macbook

Some Mac users may find that if they connect an external mouse or trackpad to their MacBook or MacBook Pro, the internal built-in trackpad then no longer works. This may appear like a bug, and some users may think it’s a hardware problem, but the good news is that the inability to use both a mouse and trackpad at the same time on a Mac almost always has a simple software solution.

This walkthrough will quickly show you how to fix this issue and get a MacBook Pro or MacBook able to work with both the built-in trackpad as well as an external mouse or external trackpad.

How to Fix Inability to Use MacBook Trackpad & Mouse at the Same Time

This applies to all MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air hardware that is also using an external tracking device, whether it’s a mouse or trackpad, USB or Bluetooth. Here’s how you can resolve this issue:

1. Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”
2. Choose “Accessibility”
3. Select “Mouse & Trackpad” from the accessibility sidebar options
4. Uncheck the box next to “Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present”

Now go ahead and try using both the external mouse or trackpad and the internal trackpad together again, it should work just fine as expected. If you had previously disconnected the external tracking device, go ahead and reconnect it again.

You should not need to reboot the Mac for any change to take effect.

If for whatever reason the MacBook is still unable to use both tracking devices at the same time, you may need to go further to troubleshoot Mac mouse and trackpad issues, often it’s an issue with battery life of an external device, a USB port or cable, crud jammed into the optical lens or accumulated on a tracking surface, or some odd preference issue where removing the relevant plist files can resolve the difficulty.

Many Mac users enable this setting if they have cats or kids, or if they find themselves in another situation where the built-in trackpad on a Mac is frequently being touched or bumped against while they’re trying to work with an external pointing device. But of course if you forgot to disable it, or if you didn’t realize it was enabled in the first place, you may lead to the conclusion that there is some problem with the Mac, the trackpad, or the mouse, when in reality it’s simply a software setting to avoid unintentional tracking motions and input.

This is a setting that is only relevant to Macs with built-in trackpads, meaning the laptop line including the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook. If you’re having issues using two different pointing devices on a desktop Mac like an iMac, Mac Mini, or Mac Pro, it’s more likely to be related to an incompatibility between devices, some conflict in software, or perhaps a hardware issue.

Mouse and Trackpads have been around for so long you could imagine they may be completely trouble-free by now, but like all technology there is always some potential for quirks. Some of the more common issues with mouse and trackpads are an inability to click, single-clicks registering as double-clicks, Bluetooth devices repeatedly disconnecting, or other weird behavior, most of which is easily troubleshooted through steps detailed in each article.

Related

The Mac startup boot chime has been around for decades, and is one of the most notable features defining a booting Mac.

Nonetheless, the latest MacBook Pro and iMac models (from late 2016 onward) are quiet and no startup boot sound, meaning the Mac boots up completely silently instead of making the traditional chime sound when the Mac starts up.

A lot of Mac users have wondered why there Mac is not making the startup boot sound anymore, and the next question is if it’s possible to return the startup boot chime to the new Mac hardware.

New Macs do not have a startup chime sound effect

Mac models dating before late 2016 will have the startup sound effect and familiar chime. Mac models built after late 2016 do not have this sound effect on boot, except for the 2017 MacBook Air. This information comes directly from Apple Support:

Mac models from early 2016 and earlier make a chime sound when they start up. Mac models from late 2016 and later don’t have a startup chime.* …. *The only exception is MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017), which does have a startup chime.

So if you have a new Mac and it’s not making a startup sound, that is why. It doesn’t have a startup sound effect.

Older Mac models do have the startup sound chime sound, and older Mac models can both disable and enable the startup chime.

Can you re-enable the startup boot chime sound effect on new iMac and MacBook Pro?

If you have a new Mac model that has arrived from the factory and does not have the boot sound, the answer is (currently) no. Of course this leads people to the obvious question, “can I enable a startup chime sound on the new iMac or macBook Pro?” but, currently, there is no proven or effective way of doing so.

