Magic Trackpad haptic feedback stopped working

TidBITS Talk
1

I have a Magic Trackpad which reports a version number of 1.9.2. I think I got it in 2017. Anyway, it suddenly stopped providing haptic feedback. I hadn’t used it for about three weeks, but otherwise nothing unusual happened. Haptics just quit. I have tried everything I can think of:

  • fiddle with all the settings under Trackpad
  • power off/on
  • forget device and re-pair
  • try on and off the charging cable
  • restart the Mac
  • try on two other Macs, one with a different version of macOS

There was an older thread on this, and I’ve searched elsewhere for a solution, but no joy. I have a strong feeling the answer is “it broke,” but I thought I’d make another appeal here in case someone has found the magic incantation to bring haptics back to my trackpad.

2

I bought a Magic Trackpad 2 back in 2018. About three years ago the haptic feedback stopped Tried all of the above plus whatever else was being incanted by various folks on the internet – to no avail.

Have continued using the Trackpad as all other functions continue to work fine… Every now and again the haptics magically resurrect themselves for a while then die again.

Does your trackpad otherwise work OK?

3

Jeff, that older post was from me. I ended up purchasing a replacement from OWC. It was from their used inventory. In short, I was never able to solve the problem. To make it even more annoying, I no longer have haptic feedback on the built-in trackpad on my 2021 M1 Pro MacBook Pro. Adam may have more insight on this topic, but it’s possible that Apple just lost interest in this technology?

Good luck!

4

I have no particular insight here, but it does sound like a hardware failure.

5

Yes. I’m trying to figure out which of the many operating modes offered I prefer in the absence of haptic feedback.

6

Unfortunately, they don’t have any at the moment. It’s $100 on Amazon. So far, not worth that to me just to restore haptics.

7

FWIW, after no haptics for two months, they suddenly came back (similar to what @Gobit reported). I can’t think of a single thing I did that might have caused this, and I fully expect them to disappear again at some point. Somehow strikes me as oddly random behavior for something I expect to be more deterministic, but…the mysteries of life, I guess.

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