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Gestures stopped working after a macOS update: what to check

· 7 min read

When a gesture app stops responding after a macOS update, the cause is often one of three things: its Accessibility permission needs switching on again, the app needs a newer version for the new macOS, or macOS is now answering the same gesture itself. Check those three in that order before anything else; none of them needs more than a visit to System Settings or the developer’s site.

The checklist below works for any app that adds trackpad gestures, whether that is BetterTouchTool, Trill or something else. Nothing here assumes the app is at fault; often it is waiting for a permission or a setting that the update changed around it.

First, rule out the trackpad

Before looking at the app, make sure macOS can still see your fingers.

  1. Scroll a web page with two fingers, and swipe up for Mission Control (with three or four fingers, depending on your Trackpad settings). If those work, the trackpad is fine and the problem is in the app or its settings.
  2. If nothing responds and you use a Magic Trackpad, open System Settings, choose Bluetooth, and check it is connected.
  3. If the built-in trackpad on a MacBook does nothing at all, restart the Mac before anything else.

Check the app is running and up to date

A macOS update restarts the Mac, and an app that is not set to open at login may not be running afterwards.

  1. Look for the app’s icon in the menu bar. On a MacBook with a notch, macOS hides menu bar icons that do not fit beside it, so quit an app or two with menu bar icons and look again.
  2. If the icon is missing, open the app from the Applications folder.
  3. Check for an update. Apps that read the trackpad and press keys work closely with macOS, so their developers often ship a new version around each macOS release.

The developer’s site is the place to look. BetterTouchTool, for example, keeps a public release notes page, and at the time of writing (October 2026) its home page says “Ready for macOS 27 Golden Gate” and its release notes give macOS 12 Monterey as the oldest version it supports. In Trill, Check for Updates is in the menu bar menu, and the app needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

While you are in the menu, check the app is not simply paused. Trill can be paused for 15 minutes, for an hour, or until you resume, and a pause you forgot about looks exactly like a fault.

Check Accessibility and Input Monitoring

If the app is running but its gestures do nothing, start here. A gesture app needs the Accessibility permission to press keys, click and move windows on your behalf, and if macOS does not consider that permission granted, gestures either do nothing or only half work.

  1. Open System Settings and choose Privacy & Security.
  2. Click Accessibility.
  3. Find the app in the list and make sure its switch is on.
  4. If it is already on and gestures still do nothing, switch it off and on again. If that does not help, select the app, click the remove button below the list, then click the add button and choose the app from Applications again.
  5. Quit the app and open it again so it picks up the change.

Apps that remap keys, including anything that offers a Hyper Key, may also need Input Monitoring, which is in the same Privacy & Security pane. Repeat the steps there.

A useful clue: in Trill, a gesture can still open an app, a file or a link without Accessibility, but anything that presses a key, clicks or moves a window needs it. So if your “open Safari” gesture works and your “new tab” gesture does not, the permission is the likely reason. Trill also says so outright. When Accessibility is off, its menu shows “Trill can’t press keys or move windows yet”, with Allow Accessibility.

Check whether macOS now answers the same gesture

macOS keeps a set of trackpad gestures of its own, and a gesture app sits on top of them. If one of your custom gestures is the same as one macOS uses, both respond: your action runs and macOS switches Space or opens Mission Control at the same moment, which looks like your gesture misfiring. If you have set up a fresh copy of macOS, or a setting has gone back to its default, a gesture you once switched off in macOS may be on again.

  1. Open System Settings and choose Trackpad.
  2. Look through the Point & Click and More Gestures tabs. The usual overlaps are Swipe between full-screen applications (three or four fingers left and right), Mission Control and App Exposé (three or four fingers up and down), and Look up & data detectors when it is set to Tap with Three Fingers.
  3. Compare those with your app’s gestures. Where the two match, decide which one you want.
  4. Either switch the macOS gesture off, or change the gesture in your app to one macOS does not use, such as a TipTap (rest one finger and tap beside it with another).

BetterTouchTool’s own guidance says the same: “If you assign a gesture macOS already uses, you can disable the system version in System Settings to avoid both firing.” Trill handles it for you. When one of your gestures is one macOS is using, Trill keeps yours off and shows “Blocked by macOS” next to it, with the fix one click away: turn the gesture off in macOS, or pick another. Trill changes a macOS setting only when you click that fix, writes every change down, and Put back returns them exactly as they were.

Check the app in front

If a gesture works in one app and not in another, the update is probably not the problem.

Most gesture apps let a gesture work everywhere or only in apps you choose, so a gesture set up for Safari will do nothing in Chrome. Trill’s ready-made Gesture Sets are built this way on purpose: the Browser set works in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Firefox, Edge, Brave and Orion, and the Writing set only in Pages, Word, Notes, Bear, Obsidian, Ulysses and iA Writer. Trill also has an Ignore these apps list, and while one of those apps is in front, Trill is off. It is meant for games, remote desktops and virtual machines, but an app added there by mistake will look like a broken gesture.

On a Force Touch trackpad, Trill’s haptics help here. A tick means the gesture was recognised. A different tap, called Nothing here, means Trill saw the gesture but it has nothing set for it in this app. If you feel that, the gesture is fine; it just has no job in the app in front. Feel a tick when a gesture works explains each of the taps.

Check the trial or licence

Easy to overlook, because it can coincide with an update. If you were trying an app on a trial, the trial may simply have ended. Trill’s free trial lasts 24 hours from the first launch, and the menu shows the hours left while it runs. When it ends, gestures, shortcuts, the Hyper Key and drag to snap stop until a licence key is entered, but everything you set up is kept, so entering the key brings it all back. The key goes in from the menu bar icon, then Settings, then License.

Restart in the right order

If you have been through every check and gestures still do nothing:

  1. Quit the gesture app completely, from its menu bar menu.
  2. Open it again from Applications.
  3. If that does not help, restart the Mac, then open the app once more.

If gestures are still silent after that, write to the app’s developer with your macOS version and the checks you have already made. It saves a round of questions.

Questions

Why do my gestures work in some apps but not others?

The gesture is probably set to work only in certain apps, or the app in front is on the gesture app’s ignore list. In Trill, each gesture works everywhere or only in the apps you choose, and anything on the Ignore these apps list switches Trill off while it is in front.

I switched Accessibility on, and nothing changed. What now?

Remove the app from the Accessibility list with the remove button, add it back with the add button, and quit and reopen the app. If the app also offers a Hyper Key or key remapping, do the same under Input Monitoring.

Is BetterTouchTool working on the latest macOS?

Its own pages are the place to check. At the time of writing (October 2026), the home page says “Ready for macOS 27 Golden Gate”, and the buy page says the latest version supports macOS 12 through macOS 27. Every check above applies to it as it does to any gesture app.

How do I avoid setting everything up again after the next update?

Keep a copy of your setup. In Trill, Export saves your gestures, shortcuts and layouts as a file, and Import loads it back, on the same Mac or another one. Trill saves the current setup in Backups first, and any scripts or app links in a loaded file stay off until you switch them on.