How to right-click on a Mac

howtosimply.com/guides/how-to-right-click-on-a-mac/ · Checked 2 October 2026 · MacBook Pro · macOS Tahoe 26

2 of 4 steps with real screenshots · 1 official source below

Device

Mac

Shown on

macOS Tahoe 26 (MacBook Pro)

App

System Settings

Real screenshots

2 of 4 steps

Checked

2 October 2026

Sources

1 official, linked below

Step by step

1. 

   Trackpad: click with two fingers

   Rest two fingers on the trackpad and press down, or tap with two fingers if Tap to click is on.

   Done

2. Any mouse or trackpad: Control-click

   Hold the Control key and click. This always works, whatever the settings.

   Done

3. Apple Magic Mouse: turn on Secondary click

   Open System Settings, click Mouse, and set Secondary click to Click Right Side. Then click the right half of the mouse surface.

   Done

4. 

   Change how the trackpad does it

   Open System Settings, click Trackpad, and open the Secondary click menu. You can choose two fingers, the bottom right corner or the bottom left corner.

   Done

What we saw on our device

• Trackpad: click with two fingers: On our MacBook Neo, Secondary click under Trackpad was set to Click with Two Fingers.
• Any mouse or trackpad: Control-click: On our MacBook Neo, Control-clicking Report.pdf in Finder showed Open, Open With, Move to Trash, Get Info, Rename, Compress "Report.pdf", Duplicate, Make Alias, Quick Look, Copy, Share…, the colour tags, Tags… and Quick Actions.
• Change how right-click works: On our MacBook Neo the menu also offers Off, which turns secondary click on the trackpad off.

About this guide

Right-clicking opens a menu of options for whatever is under the pointer, such as Copy, Rename or Move to Bin. Apple calls it a secondary click. New Mac users coming from Windows often think it is missing, because nothing on the trackpad is marked.

The picture is a diagram of the keys to press.

Good to know

A normal USB or Bluetooth mouse with two buttons works on a Mac without any setup. The right button right-clicks.

If two-finger click does nothing, check that Secondary click is not switched off under System Settings, Trackpad.

Prefer tapping to clicking on the trackpad? How to turn on tap to click on a Mac.

All the other trackpad gestures: Mac trackpad gestures: the full list.

In short: Two-finger click or Control-click; to change it: System Settings > Trackpad > Point & Click > Secondary click.