One theory promoted online and originating from some web forums was that you could re-enable the Mac startup chime sound effect by turning to the command line. The claim was that by launching Terminal app and entering the following command syntax:

sudo nvram BootAudio=%01

Supposedly, after executing that properly, the startup chime would be enabled on the Mac again.

But it turns out that nobody bothered to actually test this out, because it does not work.

Go ahead and try it yourself. You can execute that command on a new silently booting Mac, but it will not actually re-enable the startup boot chime sound effect on a Mac which does not support the startup chime sound.

There’s also various claims that resetting the NVRAM on the Mac would somehow re-enable the startup boot sound, but that’s also not the case on the newer Mac models which do not have the startup sound chime.

So why did that command surface online and the claim spread? Presumably it originated from the idea of basically reversing the standard process of disabling the Mac boot chime using a similar nvram command, which, unlike newer Macs, is possible on older Mac models from before late 2016.

The ability to toggle the system startup sound on and off is not new, in fact you’ve been able to use the nvram command to disable the boot chime on Macs for years, and you can also temporarily mute the boot sound with a keypress, it’s just the late-2016 onward Mac hardware that has opted to disable the boot sound effect chime.

Whether or not you like the boot chime on start likely depends on personal preference, though many longtime Mac users enjoy the sound effect, while some users find it to be unnecessary. It’s possible that a method of re-enabling the startup chime will arrive sometime, but at the moment it’s not possible, and currently all new Macs do not have the sound effect on boot. And that’s why your new iMac or MacBook Pro is not making any sound effect on boot!

Have any questions, thoughts, or tips about the startup chime on Macs? Let us know in the comments!

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If you own multiple Apple devices, you’ve probably signed into all of them with your Apple ID. You’ve also probably noticed that when you get a Facetime call your computer rings, or when you get an iMessage your iPad beeps. For most of us, this is a small annoyance worth fixing. For others, it’s a potential privacy nightmare.

Case in point, the lurid tale of now-former Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, whose goofy love poetry iMessage thread with his former political advisor and mistress accidentally synced up with his state-issued iPad that he also happened to share with his wife. Whoops.

Chances are, most of us want to keep access to iMessages on just our phones and maybe a laptop, and we don’t need it on every Apple device we own. Here’s how to audit where you’re signed on and prevent something like this from happening to you.

See All the Devices You’re Signed Into

First things first, lets give your Apple ID a little audit to see every device you’re signed in on.

1. Head to your Apple ID page and log in.
2. Scroll down to the Devices section and take a look at where you’re logged in.
3. If there’s a weird or old device here, click on it, then select Remove to log out.

Now, you should know exactly what devices you own that are still linked up to you Apple account.

Turn Off iMessage On Extra Devices

You probably do not want to log out of you Apple ID entirely on every device. Good news though, you can turn off just Messages (and Facetime, while you’re at it).

How you do so depends on which device you’re on:

On iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

If you don’t want iMessages showing up on an iPad or on an old iPhone, it’s easy to disable:

1. Open up Settings > Messages.
2. Set the iMessage toggle to off.
3. You may also want to disable Text Message Forwarding, which sends regular non-iMessage SMS messages from your phone to Messages on your Mac or iPad. Tap the Text Message Forwarding option, then uncheck any devices you do not want SMS messages to go to.

On a Mac

If you don’t want iMessages showing up on your Mac, you just need to log out:

1. Open up Messages.
2. Click Messages > Preferences, then select the Accounts tab.
3. Select your iMessage account, then click the Sign Out button.
4. To log out of Facetime, open Facetime, then head to Facetime > Preferences, then click Sign Out.

Now, your messages won’t sync up anywhere you don’t want them to.

Share Your Purchases Without Sharing Your Private Data

There’s a chance that one reason you might be signed into your Apple ID on multiple devices is because your family doesn’t want to purchase the same apps, music, or movies multiple times. Well, in that case, you’re doing things wrong. Don’t share your account with your family; set up Family Sharing so you can both have individual accounts.

