How to turn off the back and forward trackpad gestures on a mac
The trackpad on your MacBook Pro is a crafty piece of engineering and technology that has allowed laptop-style computers to become smaller and lighter while at the same time, allowing you to complete any and all functions that once were only possible with the use of an external mouse.
There are many ways to utilize the features of your trackpad on your computer and there might even be some trackpad gestures that you are unaware of.
It is possible to disable the trackpad if you need or want to at any point. The process is simple and there are a few different reasons why you might want to do this, which we will look at below.
This article will show you how to easily disable the trackpad on your MacBook Pro and also how to reverse that when you want the trackpad to be working again.
Why Disable a Trackpad?
There are a couple of different reasons why you might want to disable your trackpad.
Even though this is a nice feature of your MacBook Pro and you may never actually disable it, it’s good to know how just in case you want or need to at some point. The trackpad is also really easy to turn off and on so knowing the steps to do the task is good information to have.
The main reason that you might want to disable your trackpad comes down to personal preference. Some people just like using a regular external mouse over the trackpad. I personally don’t mind using a trackpad for most tasks, but for some things I do frequently, like audio production using Logic X, I like the feel of an external mouse over a trackpad. Some people also like to use an external trackpad instead of the one built into their laptops.
I’ve heard other people say that they don’t like the trackpad as much as a mouse because as they are typing or working on their computer, they will often accidentally click or swipe with their hand as the trackpad sits so close to the keyboard on your MacBook. Your trackpad might malfunction or break at some point and it’s good to know how to disable it and connect an external mouse in this case scenario as well.
How to Disable the TrackPad
If you do find yourself wanting to disable your trackpad due to personal preference or any other reason, it is really easy to do.
In a matter of seconds you can turn the trackpad off and it’s just as easy to turn it back on. Just follow the steps below and you can disable the feature and use an external mouse.
- Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner of your screen.
- Click on System Preferences.
- Click on the Accessibility Icon.
- In the Accessibility menu click on Pointer Control from the options in the window on the left-hand side.
- Check the Ignore when mouse or wireless trackpad is present checkbox.
- Your trackpad will now be disabled when an external mouse or trackpad is connected to your computer.
To turn your trackpad back on simply follow steps 1 through 4 above and then uncheck the Ignore when mouse or wireless trackpad is present checkbox.
Keep in mind that you can still connect an external mouse or trackpad and have the main trackpad on your MacBook function. If you don’t select the checkbox from the Mouse & Trackpad menu, your main trackpad will remain on. There might be some reason to have your main trackpad still function when you have an external mouse or trackpad connected and the choice is up to you if you want to turn it on or off in this instance.
An external mouse or trackpad will connect to your computer through a Bluetooth connection so you will want to make sure that Bluetooth is turned on and functioning on your computer before you try to disable your trackpad.
Bonus Tip
Now that you know how to disable your trackpad, you can use this process as a troubleshooting method if the situation arises.
Sometimes the trackpad on your MacBook Pro can stop working due to a glitch or malfunction. If you follow the steps above to disable your trackpad and then turn it back on, it might fix this problem.
It’s not a guarantee that this will work if you experience problems with your trackpad, but it is a quick and easy way to troubleshoot the issue that has fixed a not-working trackpad on my computer in the past.
Final Thoughts
Whether you are a fan of the trackpad on your MacBook Pro or not, there is no denying its functional capabilities.
It is a great piece of technology that has simplified how we use our computers while also making them effective and efficient with fewer accessories needed to complete man ordinary tasks. If you ever want or need to disable your trackpad, you now know the steps necessary to get it done with only a few easy steps.
Have you ever disabled your trackpad? Why?
10 thoughts on “How to Disable TrackPad on MacBook Pro”
When I’m typing my curser will jump to a different place on the document. This is very frustrating and breaks the flow of my writing,
I assume that it does that because I have accidentally touched the pad. So I will disable it and use an external divise to see if this stops.
I have an early 2015 MacBook pro, so my “accessibility” section is not the same as what you displayed. I am just trying to disable it when I am typing, as I continually hit or rub against the touch pad which sends the cursor off into another place on the document. I don’t see how to do this, other than to put a piece of paper over the pad itself. Any ideas, or do the newer mac pro’s have a switch to accomplish this. Thanks, Henry
This straight-up did not work for me. I have a Bluetooth mouse that I am using, I have the “Ignore built-in trackpad” option checked, and yet my trackpad is still active.
