You can disable touch input on Apple’s touchscreen MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR—and on an iPad used via Sidecar—by enabling the Ignore Touch Gestures option in System Settings. The setting makes the Mac and any Sidecar display ignore direct touch.
Disable Touch on MacBook Pro and Sidecar
To turn off touch input (the same steps work for the built‑in touchscreen and for Sidecar):
Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the menu bar and choose System Settings…. Select Accessibility in the sidebar. Under “Physical and Motor,” click Touch. Toggle on the switch next to Ignore Touch Gestures.
To restore touch, return to the same screen and toggle off Ignore Touch Gestures.
Adjust individual gestures instead of disabling touch
If some gestures are useful but others trigger accidentally, you can disable specific gestures rather than turning off touch entirely. In System Settings, select Touch Display in the sidebar, where each gesture can be switched off. Swipe between spaces, Mission Control, and App Exposé each have pop-up menus to change how the gesture is performed.
The Accessibility → Touch screen menu (where Ignore Touch Gestures is located) also offers Touch Accommodations to change how taps, swipes, and touch-and-hold input are handled, and AssistiveTouch as an alternative control method. The Accessibility → Zoom menu includes an option to zoom using the touch display or Sidecar.
Context: Apple’s shift on touch
Apple long resisted touchscreen Macs: in 2010 Steve Jobs said that “touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical,” citing arm fatigue. In 2021, then-hardware engineering chief John Ternus said the Mac was “made exclusively for indirect input” and that Apple “haven’t really felt a reason to change that.” In 2026 Apple introduced touchscreen technology on the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR, while keeping the option to ignore touch input.
Why developers might keep touch enabled
App developers have a practical reason to leave touch active: Xcode’s iOS Simulator responds to direct touch, so taps, swipes, and pinches can be tested on the screen instead of being simulated with a trackpad and keyboard modifiers.
