Like any other technology product, Macs also have several issues in both software and hardware. A slow and sluggish trackpad is a common problem you might run into when using your Mac. It can be really annoying and can reduce your work proficiency drastically. So if you are having a slow-operating trackpad, we have some methods to help you troubleshoot your problem. Let’s check them out.
Change Your Trackpad Settings
Sometimes to make your trackpad operate more smoothly, you will need to change the tracking settings on your Mac. Tracking manages how quickly or slowly the pointer on your Mac’s screen moves around. If you set it at a high speed, the pointer will fly across your screen in one swipe. Meanwhile, you will need multiple swipes in order to make the pointer move to an edge when you set the tracking settings at a low speed. Here is how to change the tracking settings:
- Go to the Apple icon in the upper-left of your Mac’s screen
- From the dropdown menu, select System Preferences
- Click on Trackpad
- Switch to Point & Click tab
- Adjust the tracking speed slider to the right to speed up the cursor speed or to the left to slow it down.
- Move the click pressure slider to the right to make the click pressure more firm or to the left to make it lighter.
- Untick the box next to Silent clicking if you don’t want the clicking sound that appears when you click on your trackpad.
- Untick the box next to Force Click and haptic feedback if you want to disable haptic feedback when you force click your trackpad. (haptic feedback feels like a little bump against your finger
Change Double-clicking Settings on a Mac trackpad
Alongside a slow pointer speed, a slow double-clicking feature is also a part of a sluggish trackpad problem on Mac. You can double-click on a Mac trackpad by quickly pressing the pad twice. However, sometimes you may find it quite hard to do a double-click. In this case, the first thing you need to do is adjusting the double-click speed. When you set it slower, you can press the trackpad as long as three seconds apart and still activate the feature. When it is faster, you’ll have to press the trackpad twice immediately to activate it.
Here is how to change the double-clicking settings:
- Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your screen.
- Select System Preferences.
- Click on Accessibility.
- Scroll down and click on Pointer Controls
- Adjust the Double-click speed slider to the right to speed it up or move it to the left to slow it down.
Now if you have changed your trackpad’s settings but its performance is not improved, you should try doing the following methods.
Restart your Mac
Restarting your device is useful when it comes to fixing some software issues. So, there is a chance that it will solve the slow-operating trackpad problem as well. To restart your Mac:
- Access the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your screen
- Click Restart on the dropdown menu
Reset NVRAM and PVRAM
Your Mac stores certain settings in a special memory area even if it is turned off. Back in the days, PRAM referred to as a small amount of special memory in every Mac that stored information the computer needed before it loaded the operating system. However, modern Macs now use something called NVRAM.
If you notice that your Mac is experiencing abnormal performance issues like weird audio problems, slow trackpad, or failed bootup, there is a chance that your Mac PRAM/ NVRAM is the cause. In this case, you should try to reset the PRAM/NVRAM.
To reset PRAM and NVRAM, you need to perform the following speed
– Turn off your Mac
– Turn it back on.
– Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before you hear the startup sound.
– Hold the keys down until the computer restarts, and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
– Release the keys.
Reset SMC
The SMC ( System Management Controller)is responsible for some low-level settings on your Mac. These include thermal, battery management, fans, and mouse/trackpad. It’s rare, but problems with the SMC can affect performance, and also cause bugs on your Mac. Therefore, If you’re having problems relating to those components, resetting the SMC is a great choice.
Different Mac models have different methods to reset their SMC. You can head to our guide here and locate your Mac’s model to learn how to reset its SMC.
There you go, now you have our guide on how to deal with the Mac Trackpad operating slow issue. We hope that our article will help you solve this annoying problem. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions!