Thanks for helping me find the option to turn off the trackpad. My problem is when I’m typing on the laptop keyboard it often triggers the trackpad, triggering me to curse when my cursor moves to an unintended place.
Thank you so much for sharing this information.
Very well explained.
Five stars
On my accessibility menu, there is no choice for mouse and trackpad. Macbook pro and Mac OS Big Sur. Frustrating!!
It’s under ‘Pointer Control’ in Big Sur.
So, after contacting apple support, it seems the new trackpad disabler checkbox is under “pointer” in accessibility.
Thank you! Have updated the article.
The information you provided is much appreciated. Under Accessibility menu, I clicked on the “Pointer Control” to find the Mouse and Trackpad options that you gave. Now my glitching trackpad is disabled and my old MacBook is working well. Thank you!
In dev builds of Chrome, they’ve implemented, refined, and released two-finger swipes left/right in order to browse back/forward in the browser history. Unfortunately, you can accidentally trigger it while you’re in the middle of a long down/up scroll, which needless to say occurs often.
I generally like the gesture, and things like Preview, Safari, and other application have implemented it much better, where you cannot blindly navigate back/forward so long as you have begun to scroll up/down.
How do I selectively disable two-finger back/forward navigation in Chrome?
7 Answers 7
I know its over a year later, but I had the same question, and then figured out the answer myself.
Open terminal and type:
Then restart Chrome.
Now you can have it enabled system wide, and just disabled for chrome. By the way, this works for any app, just replace com.google.Chrome with the bundle identifier of the target app.
If your interested in how it works, the AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls is the global setting, that can be overwritten for any specified app.
Hope this helps someone in the future.
I went into the System Prefs and changed the Page change gesture from two fingers to three (OSX Lion). The three finger swipe seems to be more responsive at any rate and I’m usually only using two fingers for everything else.
System Preferences > Trackpad > More Gestures > Swipe between pages
There are two different properties, one is for the Trackpad: AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls , the other is for the Mouse/Magic Mouse: AppleEnableMouseSwipeNavigateWithScrolls .
So you need to execute one or both of these commands:
Summary:
It looks like Google Chrome uses Apples default gestures, so by disabling Apples gestures you disable Chromes. However, you probably still love some gestures like I do. For that get BetterTouchTools.
Disable Google Chromes Gestures
You can disable chromes gestures by going to System Preference > Mouse OR Trackpad > More Gestures > and uncheck Swipe between pages.
Keep the Gestures You Want
I still love gestures so I downloaded BetterTouchTools which allows me to make the gestures I want. I disabled all apples gestures then created my own. You can get very custom with gestures this way. Or if you prefer, leave some of apples gestures on and use BetterTouchTools for the more custom ones.
If you own a MacBook, you’re likely well aware of how scrolling and right-clicking work on the trackpad, but you may not know how to invoke Quick Look, Notification Center, or Exposè. Whether you’re new to macOS or you just never bothered to learn them, these gestures can make your life a little simpler.
Open and Close Notification Center with Two Finger Swipe
You might not use Notification Center often, but it’s gotten pretty useful after the updates in Sierra . Now that you can use Siri to save all types of life info, like movie showtimes, sports schedules, and even Finder results, it’s nice to know that getting to the Notification Center just takes a two finger swipe. This one’s a little tricky to get the hang of though, as you have to swipe from the far right of the track pad for it to work properly.
All the New Features in macOS Sierra
Apple’s just released macOS Sierra, and while it’s a minor update, it does include Siri, a…
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Open Launchpad with a Three Finger and Thumb Claw-Pinch
Launchpad is one of those oft-forgotten macOS features, but it’s still occasionally useful. If you’ve forgotten what it even is, Launchpad is simply a way to access all your apps in a grid. If you don’t keep an Applications folder on your Dock, Launchpad’s a useful way to access all your apps. The Three finger and thumb pinch is a bit awkward to get used to, but once you do you’ll be opening up Launchpad with ease. From there, you can customize Launchpad to make it more useful.
