Drag and drop not working on my iMac running macOS Sequoia 15.4.1

Since this is not something that others are experiencing, it seems far more likely to be something in your particular software installation. Just imagine if nobody could drag and drop, a task that everyone has to do.

The fact that this carries over from one mac to another reinforces the conviction that it is something in your software setup. Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.

Clearly there is something with your mouse - either hardware or a driver issue.

As den.thed suggested, the obvious thing to try is another mouse. Let us know how that goes.

It can be a loaner, or a cheap pc mouse, or the magic mouse that came with your iMac.

Test a different mouse, preferably a Logitech or PC USB mouse.

My favorite for everyday use and troubleshooting is the Logitech M100.

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/shop/p/m100-usb-mouse.910-001601

wacoed wrote:

Always use a Logitech. When this started happening I tried two different wired Logitech and a magic mouse. Nothing changed.

When you tried the Magic Mouse, did you uninstall the Logitech software? It should not have interfered with, but if you’ve had two Macs with the sam problem and both were with a third-party mouse that requires a system modification to work, it doesn’t seem coincidental.

The Logitech mouse should work with either Bluetooth directly, or with a small wireless dongle. A mouse shouldn't need a driver in these days, and macOS will recognize it without a problem.

What could go on here is some issue with the "holding" down of the mouse button in order to initiate a drag. It would be helpful to get a more detailed description of what exactly is going wrong when you say difficult or impossible to drag and drop files.

To ensure there are no conflicting settings, I would recommend to look here:

Settings > Mouse > Secondary click: Turn it either off for a while to test if the left click (primary click) is working properly.

Settings > Accessibility > Pointer Control: There are options for Trackpad. If you see those, I would recommend to turn off "use trackpad for dragging".

You need to paste the report into to the Additional Text area of a reply (document icon).

There are instructions on the Etrecheck website.

Also note that EtreCheck is merely a report. It will do nothing to fix the problem with your third-party mouse.

👍🏽

Please let us know the outcome.