Drag & Drop in Leopard

[burning_jonny]

Hello,
I have had this problem for a long as I have had Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. The problem is that drag & drop works intermittently for applications such as the Finder, iTunes, Fetch, etc.

My workaround for the Finder was to switch from list view to column view, but for programs like Fetch or iTunes, I cannot do that. Sometimes the solution is to relaunch the application, but this is not guaranteed.

I am running every latest update available (as of Nov. 18, 2008) for my system and software. I am currently on Mac OS X 10.5.5. The problem also affects more than one computer. These are the computers I've experienced it on:

20" iMac (aluminum) - 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM
Mac Pro - 2x2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon, 4GB 667MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
20" iMac G5 (ambient light sensor) - 2.0GHz PowerPC G5, 2GB RAM

I can't seem to find any real solution on the forums, so I was hoping you could help me workaround this annoying bug!

Thanks,
Jonny

 

[burning_jonny]

It looks like they couldn't help me with the problem, so maybe you folks can! Here's the rest of the thread:

Can you elaborate on the actual behaviors you're experiencing? In the Finder, what exactly are you doing in the graphical interface and what is happening (or not)? Finder and iTunes do respond differently to some kinds of drag depending on where you click.

- Ben

I have a Finder window open in list view. I select one or more documents, and try to click and drag. It does not drag, not to another Finder window, nor application. The only exception is if I switch to column view.

I have not found any reason as to why this happens sometimes and not always.

This is why I asked for more detail: in the Finder, in column view, I can drag one or more items by clicking anywhere in the column among the selected item(s); in list view, I have to click the icon, name, or other text associated with the item(s), as clicking the blank space between these text blocks is only useful for selecting one or more items by dragging up and down.

No, I am not clicking on the blank space. I am clicking on the text/icon. Like I mentioned, this problem is intermittent. I believe it's a bug in Leopard, as 3 different computers with 3 installations of Leopard (factory, upgrade, clean install) can't possibly be experiencing the same problem.

Found this reported on MacFixIt in June. First recommended solution is trashing Finder preferences file. Relaunch the Finder or log out/in and see if there's a change. Users reported the same issue with the problem spreading to other apps.

I've also found posts in the Apple forum regarding this issue:
http://discussions.apple.com/search....Go&q=drag+drop

Strange, huh? It never occurred to me in Tiger.

So, trashing preferences doesn't work?

I've done that, so now it's a "wait and see," since the problem is intermittent (which sucks). Though, I did trash the Finder preferences once before...

I also rebuilt the LaunchServices database, then got a kernel panic after logging back in again. Ugh.

Just in the process of repairing permissions.

I don't think I have a solution for you, Jonathan. I'm reopening your question for hopefully another tech to address.

Well, I'll see if anything I have done solves my problem. Chances are it won't, but thanks for trying to help.

Maybe I should just wait for Snow Leopard and it's Cocoa Finder? ...that sounds like a cereal.

So trashing preferences and rebuilding the LaunchServices database didn't work

 

[Focus5.6]

Hi! I dunno if you found the solution to your problem (its an old post, I know) But I have the same problem! What I found is that it happens when I use the exposé tool to view all windows, and select the one I need. If this happens, I solve it by using cmd+tab twice, going to the next app and back to the one I was befofe.. Is this what happens to you?

 

[LisaBakerDM]

I've been having this problem intermittently as well where I can't drag items in list view. It happens in programs such as Entourage as well. At the same the dock stops showing/hiding automatically, and sometimes I'll have problems with copy and paste.

I just had some success though. After reading some of the entries I started going through my system preferences and changing settings to see if it helped. I turned off "Enable access for assistive devices" under Universal Access and suddenly everything started working again! This is the first time I've been able to do this without dumping a bunch of prefs and restarting. Anyways I use QuicKeys which needs this setting on so I tried turning it back and and everything is still fine.

Yeah!!!

I'm not sure if this will work for anyone else, but I was very happy to find this.

 

[Satcomer]

I'm not sure if this will work for anyone else, but I was very happy to find this.

Thanks for reporting your find.

 

[LisaBakerDM]

Since my last post I've found there are actually two things I must do to stop these quirks.

I go into System Preferences

I open Logitech Control Center and move the setting on my mouse tracking a bit.

Then I toggle "Enable access for assistive devices" off and on.

This seems to get rid of all the dock, drag-in-list, and copy-paste quirks for me.

 

[Westerli]

I can confirm this important pointer. Thanks LBDM, saved my day

Short version: Dock hide/unhide by mouse-over was broken, drag drop in folder windows was broken.
FIX: If you have a logitech device and logitech control center(LCC) in sys prefs start up the LCC and check that the device is recognized ok.


Long version:After merging 2 Osx 10.5 laptops, drag and drop stopped working in folder windows while still working on desktop items, Also Dock hide/unhide by mouse over did not work.

I trashed dock related preferences - no help
I cycled the above suggested "enable access for assisitive devices" - no help
Started Logitech control center (one mouse) (when this started up the mouse was not immediately present, so I assume I forgot some file somewhere from my previous system that originally had the Logitech mouse) and as soon as the mouse was detected and configurable normal drag drop and Dock functionality was restored

 

[LisaBakerDM]

I know what a big pain those issues are. The big problem I had with the Logitech control center fix, is that I had to do it over and over. I have since found a simpler fix that I only had to do once... I unplugged my Logitech mouse and stopped using it. Since doing this I have not had a repeat of any of the previous challenges. I still need to shop for a new mouse with some more bells and whistles than my spare mouse has, but one thing for sure it won't be a Logitech mouse.