Clean Out and Customize Lion's Launchpad
Lion's Launchpad feature is a handy way to quickly launch apps, but when it's filled with every…
Show the Desktop with a Three Finger and Thumb Reverse Claw-Pinch
This one’s a bit awkward to actually do, but it’s useful. Place your thumb and three fingers on the trackpad, then spread them apart in a reverse pinch, just like as if you’re praising a meal , to reveal your desktop. If you store files on your desktop while you’re working this is the easiest way to get to them. Since this hides all your open windows, it’s also an excellent way to hide what you’re doing if someone surprises you.
Invoke Mission Control with a Three Finger Upward Swipe
Speaking of oft-forgotten features, Mission Control is one of those that might have escaped your memory. If you swipe up with three fingers (on some models of MacBook it’s four fingers), you’ll pull up Mission Control, which displays all your open applications and all the your current desktop spaces. This is a crucial feature for working on a smaller laptop screen because it’s the easiest way to glance at what apps you have open. While you’re in Mission Control, you can click and drag any application to any desktop space in the menu at the top.
Zoom In on One Application's Windows in Mission Control with a Multitouch Gesture
Mission Control's window organization makes it a little easier to use than previous versions of…
Show All Your Open Application Windows with a Three Finger Downward Swipe
Need to quickly glance at all the open windows in a particular app? Swipe down with three fingers (on some models of MacBook it’s four fingers). This pulls up “Exposè,” which makes is super easy to select a window in an app.
Switch Between Desktop Spaces with a Three Finger Swipe
Using multiple desktop spaces is one of the key ways to keep yourself sane when you’re working on a small screen, and this gesture to switch between them makes the process of switching between them easy. Just lay down three fingers and swipe left or right to swap between your different desktop spaces (on some models of MacBook it’s four fingers). If you’ve never used the Spaces feature before, it’s time to start. It essentially creates a new empty desktop in each space, and then you can assign certain apps to certain spaces, which can keep your desktop nice and organized even though you don’t have a lot pixels to work with.
Go Back and Forward in Your Web Browser, Calendar, or QuickTime with a Two Finger Swipe
One of the most useful trackpad gestures lives in your Web browser. Place two fingers on the trackpad and swipe left or right to go back or forward a page. This works in a number of other apps too. In Calendar you can switch between days or months, and in QuickTime you can use the two finger swipe to scrub a video forward or reverse.
Look Up Word Definitions, Preview a Link in Safari, or Invoke Quick Look with a Three Finger Tap
There’s a chance you’ve invoked this one on accident before, but it’s really useful when you get the hang of using it right. Tap a link in Safari with three fingers and you’ll get a preview of that web site. Tap any word with three fingers and you’ll get the definition of the word. Do the same on any text file or image and you’ll bring up Quick Look. It’s probably my favorite little gesture in macOS even though it takes a little while to get used to using it.
Pinch to Zoom in Preview and Safari
Everyone’s pretty used to pinching to zoom in and out on their iPhone, but that gesture works in macOS too. Just do the same pinching gesture you’d do to zoom in on a photo in iOS to zoom in on an image in Preview or zoom in a web site on Safari. This works in a number of third party apps too, including most notably Adobe PhotoShop and the rest of Creative Suite.
Rotate an Image in Preview with a Two Finger Rotate
While it’s a bit awkward to do this one, you can use the trackpad to rotate an image in Preview. Just put two fingers on the trackpad and turn them, like you would opening a soda bottle, to rotate an image in that direction. Like Pinch to Zoom, this also works in most versions of PhotoShop and other Creative Suite applications.
[Updated 3/13/2018] If scrolling on your Mac trackpad or Magic Mouse feels strangely upside-down, topsy-turvy, or just plain wrong, there’s a simple explanation—and an easy fix.
Back in the olden days of Mac (not all that long ago, mind you), you’d flick “up” on your mouse wheel or trackpad to scroll up, or down to scroll down. Seems logical, right?
“Natural scrolling” is the reason scrolling on your Mac feels backwards
Well, Mac users got a little surprise with 2011’s “Lion” update for OS X: “natural scrolling,” which means (somewhat counterintuitively) that you flick up on your mouse to scroll down, and down to scroll up.
So, what’s the deal here?
Well, the idea behind “natural scrolling” is that it mimics the way you swipe with your fingertips on an iPhone or iPad touchscreen.
On the iPhone, when you want to scroll down a web page, you touch the screen and drag up—and the page scrolls down. And if you want to scroll back up, you touch the screen again and drag … down.
