro!

    Take out the battery with your power source plugged in and see if your trackpad problem is solved IMMEDATELY.

    Then look at the battery carefully and apply a ruler to it or put it on a flat surface. mine has a visible bulge that is messing up the trackpad.

    You have a 2 year warrantly, like was said
    thanks all!

    http://www.apple.com/support/m.....eryupdate/

47. 47
    ian Says:
    April 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 am

    used my metro card and was back to normal in seconds! Great advice!

48. 48
    Luke Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 4:02 am

    Absolutely Brilliant! I can’t thank you enough…!

49. 49
    Jason Cone Says:
    April 30th, 2009 at 11:13 pm

    Swollen battery for me, too. Thanks for the tip.

50. 50
    Campy Says:
    May 14th, 2009 at 6:25 pm

    My problem is that now I have paper jammed in there, making the situation even worse (my bad, should’ve skipped ahead to read some of the later posts).

    Is it possible to pop this thing off?

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