Let's just say it's a story of unknown Bluetooth interference or a paired Bluetooth device that’s in range of the Mac.
I had this very issue last week on my Early 2013 15' MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Normal (Left) mouse-click wouldn't work under any conditions while running OS X, the built-in Trackpad, Magic Mouse or USB Mouse, while the secondary-click was fine on all.
I booted my MBP with a Linux Mint Live USB Flash Drive and the built-in Trackpad, Magic Mouse and USB Mouse all worked, both normal-click and secondary-click. So at least I knew the built-in Trackpad, Magic Mouse and USB Mouse hardware was fine and it was looking like a software issue.
As another trouble shooting process I made an OS X USB Flash Drive Installer, figuring it would boot clean and the built-in Trackpad or Magic Mouse would work fine since it worked under Linux, however during the install... no normal-click would work, while the secondary-click was fine.
Turns out my Magic Trackpad, which I was not using and was in the closet, was depressed by a book that fell over on to it. Because it was connected, even though not in use, it was causing the other clickable devices to fail on the normal-click while the secondary-click still worked.
This drove me crazy for a couple of hours because the book fell when I was not in the room, so I never heard it or suspected the Magic Trackpad to be an issue. Linux Mint Live USB Flash Drive worked because the Magic Trackpad was not paired to it and therefore couldn't and didn't interfere. Unlike in OS X it automatically connected.
What a pain it was but who doesn't love a good mystery!
Do you by chance have a Magic Trackpad lying around?
——
Or a Bluetooth mouse in a travel bag - if that mouse is pressed down, you can’t ever get a left mouse up event from any other device.
Having unboxed and set up many MacBooks over many years, there's one setting that drives me up the wall. So if you're buying a new MacBook or want to make your current one a little more useful, you should always try clicking a few boxes in the System Preferences menu.
This trick will work in everything from the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro to the new M2 13-inch MacBook Pro and M2 MacBook Air, as well as older MacBooks.
M2 MacBook Air
$1,199 at Apple
One of the best things about MacBooks has always been the huge glass trackpad, which always felt more responsive and offered more surface area than the touchpad on most Windows laptops. The difference has narrowed over the years, but it's still hard to beat a Mac trackpad. However, it makes me nuts to see (and hear) people clicking down on their touchpads to do anything. Guess what? These touchpads haven't physically depressed when clicked on for years. Instead a clever bit of haptic feedback makes it feel like you've clicked down.
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Turn this on, even if you're not going to use it all the time.
Dan Ackerman/CNETWindows laptops have long been set up for tap-to-click, which means a simple tap of your finger works the same way as a left mouse button (or ancient touchpad button) click would. A two-finger tap is the equivalent of a right mouse button click.
But every time I set up a new Mac, I spend several moments tapping on things with no effect, because MacOS has tap-to-click turned off by default. Why? I'm assuming it's just to make my life more difficult. Fortunately, it's easy to fix. And if you're a determined clicker and have no intention of becoming a tapper, that's OK -- change these settings and you can still click away, but now the tapping will work, too.
The super secret hidden tap-and-drag settings menu.
Dan Ackerman/CNETAs a bonus, while we're doing this we're going to turn on both Exposé, which is a useful multifinger gesture, and tap-and-drag, which is a much easier way to move things like folders around on the screen.
Fix Apple's dumb default touchpad settings
- System Preferences > Trackpad > Point & Click > Check the checkbox for Tap to click (which is unchecked by default).
- System Preferences > Trackpad > More Gestures > Check the checkbox for App Exposé (fifth checkbox from the top).
- System Preferences > Accessibility > Pointer Control > Trackpad Options > Check the checkbox for Enable dragging (without drag lock).
The instructions above work if you're using MacOS Monterey or earlier OS versions. If you're using the new MacOS Ventura system, expected to be widely available in the fall of 2022, the instructions are mostly the same, but you'll be accessing the new System Settings menu, rather than the older System Preferences menu.