Personally, my brain gets the whole “natural scrolling” concept. But even after a few years, my fingers still stubbornly trying to flick up when I want to scroll up.
How to turn off natural scrolling on your Mac
In any case, we’ve got two options here. One: get used to the new “natural” (or at least as far as Apple defines it). Or two: forget “natural,” and go back to normal.
Visit Mouse or Trackpad preferences on your Mac to turn natural scrolling off.
Is there a way to use Mac OS X gestures (swipe left and right) with magic mouse or trackpad to navigate back and forward in the history?
Yes, this is a must for OSX users!
You can swipe left/right over the browser navigation, status bar, or sidebar, but be careful not to do it over the tabs as that switches tabs.
Overall, it’s not really implemented yet, but kinda.
You can swipe left/right over the browser navigation, status bar, or sidebar, but be careful not to do it over the tabs as that switches tabs.
Overall, it’s not really implemented yet, but kinda.
Ah, that works! It happened to me randomly and I wondered why for example it does work on the speed dial page but not on regular pages.
The implementation looks sweet though I hope that those arrows will be customizable/hidden when it’s implemented everywhere. For now I fixed the problem with BetterTouchTool
Are there any updates on this feature? It’s probably the only thing I’m missing after the latest SS! (Well, perhaps also the dictionary lookup three-finger gesture, but that’s just nit-picking.)
These are included in the latest release.
Hi – I still can’t figure out how to swipe using Mac touchpad to go backward and forward in the history. I have the latest release.
This feature works fine for me in Firefox, Chrome, etc.
Vivaldi 1.0.435.40 () (64-bit)
Revision 575538bc320e213510be1e66f3521382e615129d
OS Mac OS X
Blink 537.36 (@575538bc320e213510be1e66f3521382e615129d)
JavaScript V8 4.9.385.33
Flash 21.0.0.197
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_4) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.110 Safari/537.36 Vivaldi/1.0.435.40
Command Line /Applications/ -psn_0_479349 –always-authorize-plugins –disable-translate –ppapi-flash-path=/Applications/Google Chrome Plug-Ins/PepperFlash/PepperFlashPlayer.plugin –enable-avfoundation –flag-switches-begin –flag-switches-end –disable-smooth-scrolling
Executable Path /Applications/
Profile Path /Users/ryanchanatry/Library/Application Support/Vivaldi/Default
Variations 16e0dd70-3f4a17df
b3888d8d-f9eb9ec4
cf5ed6e1-3f4a17df
775ebbd7-3d47f4f4
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I use Bettertouchtool to simulate 3-finger swipe on a regular mouse so I can use side buttons for back and forward and these don’t work in Vivaldi 1.0 on 10.11.4 El Capitan.
This was fixed a few releases ago and I have no issues on my MacBook Pro.
Do you have gestured enabled in the preferences? Maybe it has something to do with that.
Looks like it has nothing to do with those gesture settings. But I can confirm the 1.0 release of Vivaldi and latest Mac OS work fine for me.
I’ve tried with Gestures turned on and off and no difference.
If I have “Swipe with three fingers” selected under More Gestures in Mac’s Trackpad Settings, it will not work in Vivaldi. If I change it to “Swipe with two or three fingers” then I can navigate forward and backward in history using TWO fingers, but not THREE.
Can others confirm that when you have the three finger option selected, you are able to use that in Vivaldi?
Thanks for clarity, it’s the three finder back/forward that’s not working. I haven’t tried that, but two finger works well.
I think you can submit bugs here:
Since Vivaldi is based on the Chromium browser, most solutions for Google Chrome also works on Vivaldi too. I took the answer from here and applied it to Vivaldi. Just had to find what Vivaldi’s .plist file was and use that instead.
Open Terminal and enter this to turn the swiping OFF
or this to turn it ON
Hope this helps, and the effects are applied immediate, so you won’t need to restart to take effect.
Did you test that setting on your Mac, ant8672?
I’m asking because it did not seem to have any effect on my rMBP 2013 (I quit Vivaldi before running the command and also verified with defaults read that it was properly set).
When reporting issues, please always include which Vivaldi version and which version of your operating system you are using.
I haven’t had any issues with swiping back and forth in the latest releases. Seems to be working out of the box for me.
