How to Reset Trackpad Settings to Default on Mac

After months of experiments — tap to click, three-finger drag, gesture tweaks, a sensitivity crusade — sometimes you just want the trackpad Apple shipped. There are two routes back: set each control to its stock value by hand, or wipe the preference files and let macOS regenerate them. Here's both, including the full list of defaults.

Route 1: set everything back by hand

Open System Settings → Trackpad. These are the stock macOS values for each control:

• Point & Click: Tracking speed — slider just left of center. Click — Medium. Force Click and haptic feedback — on. Look up & data detectors — on. Secondary click — Click with Two Fingers. Tap to click — off.
• Scroll & Zoom: Natural scrolling — on. Zoom in or out — on. Smart zoom — on. Rotate — on.
• More Gestures: Swipe between pages — Scroll Left or Right with Two Fingers. Swipe between full-screen applications — Three Fingers. Notification Center — on. Mission Control — Three Fingers. App Exposé — off. Launchpad and Show Desktop gestures — on (macOS 13/14; Sequoia trims this list slightly).

The hand route's advantage: it's visible and selective — you can keep the two changes you actually liked. Its weakness: it can't fix settings that are stuck, where the pane shows one thing and the trackpad does another. That's preference-file corruption, and it needs route 2.

Route 2: delete the preference files

Trackpad settings live in a preference domain that macOS rebuilds with stock values when it's missing. Back yours up first so this is reversible:

# 1. back up current trackpad settings to the Desktop
defaults export com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad ~/Desktop/trackpad-backup.plist
# 2. wipe the trackpad preferences
defaults delete com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad
# 3. restart the Mac to regenerate stock settings

Restart — settings caches mean the reset isn't reliable until you do. After logging back in, the Trackpad pane shows factory values.

To undo the reset, restore your backup and restart again:

# undo: restore the backed-up settings
defaults import com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad ~/Desktop/trackpad-backup.plist

If you also use a Bluetooth Magic Trackpad, it has a second domain — export it to a separate backup file the same way, then delete com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.

What the wipe doesn't reset

Several trackpad-adjacent settings live in other domains and survive the reset. Check them by hand if "default" is really what you're after:

• Three-finger drag and dragging style: System Settings → Accessibility → Pointer Control → Trackpad Options. Stock: Use trackpad for dragging — off.
• Ignore built-in trackpad when a mouse is present: Accessibility → Pointer Control. Stock: off.
• Scroll speed and double-click speed: Accessibility → Pointer Control → Mouse & Trackpad. Stock: both mid-slider.
• Natural scrolling is shared with any mouse you use — flipping it for the trackpad flips it there too.

Third-party gesture utilities keep their own settings entirely — resetting macOS doesn't touch them, so quit or unload those if you want a truly stock feel.

Preview stock behavior before you commit

Not sure the factory setup is actually what you want? All trackpad settings are per-user, which gives you a free preview: log into another account on the same Mac — or enable the Guest User in System Settings → Users & Groups — and the trackpad there behaves exactly as Apple shipped it. Ten minutes in a stock account tells you whether it's the full reset you're craving or just one setting (tap to click and three-finger drag are the usual suspects) that needs flipping back. It also means a reset in your account never affects anyone else who shares the machine — and their accounts stay un-reset when you wipe yours.