How to stop accidental clicks and double-clicks on a Mac
With a tremor, a click can turn into two clicks, a small drag that moves a file, or a click beside the button you aimed at. Apps open twice, text gets selected, folders end up inside other folders.
The short answer: on a trackpad, turn off Tap to Click so only a real press clicks. Set the double-click speed to suit the problem you have, turn off Spring-loading, and on a MacBook used with a mouse let the Mac ignore the built-in trackpad. macOS has no setting that ignores a click you didn't mean or keeps the pointer still while you click: that takes a click guard, such as the one in StillMouse.
Why does a shaky hand cause accidental clicks?
Three things go wrong. A bounce: the finger presses twice in quick succession, and the Mac sees a double-click. A slip: the hand moves while the button is down, so the click lands beside the target or becomes a short drag. In one study, people with motor difficulties slipped in 28.1% of clicks, others in 6.3%, and 92 of 233 double and triple clicks failed (Trewin & Pain, 1999). An extra click: one more press right after a double-click.
Which trackpad settings stop accidental clicks?
- Turn off Tap to Click. System Settings › Trackpad › Point & Click › Tap to Click. A light touch no longer clicks; only pressing the trackpad down does.
- Make clicking firmer. In the same place, set Click to Firm, so a resting finger is less likely to click.
- Turn off Force Click. Force Click and haptic feedback, also under Point & Click: a harder press then doesn't open a word's definition or a preview.
- Check dragging. System Settings › Accessibility › Pointer Control › Trackpad Options… sets whether and how the trackpad drags; turn dragging off if things move by accident.
Which settings help with a mouse?
- Turn off Spring-loading. System Settings › Accessibility › Pointer Control › Spring-loading. Then a drag that pauses over a folder doesn't open it.
- Ignore the MacBook's own trackpad. In the same place: Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present, so a palm resting on it doesn't click.
- On a Magic Mouse, turn off gestures you don't use. Its top is a touch surface: a resting or shaking finger can scroll or swipe. The gestures are in System Settings › Mouse.
Should the double-click speed be slower or faster?
It depends on what goes wrong. System Settings › Accessibility › Pointer Control › Double-click speed sets how close together two clicks must be to count as a double-click. If your double-clicks fail because the second click comes too late, make it slower. If your single clicks keep turning into double-clicks, make it faster: then two presses must come closer together to count as one double-click. No setting fixes both at once, because macOS can't tell a bounce from a click you meant.
What does a click guard do differently?
A click guard looks at each press before apps see it. StillMouse's click guard keeps the pointer where the button went down until the hand moves more than 12 points (then it's a real drag), ignores presses shorter than 40 milliseconds, the kind a tremor makes, and ignores an extra click that comes within 0.35 seconds of a double-click at the same spot. Double-clicks still work, and they are counted from the clicks apps receive, so an ignored bounce never turns the next click into a double-click. A pointer that holds still during the click is what 9 of 11 people chose once they had tried it (Trewin, Keates & Moffatt, 2006).