Disable swipe gesture to go back and forward in Chrome
May 14, ’13 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: kirkmc
A Stack Exchange user asked a question a while back: is it possible to turn off the swipe gesture in Chrome that goes back or forward a page? If you’re not familiar with this gesture – which works in most browsers on OS X – you use a two-finger swipe to the right to go back to the previous page you’ve viewed, and a swipe in the opposite direction to go forward again. But this use found it got in the way.
Fortunately, another user found a Terminal command that turns this feature off. Run this in Terminal, then relaunch Chrome for it to take effect: If you wish to reactivate it, run this command: Apparently you can issue this command for other apps, replacing the com.google.Chrome.plist with the appropriate file name. I’ve only tested this with Chrome, but if you feel like testing with other apps, post in the comments to say which ones work and which don’t.
- Currently 4.00 / 5
Hint Options
Why in the world would you want to turn this off? I live and die by this every day no matter the browser.
This has been something I have been using even when on the Windoz machines with Firefox and Chrome plugins to use the mouse instead.
If this was gotten rid of I would cry, seriously, well not that seriously but you know what I meant.
Why wouldn’t you want to turn this off? The point is that this is a hint that some people may find useful. If you like the feature, keep it active. Personally, I don’t like the behavior and find this hint useful.
It drives me nuts, personally.
Because the OS X three-finger swipe gesture already works with all browsers, and the Chrome-specific gesture is very annoying and different.
I use Chromium instead of Chrome for BMC Remedy for compatibility, and Safari for most other things. I too, find Chromium/Chrome’s settings too sensitive and when it happens while filling in a form, it can be very very annoying.
Therefore:
will disable for Chromium.
anger drove me to google to find this hint, and it’s great. The sideswipe to go Back has wasted so much of my time.
The present example: we have an internal page (=crude) on our site. It’s all ‘web 2.0’ and you open these hierarchical lines and stuff. But it doesn’t remember what you opened. It takes me about 18 clicks to get to where I can see what I need.
And part of it is a chart that’s about 4 screens wide, so I sideswipe to see it all. But if I sideswipe to get back to the left side, and I sideswipe a BIT too far, it goes Back to the last page and it’s all lost. All I can do is Forward, then go through my 18 clicks again.
Your Surface Type Cover has a touchpad with two buttons that you can use like a mouse. Use gestures on the touchpad to do things like scroll up and down, zoom in, and select items. You can also adjust settings to prevent the touchpad from responding to accidental touches and more.
Use the touchpad
If your Surface has a touchpad, it has right-click and left-click buttons that work like the buttons on a mouse.
Note: To keep accidental touches from making the cursor jump while you’re typing, you can set the delay before taps work, turn taps off, or turn the touchpad off. To learn how, see Change the touchpad settings.
If you want to
Press down on the left side of your touchpad
Left-click like on a mouse
Press down on the right side of your touchpad
Press to right-click
Open app commands in Windows apps or a context menu in desktop apps
Right-click like on a mouse
Tap one finger anywhere on the touchpad
Left-click like on a mouse
Tap two fingers anywhere on the touchpad
Open app commands in Windows apps or a context menu in desktop apps
Right-click like on a mouse
Drag your finger on the touchpad
Moves the cursor
Swipe three fingers up on the touchpad
Display your virtual desktop
Press and hold the left touchpad button down and then slide a finger in any direction
Move an item or select text
Like moving a mouse while you hold down the left button
Tap, immediately tap and hold, then drag
Move an item or select text
Like moving a mouse while you hold down the left button
Slide two fingers horizontally or vertically
Scroll though a screen or document
Like dragging the scroll button on the screen, or using a scroll wheel on a mouse
Pinch your thumb and forefinger together or move them apart
Like the gestures on your touchscreen
Get started with touchpad gestures
You can swipe on your touchpad to quickly get to certain features and shortcuts. These gestures work with all Surface Type Covers and the Surface models that have a touchpad. For more info about other gestures, see Touch gestures on Windows.
Change the touchpad settings
You can change touchpad settings to turn the touchpad on and off, reverse scrolling direction, turn gestures on and off, and more.
Attach your Surface to its keyboard or Type Cover.
Do one of the following
On Windows 10, go to Start > Settings > Devices > Touchpad.
On Windows 11, go to Start > Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Touchpad.
Swipe gestures are incredibly popular on regular, and touch screen-enabled devices. Apple made them popular with its amazing trackpads that are a staple of Macbooks, and with the Apple Magic trackpad. Since then, precision touchpads have become more common. Swipe gestures are no longer an amazing feature limited to macOS desktops.
