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General discussion

Icons will drag, but won't drop

Apr 23, 2010 2:11PM PDT

Hi, need some help.

Somehow I can't drag and drop files/programs/icons any more. Not on my desktop, not within my dock. When I click on an icon to drag, it will stick to my mouse pointer, but only as a ghost. When I try to release it, it won't drop to the designated area or folder. The icon just keeps sticking to my mouse pointer, where ever I take it. Only after using esc and clicking, I can get rid of the ghost, but the icon will stay at it's previous position.

I using Mac OS X 10.6.2
iMac
iMac8,1
Intel Core 2 Duo
3,06 GHz

Can anyone help. Thanks Steven

Discussion is locked

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Just my thoughts
Apr 23, 2010 2:46PM PDT

You can drop any application on the left-hand side of the dock divider and any folders on the right-hand side of the dock divider. You can only drop individual files inside a folder that's already on/in the dock. You can't drop an individual file on the dock as a stand alone icon. How many apps do you have on your dock? If you have a lot of apps on/in your dock (where your whole dock is filling your entire screen and the app icons are tiny), maybe there's a limit to how many items you can put on/in the dock at this point. I don't know why you are having this problem. If the information I just gave you didn't help to clear things up for you, I suggest you call Apple so they can help you with this problem. Keep scouring the net; I'm sure there's bound to be a solution to this problem.

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Appreciate your thoughts
Apr 23, 2010 2:59PM PDT

...however...just found out the problem goes a bit further. Even in Photoshop (so probably in any program where dragging with your mous is in order) the same problem occurs when I simply drag a selection within a photo. It sticks to the mouse pointer, but it won't let go. Had to force quit.

Any other thoughtsWink

Thanks. Steven

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Tweaking Mouse Settings?
Apr 23, 2010 3:25PM PDT

Try checking out your mouse settings inside system preferences. Maybe you need to tweak your mouse settings.

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Tweaking mouse setting
Apr 23, 2010 8:59PM PDT

Nope...nothing to tweak there. I'll guess I'll follow your advise and check with Apple

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Try this:
Apr 23, 2010 11:10PM PDT

go to your Library.

That's the one that is inside your username folder, NOT the one at the root of the hard drive.

Go to Preferences and find the mouse preferences.

In my version of 10.6.x there are two of them. One for the Magic Mouse and the other for the original, wired, Mighty Mouse.

com.app.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist
and
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse.plist.

Drag whichever one you have, or both, onto the desktop.
Reboot.
If you have the Bluetooth Magic Mouse, you may need to do the Pairing thing again.

See if that makes any difference.

If no difference, try removing the Finder preferences, com.apple.finder.plist , using the same procedure as above.

At the reboot, a new Preferences plist will be created.


P

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RE: Try this
Apr 24, 2010 4:09PM PDT

Thanks, didn't work though. So I changed the mouse. Seems like the problem is solvedWink

Thanks for your efforts!

Steven

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Solution that worked for me
Apr 10, 2012 6:02AM PDT

I was experiencing the same problem. I could click on an icon, drag it, but could not drop it.

Recently I had updated my Air Display application so I uninstalled it and ran my Disk Utility's "Repair Disk Permissions". 1 of these 2 things resolved this issue.

I hope this helps

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AirDisplay is the problem!
May 3, 2012 10:29AM PDT

WebSlinger is correct. Had the same issue, as soon as i uninstalled AirDisplay, dragging issue disappeared!!

Thanks!

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Under Lion, 10.7.4 this still occurs
May 21, 2012 3:17AM PDT

This post was again handy. Under Lion 10.7.4 the case of a 'sticky mouse' still occurs. Again, I fixed via disk repair.

The easiest way to fix is to reboot and hold the shift key. This makes your Mac book into 'Safe Mode' but not before fixing the disk at a low level (as if you fixed by booting from the DVD and not the hard disk).

Once you have booted up, you will be at your desktop but in safe mode. (under Lion, it shows "Safe Mode" up by the clock in the upper right hand menu bar area). At this point, simply reboot normally and you should have your sticky mouse (flypaper mouse, scotch tape mouse, superglue mouse, stickum mouse) unstuck.