How to Disable or Hide the MacBook Touch Bar
Lifehacker managing editor Joel Cunningham recently had an unusual quarantine question: his 3-year-old continues to press bright buttons on the touchpad of his MacBook, prematurely ending his video chats. As cute as it was [managing editor’s note: IT’S NOT CUTE], he wanted to know if there was any way to get his son to stop doing it (that is, by any technological method).
As it turns out, you have several options for solving these problems, including “disabling” the entire touchpad.
How to make the Touch Bar stay stationary
First of all, if someone kept messing with my touchpad and messing with what I was doing in the various apps I use, there is one fix I would go to more than anyone else. It will cost you a little functionality, but at least your tiny loved ones (including your pets) won’t accidentally disconnect you from the conversation when they start using the keyboard.
Open macOS System Preferences and click Keyboard . Find the Touch Bar Shows option and change it to the Advanced Control Bar – or actually anything that isn’t Application Controls.
This will prevent the touchbar from showing contextual buttons or buttons that change depending on which application you are using. It won’t stop your child from flexing your touchpad, but at least it won’t let them mess up anything in the app you’re currently using.
Best solution: block Touch Bar inputs with Bar None
I came across the Bar None app from developer Sean Inman and loved it. You’ve probably already guessed what it does. Once you’ve launched it and given it permission to control your Mac (via System Preferences> Security & Privacy> Accessibility ), you’ll need to hold down the Fn key for the touchpad to accept any finger presses.
Obviously, you probably want to edit the Touch Bar preferences ( System Preferences> Keyboard ) so that by default you look at something you don’t really care about, but holding down the Fn key brings up a more user-friendly interface – like app controls, for example.
That said, being able to completely block anything from accidentally triggering the Touch Bar is incredible. In fact, it should be the default option in macOS itself, but we all know Apple will never let it in.
How to (almost) completely disable the touchpad
If you don’t want to see anything on the Touch Bar, if you don’t need it, you will need to pay for BetterTouchTool , a $ 8.50 app that gives you incredible control over what is displayed on the Touch Bar. Bar.
Once you do – or if you just want to mess around with a 45-day free trial first, that’s okay too – download and run the app. Turn on all requested permissions (mainly accessibility options that allow an app to control your touchpad) and open the main app configuration screen. Click on the drop-down menu, select Touch Bar, and then click on Touch Bar Settings. Make the resulting screen look like this:
Close and click on the large “+” icon in the center of the BetterTouchTool home screen, which must be configured to add a “All Apps” button or touchpad widget. For a trigger, select TouchPad Button under Common Buttons and Groups. In the “Button name” field that appears, give it a good name, for example “show”.
Then you will click the “+” button, which will allow you to assign the first action for that trigger. You will select “TouchPad Action” and this will be “Toggle BetterTouchTool TouchPad”.
Finally, you’ll want to click on your Show trigger in the Top Level Groups and Triggers column and then scroll down a bit in the far right column (TouchPad Trigger Configuration). When you find “Placing an item on the touchpad”, set it so that it is aligned to the left or right. Your choice.
Close the application and your touchpad should now look like this:
When you hit the new show button, you’ll see your regular old touchpad again. To return to hidden view, find the square icon with small lines and tap it:
I’ve only scratched the surface of BetterTouchTool with this little hack, and I encourage you to really play around with the app – if you end up buying it – to customize your touchpad in a variety of ways.