Windows 10 natively supports precision touchpads and two, three, and four-finger swipe gestures. Windows 10 pre-configures the swipe gestures. You can use swipe gestures to switch between apps and virtual desktops, minimize all windows, go to taskview mode, and more. At present, you cannot use the three-finger swipe to go back and forward in your browser. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to do this. It’s actually incredibly easy to configure three-finger swipe for browser navigation.
Check If You Have A Precision Touchpad
This works only if you have a precision Touchpad. To check if you have one, open the Settings app. Go to the Devices group of settings and select the ‘Touchpad’ tab. If you have a precision Touchpad, you will see the message ‘Your PC has a precision touchpad’ at the very top. If you don’t see this message, and this settings tab is mostly barren, then you have an ordinary touchpad. You won’t even be able to reverse the scrolling direction.
A Few Caveats
If you have a precision touchpad, we can configure three-finger swipe to go back and forward in your browser. Before we get down to it, there are a few things you should know.
This gesture will only work if your browser has a keyboard shortcut for going back and forward. If you have multiple browsers installed and they all use the same keyboard shortcut to go back and forward, this gesture will work in all of them. If your browser has a unique keyboard shortcut for going back or forward, this gesture will be limited to working in only that browser. Changing the configuration of the gesture will remove its system-wide function and limit it to working only in your browser.
Three Finger Swipe For Browser Navigation
Open the Settings app. Go to the Devices group of settings and select the ‘Touchpad’ tab. On the right, you will see an option ‘Advanced gesture configuration.’ Click it.
On the Advanced gesture configuration screen, you can customize three and four-finger gestures. Under the ‘Configure your three-finger gestures’ section, look for the ‘Left’ option.
There is a dropdown under the ‘Left’ option like there is under all others. By default, it is set to ‘Switch apps.’ Open the dropdown and select ‘Custom shortcut’ from the options.
Now, we’re ready to change what swiping left with three fingers does. When you select the ‘Custom shortcut’ option, you get an option to record a keyboard shortcut. This shortcut is mapped to the three-finger left swipe gesture. Click the ‘Start recording’ button. Type your browser’s keyboard shortcut for going back.
We did this for Chrome. In Chrome, the ‘back’ keyboard shortcut is Alt+Left arrow key. Click the ‘Stop recording’ button after you enter the keyboard shortcut.
Repeat this for the ‘Right’ gesture as well. For Chrome, the shortcut you want to record is ‘Alt+Right arrow key.’
Reset Swipe Gestures
If you don’t like how things work, you can scroll to the very end of the Touchpad’ tab and click ‘Reset’ to reset all swipe gestures to default. Changing what the three-finger left and right swipe gestures do will change it throughout the system. For the most part, it’s likely this gesture will only work in your browser. The three-finger up and down swipe, as well as the three-finger tap gestures, will continue to work like they always do.
5 Comments
I dont have this setting there anymore! Just”additional settings” which send me to “synaptics setting and there is nothing about threefingers left right swipe option. It makes me mad! 😀
Many Mac apps support a two-finger swipe to go back / forward gesture, but not all users wish to use the scrolling gesture. For those who use Google Chrome, you may find that if you have disabled the system-wide “Swipe between pages” feature, you’ll still have the swipe navigation available in the Chrome app. This is because the swipe navigation feature is built into Chrome which lets the feature be separate from the scrolling gesture at the Mac OS X level.
In any event, if you want to disable two-finger swipe forward and swipe backward navigation gestures in the Google Chrome browser on a Mac, you can use a defaults command string to do so.
How to Disable Chrome Swipe Gesture on Mac
Open the Terminal and enter the following command string:
defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE
You will not need to restart Chrome for the change to take effect, it should be immediate either way. You can confirm this by using a two-finger swipe gesture and it should no longer navigate back or forth in the browsing history of an active window or tab.
Re-Enable Chrome Navigation Swipe Gestures on Mac
If you wish to turn this back on, simply enter the following defaults command string, the only difference being that “FALSE” has been changed to “TRUE”:
defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool TRUE
For most users, these swipe gestures are generally good to leave enabled, particularly since they’re the same in many iOS apps and many other Mac apps too, making it a somewhat universal back / forth navigation function that is applicable to both Mac OS X and iOS devices.
