How to Fix Right-click Not Working on Mac Mouse/Trackpad

The right-click functionality on your Mac greatly smoothens and simplifies your workflow. But you've recently noticed that the context menu doesn't appear when you right-click on Mac with a mouse or tap two fingers on the trackpad.

You may be confused as to why the right-click is not working on Mac and are urgently seeking solutions. Well, this post exactly explains the reasons and offers workarounds to fix the right-click not working issue on Mac, be you use a Magic mouse, a third-party mouse like a Logitech mouse, or the trackpad.

Why is your Mac not letting you right-click?

The right-click not working on the Mac mouse or trackpad usually results from your System Preferences settings. Especially for users who haven't reset the mouse or trackpad settings.

Of course, system errors, mouse connections, or trackpad hardware problems are not ruled out to cause this trouble. If the system can't receive the command that the mouse or trackpad sends to it, nothing happens when you right-click on your Magic mouse or tap two fingers on your trackpad.

See why? Share it with your friends.

Right-click not working on the Mac mouse or trackpad, how to fix?

First, if you use a mouse, you need to check if not only the right-click functionality but the whole Apple mouse is not working. If it is, you need to check the mouse's connections. And if the whole MacBook trackpad is not working, right-click failure also happens consequently.

If only the right-click not working on your Mac mouse or trackpad, follow these solutions to make it back to normal.

Check the right-click settings

The quickest way to fix the right-click that's not working on your Mac is to check and reset the right-click settings for your mouse or trackpad.

Check and reset the Mac mouse settings:

Check and reset the trackpad settings:

Now, check if the problem goes away.

Restart Mac

If resetting your mouse and trackpad preferences doesn't solve the issue - right-click not working on Mac, you can try to restart your Mac. That's because restarting Mac can refresh all the functions on Mac and clear up some of the temporary errors in the system that cause the right-click's misbehaviors.

Change the way to invoke the right-click menu on Mac

There're a lot more ways to arouse the right-click functionality on Mac. So, if right-click is not working on the Mac mouse or two-finger right-click is not working on the Mac trackpad, you can try one of these methods instead:

Way 1: Select your target file or folder, and then press down the Control key on your keyboard and meanwhile single-click on the mouse or trackpad.

Way 2: Open System Preferences > Accessibility > Pointer Control > Alternate Control Methods. Tick the box next to Enable Mouse keys. Then, press Control + I or fn + Control + I shortcuts to right-click on Mac.

Reset SMC

SMC (System Management Controller) controls some hardware functions on Intel-based Macs, including power supply, battery charging, mouse, trackpad, thermal management, etc. When right-click is not working on a Mac trackpad or mouse, you can simply reset SMC on Intel-based Mac machines to make it perform normally.

To reset SMC on Intel-based Mac:

For an Apple Silicon Mac, there's no SMC, just turn your Mac off for about 30 seconds and then turn it on to get a similar effect to resetting SMC.

Update Mac

If right-click still not working on your Mac Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, or earlier, you can try to update your Mac to the latest minor update of your current version, or if you would like to, upgrade your Mac to the latest version. Usually, the system updates contain bug patches, software enhancements, and more.

Tell the above ways to fix right-click not working on Mac to more people.

Bonus: customize your right-click menu to improve work efficiency

The right-click functionality on Mac offers you a variety of options to simplify your operations on Mac, such as displaying the basic information of the select file, compressing a folder, sharing files, etc.

But the limited options on the right-click menu lag your work efficiency, especially for someone who used to be familiar with Windows or takes Mac machines as the main work tools. So, customizing your right-click menu with a right-click enhancer is necessary and will accelerate your workflow and save much time.

Here, iBoysoft MagicMenu is strongly recommended. This advanced right-click enhancer can help you add types of shortcuts to the right-click context menu, including new file creation, target file's quick access, file transfer, app uninstalling, image conversion, screen recording, etc.

To use these neat functions on your right-click menu on Mac, simply free download, install and launch iBoysoft MagicMenu to your Mac. Then, click on the Extension tab on the app's main interface and check if the options you want to use are enabled.

Go share with your friends how to customize right-click context menu.

Final words

Whether the two-finger right-click is not working on your Mac trackpad or your Apple or Logitech mouse right-click is not working on your Mac, you can try the simple tricks mentioned in this article to fix this glitch and enable the right-click menu to show up again. Among the solutions, resetting right-click system preferences on Mac is always the quickest solution.