My macbook's trackpad has now got a stupid mind of its own. It's been moving the cursor and scrolling and zooming randomly on its own since morning. I suspect moisture. Have opened it and kept it in the sunlight. Let's see. Any other suggestions, anyone?

Did you try turning it off and on again?

The battery doesn't seem swollen at all. Keeping in sunlight fixed it to an extent - the cursor isn't jumping and clicking on its own now. Phew. But only half the trackpad is working now. The right half is unresponsive.

@Codex404 Windows user alert! :D

@kpenc
>Implying rebooting doesn't work for macOS
>Implying rebooting doesn't work for Linux
>Implying rebooting doesn't work for freaking hardware problems that don't have an OS

Why are you like this?

Haha
Btw I'll still get my battery checked once, @cyonce thanks

Everybody always brags about the build quality of Apple computers, yet I keep seeing posts like this pop-up. My cheap ass DELL laptop from 2013 has been torturted through and through (fell down the stairs, thrown while in my backpack, dropped a few times from more than a meter's height, etc.) and still works like new.

Something that still fascinates me is that you do not actually click on the newer MBP it's a vibration that simulates the click

Definitely gremlins

@Marlo with a macbook, the trackpad clicks you!

Download the app BetterTouchTools. It has a graphic in which you can see visually the tracking sensors and maybe have a better grasp of what is happening. This happened with me too, but in my case the battery was starting to get swollen. Maybe yours too and you just can't see it yet. It starts to swell very slowly.

How old is your MacBook and how many cycles does the battery have?

@rubslopes yeah you're right I better get my battery checked.
My laptop is almost 6 years old. And how many cycles? I don't know, what it is :/ the battery backup is not as awesome as earlier, but it's still good..

@dannydam And what you don't see is 99% of people who don't have any problems and don't feel obliged to tell everyone about it. And not everybody complains about apple computers.

@Numinex What I see is that most complaints are about Apple computers. I've personally never had an issue with Dell or Lenovo, which cost 10x less.

@dannydam I just re-read your comment. And I realized I got it completely wrong. Sorry dude, I'm tired. Completely agree with you.

@dannydam every Windows (actually Dell and Lenovo specifically) laptop I’ve owned has choked within 2-3 years of my purchase.. my Mac has had no problems for the past 3 years, and my dad has had a MBP since 2009 and it just this year started experiencing issues.... idk man

Alcohol I guess, butter might help

@dannydam I will co time to brag about my MacBook. However every product ages over time, as the OP mentioned, her laptop is 6 years old.

I've never had any issue with my 2014 MacBook air, or 2016 Macbook Pro. But who knows? I might experience probems in the near future?

@AngryDev Seems like you were particularly unlucky as you're the first person I know of who has experienced such issues with Dell and Lenovo laptops. Those things tend to be built like a tank (the worst thing that happened when my laptop fell was that the hdd disconnected, fixing it was as easy as opening the plastic cover of the laptop and inserting the hdd back in). To put things into comparison, my Mum's Mac Mini 2012 started overheating immediately after being plugged into a 1080p screen (as opposed to a 1280x1024 screen it previously had been connected to), that's a computer with an Intel HD 4000 iGPU and a quad core i7 CPU. In the meantime not only did my DELL remain cool while plugged into a 1080p screen it also remained cool while gaming in 1080p (and I actually don't ever remember the laptop overheating, no matter what task was thrown at it), the laptop also has an Intel HD 4000 iGPU but it has a dual core i5.

You could try reseting the smc and pram (intel based) or nvram on older macs. However it does sound like its due to moisture or battery swelling. Also you shpuld fix it before it spreads to keyboard. I had a simmilar problem and fixing that shit aint cheap. -.-

Also new MBP have a lot of problems with trackpad and keyboard. Guess Apple started giving less shit about quality .

Sure you haven't connected a Bluetooth trackpad/mouse where a cat is sitting on it? Happens to me all the time

It's haunted.
Or may be your macbook is just like my code. Everyone else's does what they tell it to, mine's a rebel.

Old joke, I know.