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Trackpad secondary click opens spotlight

With macOS Big Sur 11.4 I have a problem: Secondary click with trackpad brings up Spotlight instead of the usual contextual menu. Rather distracting and inefficient working result. Thank you for a fix!

Posted on Jun 17, 2021 12:02 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 17, 2021 1:57 AM

Did this just started with 11.4?

How are you doing a secondary click: click with two fingers, control-click, click on a designated area of the trackpad?

Does it do the same thing, either way?


I am not aware of a programmatic way to choose this kind of behavior.


Please test to see if the same happens while booted in Safe Mode.

Also test while booted normally and logged in to a new user account. Same problem?

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 17, 2021 1:57 AM in response to emargherita

Did this just started with 11.4?

How are you doing a secondary click: click with two fingers, control-click, click on a designated area of the trackpad?

Does it do the same thing, either way?


I am not aware of a programmatic way to choose this kind of behavior.


Please test to see if the same happens while booted in Safe Mode.

Also test while booted normally and logged in to a new user account. Same problem?

Jun 17, 2021 11:58 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thank you! If I hold the control, or a few other keys (but not the letters) the usual contextual menus comes back! I used to tap with two fingers, anywhere on the trackpad.


First it happened after a restart, I had 11.4 before without this problem. Actually, I made a restart because the mouse (with cord) did not work. But now I figured out that the mouse got blocked (hardware problem). Having now solved this, and reset the functions of the mouse - surprise: the tap with two fingers, anywhere on the trackpad went back to normal. I can only guess, that there might be some hidden connection between the trackpad and mouse setting.


Summary: all fine and thank you for the alternative of secondary clicking with control key pressed down.

Trackpad secondary click opens spotlight

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