Dragging with MBP trackpad

Hardware
1

I just switched from iMac to MBP with force touch trackpad. I normally use a mouse with the MBP but on occasion I have to use the trackpad, and have found difficulty when trying to drag selections of icons.
I select the icons, press down hard on the trackpad and get a force touch which cancels the drag operation. I realize I can practice the different levels of pressure required and set force touch to firm rather than medium (I tried that and and found I liked medium best). I never learned to use tap on a trackpad, and usually disable that feature on Mac and Windows.
However, researching this online I found an option to enable 3 finger dragging which seems to be no longer available in Mojave. Is this really gone or is there a way to enable it? Does anyone have any other suggestions?

2

Three finger dragging still works; the setting is un the Accessibility section of System Preferences. That confused me at first too.

3

Thanks! Apparently itā€™s been there since Lion but I have never had to use it before. Iā€™ll see how three finger drag works.

1 Like
4

I recently switched to a new MacBook Air. I tried the 3 finger drag for a while, but I personally found it clumsy for anything beyond a short distance.

I switched it back to a 1 finger behavior ā€˜without drag lockā€™.

https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204609

5

Thanks! Tried it but I press too hard, Force Touch opens one of the icons and the selection drops. Too many years of keeping an iron grip on the track pad with one finger while I drag with another finger on the same hand or the other hand for longer distances. Itā€™s easier to learn something new than unlearn.

6

If it helps, I recently taught my 11-year-old to drag from one Finder window to another and she had trouble pressing with the right amount of force to avoid triggering the preview. I also found it interesting that I lacked the vocabulary to precisely describe how to deal with Force Touch on the trackpad. Itā€™s useful but not intuitive.

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7

I think I am lucky as Iā€™ve been using ā€˜Tap to clickā€™ since my first plastic Macbook. I actually donā€™t use the physical click or Force Touch aspect at all.

2 Likes
8

Another option - Copy and Paste. But thereā€™s no Cut, so you canā€™t use this to move files. Hate to say Windows is better in any way, but thereā€™s a Cut for files that when followed by Paste results in a move.

9

There is a weird workaround cut for files ā€” cmd+opt+v to paste a copied file will move it instead of copying it. I donā€™t think there is any way to do this without the keyboard shortcut.

3 Likes
11

I donā€™t even bother with clicking my trackpads (I use trackpads when my MBP is ā€œdockedā€ at work and at home) and have enabled the tap to click feature.