The trackpad on your MacBook can be a wonderful way to navigate and get your work done. But at the same time, it can be a bit annoying, mostly if you’re not using it and hit it by mistake.

Maybe you prefer to use a mouse instead of your trackpad, or even a different wireless trackpad that you connect to your Mac. So, you’re typing away, grab your mouse for something, begin typing again and your palm hits the trackpad. Boom, what just happened on the screen?

There is a very easy to way to avoid this problem. Here’s how to automatically disable the trackpad when a mouse, or wireless trackpad, is connected on Mac.

Disable the Mac trackpad when a mouse is connected

With one simple setting, you can avoid hitting your Mac trackpad by mistake. Just follow these steps.

1) Click the Apple icon > System Preferences from your menu bar.

2) Open Accessibility. Right, this setting is not in the Mouse or Trackpad settings.

3) On the left, scroll to the Interaction section and select Mouse & Trackpad.

4) On the right, mark the checkbox next to Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad are present.

Once you do this, give it a test. No matter what you do on your built-in trackpad, it won’t make a difference. Now, all of your clicks will come from your mouse, or wireless trackpad if you prefer.

Do more on Mac

For additional how-tos for your Mac, take a look at these tutorials.

Wrapping it up

Have you ever hit your trackpad by mistake and it caused a big problem? If so, and you use a mouse instead of your trackpad, then this setting is just what you need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.