With Family Sharing, you can share each other’s iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases without actually sharing accounts. This means your phone calls, iMessage conversations, Safari browsing history, photos, and everything else that’s linked to your Apple ID remains yours and yours alone. With Family Sharing, one person is the family organizer who sets it all up. That organizer adds other users to the account, then confirms any purchases someone else in the group tries to make. Theoretically, you could also do this with your personal account and a work account, which would help keep private data private.

Again, set up here depends on which devices you have:

On an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

1. Go to Settings and tap your Apple ID.
2. Tap Set Up Family Sharing, then tap Get Started.
3. Tap Continue to agree to being the Family Organizer, then follow the rest of the instructions to add additional members to your family group.

From here on out, you can manage, remove, or add new family members by heading to Settings > iCloud > Family.

On a Mac

1. Open up System Preferences.
2. Click iCloud.
3. Click the Set Up Family button, then follow the rest of the instructions to add additional members to your family group.

You can now manage, remove, or add family members by heading to System Preferences > iCloud > Manage Family.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

Finally, the last thing you’ll want to do is enable two-factor authentication if you haven’t already. This not only secures your Apple ID and every device connected to it, it also prevents you from doing anything on accident in the future because it requires a few extra steps to sign in. With two-factor authentication, when you sign into a device for the first time, you need to authorize it with a verification code sent to another, trusted device.

For example, if you get a new MacBook, you can’t sign into your Apple ID on that MacBook until Apple sends a code to your iPhone. Yet again, set up depends on which device you’re on. This might sound cumbersome, but Apple’s implementation is less annoying than other options, and the security is well worth it.

On an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

1. Open Settings, then tap your Apple ID.
2. Tap Password & Security.
3. Tap Turn on Two-Factor Authentication, then follow the directions on screen to finish the set up process.

On a Mac

1. Head to System Preferences > iCloud > Account Details.
2. Click the Security tab.
3. Click Turn on Two-Factor Authentication and follow the directions on screen to finish the set up process.

Now, your Apple ID is not only secure, it’s also much less likely you’ll accidentally sign into a device without realizing the repercussions of doing so.

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Beyond all that, one final thing: do not link your personal accounts to your company-issued devices, especially if you work for the state. It’s not only bad form, it’s also a privacy nightmare. Besides the fact that you may potentially look like a dummy when someone in your IT department figures it out, most company-issued devices grant access to everything you do on that device to your company. Which is to say, if you send an idiotic, racist, scandalous, or whatever other stupid message to a friend on that device, your company might just happen upon it.

If you connect a Mac to an external monitor using HDMI or DisplayPort, you’ll often lose the volume controls on your keyboard. Depending on how you use your Mac, this can be kind of annoying. Here’s a weird workaround.

When you connect a MacBook or whatever other model of Mac to a display with an HDMI or DisplayPort, macOS has the reasonable expectation that you want to control the volume from that external device. This makes a lot of sense if you’re connecting a Mac to a TV or a projector, because you probably want to control the volume using that remote. It makes a little less sense on desktop monitor. There’s a real weird workaround to regain control of the volume from the keyboard:

1. Download and install SoundFlower.
2. Download and install SoundflowerBed. This is old software that hasn’t been updated for a long time, but it’s the only solution I’ve found that works.
3. Click the SoundflowerBed icon in the menubar and select either DisplayPort or HDMI as you output.
4. Click the speaker icon in the menubar and select Soundflower. You can also go to System Preferences > Sound and choose Soundflower as the output device.

That’s it, you should now be able to control your sound volume from your keyboard’s media keys again. There’s another method of doing this using the Audio MIDI Setup tool, but I was never able to get that working properly. Even though it’s incredibly old SoundflowerBed worked for me, though it occasionally decides to prevent my computer from sleeping for some bizarre reason. Regardless, at least I don’t have to reach 12 inches to change the volume on my speakers anymore.