Touchpad Test

This touchpad test shows everything a laptop touchpad or Mac trackpad sends to your browser: taps, clicks, right clicks, double clicks and drags, two finger scrolling in four directions, and pinch zoom. Each gesture lights up in the checklist as it arrives, the scroll readouts show whether scrolling glides or moves in steps, cursor jumps are counted, and a palm check counts stray clicks and pointer moves while you type. It works on Windows laptops from HP, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS and Acer, on MacBooks and Chromebooks, and with a Magic Trackpad or an iPad trackpad, so it doubles as a trackpad test on Apple devices.

How to test your touchpad

1. Move the pointer onto the pad. The page stops scrolling while the pointer is over it, so scroll gestures go to the test.
2. Tap once, then press down to click. Tap with two fingers, then press the bottom right corner. Each one lights its item.
3. Double tap, then click and drag across the pad.
4. Put two fingers on the touchpad and scroll up, down, left and right. The arrow shows the direction, and the tick marks along the edges slide with the scroll.
5. Pinch two fingers together, then spread them apart. The square in the middle zooms with them.
6. Press Check scroll direction and swipe two fingers up the touchpad.
7. Click in the palm check box and type the sentence with your hands resting where they normally do.
8. Press Copy results to keep a report for a repair shop or warranty claim.

What the results mean

Middle click lights only if your touchpad has a middle button, or if three finger tap is set to middle mouse button on Windows. Force click needs Safari on a Mac with a Force Touch trackpad.

The touchpad does not respond at all

If nothing on the pad reacts, the touchpad is off or Windows has no driver for it.

1. A touchpad key. Many laptops have a key with a touchpad icon in the F row, used with or without Fn. Lenovo IdeaPads often use F6. On many HP laptops, double tap the top left corner of the touchpad, where a small light shows when it is off.
2. Windows settings. Open Settings, then Bluetooth & devices, then Touchpad, and turn Touchpad on. Expand it and tick Leave touchpad on when a mouse is connected if a mouse or receiver is plugged in.
3. Drivers. Restart, then install the touchpad and chipset drivers from your laptop maker. After a clean Windows install, many touchpads stay dead until the maker's Serial IO or I2C driver is installed.
4. BIOS. ThinkPads have a Trackpad setting under Config, then Keyboard/Mouse, and other makers have similar switches.
5. Mac. In System Settings, then Accessibility, then Pointer Control, turn off Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present.

The touchpad not working guide walks through each fix for Windows 11, Windows 10, Mac and Chromebook.

Two finger scrolling or pinch zoom does not work

When the pointer moves but no scroll or pinch arrives, the gesture is switched off or the touchpad runs as a basic mouse.

• Windows 11: under Touchpad, open Scroll & zoom and tick Drag two fingers to scroll and Pinch to zoom. If the Scroll & zoom section is missing, Windows is not using the touchpad as a precision touchpad. Install the touchpad driver from your laptop maker's support site.
• Mac: open System Settings, then Trackpad, then Scroll & Zoom, and turn on Zoom in or out. If two finger scrolling does nothing, turn on Use trackpad for scrolling in Accessibility, then Pointer Control, then Trackpad Options.
• Chromebook: check the touchpad options in Settings, then Device.

Scrolling moves in steps or feels jumpy

If Scroll style says Stepped, your touchpad sends scrolling as mouse wheel steps of 100 px or so instead of smooth movement. Some older Synaptics and ELAN drivers do this. Install the newest touchpad driver from your laptop maker, and check whether the laptop supports precision touchpad drivers. If scrolling is smooth here but jumpy in one app, the app is the problem. For a mouse wheel, use the mouse wheel test instead.

Tap to click or right click does not work

• Windows 11: under Touchpad, open Taps and tick Tap with a single finger to single-click, Tap with two fingers to right-click and Press the lower right corner of the touchpad to right-click.
• Mac: Tap to click is off on a new Mac. Turn it on in Trackpad settings under Point & Click, where Secondary click sets how right click works.
• Physical buttons: if pressing the pad or its buttons does nothing while taps work, the click switch is worn or blocked by dirt. The double click test shows whether one press registers twice.

The cursor jumps or moves on its own

Any count in Cursor jumps, or a pointer that drifts when nobody touches the pad, has one of these causes:

1. A palm or thumb on the pad. Lower the touchpad sensitivity in Windows, under Touchpad, then Taps.
2. Moisture or grease. Clean the touchpad with a slightly damp cloth and dry it.
3. The charger. Electrical noise makes touchpads jump while charging. Try the laptop on battery, and use a grounded plug.
4. Another pointing device. A wireless mouse with a dying battery or a drawing tablet left on the desk can move the pointer. Unplug them and test again.
5. A swollen battery. In thin laptops and MacBooks the battery sits under the touchpad. If the pad bulges, clicks by itself or stops clicking, stop using the laptop and have the battery checked.

Clicks happen while you type

The palm check counts pointer moves, clicks and scrolls that arrive while you type and keep typing. Any count there means your palm brushes the touchpad. On Windows, set Touchpad sensitivity under Taps to Medium or Low. On a Mac, turn off Tap to click if stray taps continue. If the keys themselves misbehave, run the laptop keyboard tester.

MacBook trackpads

MacBook Pro models since 2015 and MacBook Air models since 2018 have Force Touch trackpads that do not move when you click: the click you feel is a vibration, so the trackpad feels dead when the Mac is off. Set how firm a click must be under Trackpad, then Point & Click, then Click. In Safari, this test reads Force Touch pressure and shows it under Zoom while you press.

What a browser cannot see on a touchpad

A web page receives pointer movement, clicks and scrolling, never the touches themselves. It cannot see where your fingers sit on the pad, how many fingers you use, or three and four finger swipes and edge swipes, which Windows and macOS keep. It cannot tell a tap from a click, apart from Force Touch pressure in Safari. To test a mouse instead, use the mouse button test, and for a laptop's touch screen, the touch screen test. Touch screens do pass each finger to the browser, so the multi touch test can count them.

Touchpad test questions