Hello. On 2 M1 2020 Macs, Mini and MBPro 13", both 16 Gb, 1 TB models, I am having badly jumping and “overshooting” trackpad activity.
I am using both first gen Magic Trackpad and 2 Magic Trackpad 2’s; I bought the second Magic Trackpad 2 because I didn’t fully think through that I had already seen issues on both versions of the trackpad. This is across apps, not specific to any particular software.
Assuming this is not my bad (pretty sure not) and that Apple fixes it, I’ll be glad to have the second one anyway but in the meantime the behavior is really unpleasant.
I haven’t yet checked with MBPro built-in trackpad as I almost always use with external keyboard and trackpad. Bluetooth weirdness?
Years ago, I had similar problems with a tower Power Mac. It turned out that RSSi (a measure of connectivity) was low for my Bluetooth devices. At the time, there were options in the Bluetooth System Preference to check the RSSI. Unfortunately, that option seems to have been removed from Monterey.
As a side note, I fixed the problem by putting a sheet of aluminum foil against the wall behind the computer. That was sufficient to amplify the signal to my desktop.
Thanks, Alan. I am not sure that this is necessarily what I consider to be a classical “Bluetooth connectivity/signal strength” issue. My ignorance is profound but I think the signal is plenty strong.
In fact, you can check the RSSI values by option clicking the Bluetooth menu in the menu bar. Now I just have to study up on RSSI!
A bit 'o research bears out that my signal as represented by RSSI (option click bt symbol in menu bar): -56 dBm, is plenty strong, so the jumpy, insanely annoying cursor when using the Magic Trackpads is some other cause; per Metageek, I’m between Amazing and Very Good:
-30 dBm Amazing. Max achievable signal strength. The client can only be a few feet from the AP to achieve this. Not typical or desirable in the real world.
-67 dBm Very Good. Minimum signal strength for applications that require very reliable, timely delivery of data packets.
I did not initially see the RSSI information for my devices. However, after looking at some discussion on Reedit, I removed my devices from Bluetooth (control-click on the device in Bluetooth preferences to expose the option) and then had each device recognized and paired. Now an RSSI line appeared for the devices.
However, I noticed that the RSSI was constant, even when I moved the device into another room about 10 feet asay. That seemed strange, so I went through the removal-pair sequence again with the device in the other room. The RSSI was now shown as much weaker and did not change when I moved the device to its former position in front of my iMac.
So, it appears that the RSSI reported is a static number set when the device is first recognized.
I recommend you check your RSSI again by removing the trackpad from your Bluetooth device list and then have it recognized and paired again when it is sitting in its usual position. This is easiest to do if you temporarily have another pointing device connected.
Note; I’m using the term devices because I have a Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse as part of my system (even though I hardly use the mouse, it’s convenient to have for some activities). The various procedures were first done with the mouse and then confirmed with the trackpad.