Mouse not functioning properly - not a mouse issue - software? hardware?

[heathyygirl]

All,

If you're reading this post, THANK YOU! Here's what's going on.

About a month or so ago I noticed that my mouse was double clicking instead of a single click, sometimes is unresponsive (I'm clicking the actual mouse, but the computer isn't acknowledging), closing two tabs in safari when I've only clicked to close one tab, opening two email windows when trying to compose an email (mac mail), and sending duplicate emails to recipients when I've only sent one (mac mail, linked to an exchange account, not sure if this is relevant). These are just the things I can remember off of the top of my head.

At first, I thought this was a mouse issue as my mouse was old and I assume that sometimes that could happen. Our IT guys exchanged my mouse with a different one, but the problem persists.

I had the IT guys at my desk on Friday, and I'm not kidding, they have got to think I'm crazy and/or making this up. My computer worked fine while they were sitting at it, but the minute I sat down it was the same. Basically, they tried one thing (I think deleting and resetting the mouse preferences) and then chalked it up to USER ERROR. (Our IT guys suck; if they think it will take up more than 10-15 minutes of their time, all of the sudden it's an impossible task that they just can't fix.)

Well, I've done quite a bit of googling because there's no way it's me. And as it turns out, this is a problem that several people have encountered. I just don't see where anybody has found a viable solution to the problem.

Any suggestions or ideas?

EDIT: I'm posting this in the Lion forum because that's the operating system my iMac is using. Also because a majority of the research I've done points to a possible OS issue. If I need to post somewhere else, let me know, I will!

 

[Bear]

...
About a month or so ago I noticed that my mouse was double clicking instead of a single click, sometimes is unresponsive (I'm clicking the actual mouse, but the computer isn't acknowledging), closing two tabs in safari when I've only clicked to close one tab, opening two email windows when trying to compose an email (mac mail), and sending duplicate emails to recipients when I've only sent one (mac mail, linked to an exchange account, not sure if this is relevant). These are just the things I can remember off of the top of my head.
...

This sounds like either a hardware issue or an issue of how you're clicking the mouse. What type of mouse? Was the replacement mouse new or used?

Also, sometimes with a mouse that has issues, holding/clicking the mouse differently will mask the issue.

 

[heathyygirl]

I'm really not sure that's it's me, I've been using the same computer and mouse for a year and half w/ problems starting only recently. But who knows?

The original mouse was an older Apple mouse (clear casing, white inside, wired).

The "new" mouse is definitely a used mouse, it is a Dell (wired).

 

[Bear]

I'm really not sure that's it's me, I've been using the same computer and mouse for a year and half w/ problems starting only recently. But who knows?

The original mouse was an older Apple mouse (clear casing, white inside, wired).

The "new" mouse is definitely a used mouse, it is a Dell (wired).

It could be how the IT guy holds the mouse masks the issues that you're having with the mouse.

 

[heathyygirl]

I love that you're telling me it's "user error" too.

I'm just going to live with it, I guess. It's frustrating as all get out. I am a product of the technology generation and have been using a computer and mouse since I was in diapers. I've literally never had this problem before and have found several posts on forums from users who are having or have had the same issues as I am currently experiencing.

 

[Bear]

I love that you're telling me it's "user error" too.
...

Diagnosis error on the part of the IT guy. If he only holds the mouse one way, it may not find the issue with the mouse. And an IT person should realize not everyone holds the mouse the same way.

 

[HoboFlo]

Hey! I found this post because I was having the EXACT same issue and it was driving me insane. I think (knock on wood) that I've fixed it. For the sake of being thorough, here were my own symptoms:

2008 Mac Pro
OS X 10.9.1 Mavericks
2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
14 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

I had the computer for a few months (got it from Craigslist) with no issues, using a Logitech B100 mouse. Recently I noticed that the mouse was double-clicking when I was clicking once. It started out as happening once in every six clicks or so, but seemed to get worse over time. Some examples:

- Clicking a menu item would instantly open and close the menu
- Clicking in a text editor to insert text would highlight the closest word
- When I clicked and dragged over text to highlight it, the highlight would immediately disappear when I let go of the mouse button
- Clicking the browser's back button would send me back two pages
​

As you know, this makes doing anything productive next to impossible. I searched all over the net for answers. To troubleshoot, I:

- Adjusted the double click speed, trying both quicker and slower speeds
- Tried a different mouse (also Logitech, as it was the only other one available)
- Restarted PRAM
- Installed Logitech software (I never installed any special software to begin with. I simply plugged the mouse in for the first time and it started working)
- Uninstalled the Logitech software
- Shut down the computer and unplugged the power cable for roughly 10 seconds
- Tried plugging the mouse into a different USB port
- Opened up the mouse to check if anything was worn out
- Tried clicking with the actual internal clickers of the mouse, rather than with the plastic covering
​

None of these steps worked, and I was ready to explode. Finally, this is what I did:

I borrowed a family-member's Dell mouse and plugged it into one of the front USB ports to quickly test it (keep in mind, my Logitech was still plugged into the back). The Dell mouse worked flawlessly, so I thought, "huh, I guess it's just an issue with Logitech". I then unplugged the Dell mouse from the front and returned it, thinking that I would just need to ditch Logitech, but then when I sat back down at my computer, my Logitech mouse was also working fine! This was Thursday night, and it is now Saturday morning. So far the issue has not returned.

I have no idea why it works now, and I know it's not the most technical of solutions, but I figured I'd let you know. I'll try to remember to revisit this thread if the issue returns for me, so we can all continue to investigate.

UPDATE:
It is now roughly 4 days since the double clicking issue went away, and it seems to have returned, but is SO FAR much more tolerable than it was before my "fix". It almost seems to have reset back to when I first noticed the issue, where the mouse double clicks every 7-10 clicks or so. I'm interested to see if it slowly gets worse over time, like it did before (just before my fix, I would say the mouse would wrongfully double click every 2-3 clicks). Unfortunately, I won't be around this computer much for the next few weeks, so I won't be able to give any further updates for a while.

 

[J_Fraser]

Misbehaving mouse, a possible solution: I’m using a wired Mighty Mouse with my MacBookAir 2013 running El Capitan (10.11.3). At first, the scroll wheel was getting sticky so I turned it over and rubbed the scrolly button on some paper to dislodge some rather large pieces of crud.

But after this, the computer was not recognising any of the three mouse clicks at all on the desktop (Mac OS). Using Chrome, at least there was some click recognition, however a regular left click on a new tab would close the tab rather than select it. Uuurgh, so annoying!

To fix this problem: I unplugged the mouse again and while holding it upside down, I gently squeezed the wired end of the mouse, then pushed firmly on the other end (nearest to me) of the mouse and felt a “click” as though the mouse has been pushed back into assembled position. Perhaps it had been a little out of whack. It was a physical “percussive maintenance” solution which now has my mouse working perfectly again. Hope this at least helps someone else.

 

[allen-uk]

Bit late, healthyygirl, but the answer is this:
https://osxdaily.com/2015/09/07/drag-and-drop-not-working-mac-os-x-troubleshooting/#comment-2902957

I had the same problem, changed mouse, same problem, so had to be 'inside' the Mac. The above solution (the one involving deleting apple.com.driver files) worked a treat. And you can tell your IT people to stop being (a) so sexist and (b) so lazy!

Allen, in London.