Macbook touchbar pressing some buttons on its own

I have MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019).

Recently I noticed a very weird touchbar issue. It looks like it is pressing some buttons on its own. I recorded a small video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmxKqdcbo4M

I have no idea what triggers this... Tried to close all apps and restarted the laptop several times but it didn't help.

Any ideas how to fix it?

Solution 1:

It's a capacitive screen much like the touch screens on cell phones.

The first thing to do is rule out 3rd party apps/software/drivers that could be causing it. Boot into Safe Mode (Hold ⇧ Shift while booting). If the problem stops, then it's a 3rd party app. Start investigating things like:

• Login items (System Settings → Users & Groups → Login Items). Disable each one. See if the problem goes away. Yes? Re-enable each one individually and test/observe if the problem comes back. Repeat until you've found the item causing the problem.

• Issue the command sudo launchctl list | grep -v apple. This will list any LaunchAgents or LaunchDameons that are running excluding anything that has "apple" in the name (i.e. com.apple.coreduetd) which are native Apple daemons.

• Create another User account and see if the problem exists there. If so, it's definitely system wide.

You can also try resetting the Touchbar by killing it's processes:

    $ pkill "Touch Bar agent";
    $ killall "ControlStrip";

If the problem returns, it's definitely hardware.

However, from experience, it's most likely it's due to a physical problem with the touch screen itself. Unfortunately, it means it has to be replaced.