Latest macOS 12.1 Beta Appears to Fix Intermittent 'Tap to Click' Issue

Wednesday December 1, 2021 2:11 pm PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of macOS Monterey 12.1 to developers for testing, and while the much-anticipated Universal Control feature is still not enabled, the latest beta does appear to resolve an issue with the "Tap to Click" trackpad gesture.

macos monterey trackpad system preferences
Since the release of macOS Monterey earlier this year, some users have reported that the "Tap to Click" trackpad gesture would intermittently fail to work. The issue appears to have affected a variety of Macs, ranging from the M1 MacBook Air with a built-in trackpad to an Intel-based iMac paired with a standalone Magic Trackpad.

Following the release of the fourth macOS 12.1 beta today, several users across the MacRumors Forums and Reddit have indicated that they are no longer experiencing issues with "Tap to Click" after updating to this version.

"Tap to Click" can be enabled in System Preferences under Trackpad > Point & Click, allowing users to tap with one finger to click.

macOS 12.1 should be publicly released before the end of the year, with a key new feature being SharePlay, which will allow users to watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, and share their screen with friends and family on FaceTime calls. SharePlay is already available on iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1, and tvOS 15.1.

Related Forum: macOS Monterey

Popular Stories

Here's When iOS 27 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone [Update: It's Out]

Sunday September 13, 2026 3:00 am PDT by Eric Slivka

Update 10:04 a.m.: iOS 27 is rolling out now, though it may take a bit for all users to see it, so keep checking! Apple is about to release iOS 27, which will finally deliver more advanced Siri AI capabilities as well as a variety of other refinements, improvements, and new features to iPhones. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at Wednesday's iPhone event...

• 151 comments

iOS 27 Available Now With These 8 New Features

Monday September 14, 2026 9:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Update — 10 a.m. Pacific Time: Apple has released iOS 27. During its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event last week, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released widely on Monday, September 14. iOS 27 should be available around 10 a.m. Pacific Time / 1 p.m. Eastern Time today via the Settings app, under General → Software Update. Below, we have highlighted eight new features and...

• 111 comments

iCloud+ Now Includes Apple TV, Apple Arcade, and Curated Apple Music Stations in Over 100 Countries

Tuesday September 15, 2026 1:43 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

Apple today announced a new subscription initiative that turns paid iCloud+ subscriptions into a broader services bundle in more than 100 countries. In select countries, Apple says every paid iCloud+ plan, including the cheapest 50GB tier, now includes Apple TV and Apple Arcade "at no additional cost," while family sharing extends the storage, TV and Arcade access to up to five people....

• 103 comments

Top Rated Comments

Westside guy

63 months ago

tap-to-click, the feature for the people that like accidental input.

I've been using it for roughly two decades - accidental clicks have never been an issue.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

8CoreWhore

63 months ago

Finally...

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

ramallite

63 months ago

To be clear, the "tap to click" problem appeared to have been part of a wider problem with the trackpad. Below is the report I sent to Apple last week. I haven't downloaded the latest beta yet, but I hope it fixes all the problems I described below, not just tap-to-click.

--

• Tap to click with one finger: erratic, sometimes need to tap 2-3 attempts for the tap to register.

• Scrolling up or down with two fingers: Seems to be fine.

• Swipe between full-screen apps with four fingers: When swiping to the *right*, it frequently swipes to the *left* screen instead, or starts to swipe to the right but suddenly bounces back to the original screen. When swiping *left*, however, it acts correctly every time. This indicates that swiping to the left with 4 fingers is correct, but swiping to the right sometimes registers as swiping to the left.

• When swiping down with 4 fingers for App Exposé, it frequently bounces back to desktop mid-way through the action. When swiping *up* with 4 fingers for Mission Control, it often takes 2-3 tries to reverse back to the desktop. This indicates that swiping *up* with 4 fingers seems to register correctly, but swiping *down* with 4 fingers actually registers as a swipe *up* some of the time.

• Pinch with thumb and three fingers for Launchpad: Will often end with Mission Control instead (again, incorrectly registering as a 4-finger swipe *up*).

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)