2018 Mac mini i5 - Magic Mouse 2 Nearly Useless (lag)

[powerbook911]

I opened my 2018 Mac mini i5 (2020 storage) today. And Space Grey Magic Mouse 2.

However, the Magic Mouse 2 is pretty much useless. There is constant leg, the cursor will get "stuck" for a second before continuing across the screen.

I feel like it didn't do this until after I installed a Catalina update, but I cannot be certain.

Any ideas? Or should I go back to wired? Thanks so much.

 

[Boyd01]

I have the same mouse and don't see that problem on my 2018 i7 Mini. Every now and then it will "skip" a bit, seems to only happen when there is a lot of data being transferred to an external SSD. However, I am not using this mouse very much because I also run legacy software in Windows on my Mini and it really needs a middle button and physical scroll wheel. So I am mostly using a cheap wired three-button mouse.

Have a look at this huge thread about bluetooth issues: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-mini-2018-bluetooth-issues.2157086/

 

[powerbook911]

Thank you!

Well, I started to freak out because my old Mighty Mouse was doing it too, although not quite as bad as the Magic Mouse. And no, I didn't have both connected at the same time. I thought the new mini might have a problem.

Turns out, it was a USB-C to USB adapter! Even if the dongle is connected to nothing other than the Mac (via USB-C), it causes the entire Mac to have the laggy mouse input whether wireless or wired (though worse on the wireless oddly).

Interestingly, when the mini first booted up I don't think I noticed it, though I'm not certain, it seemed to start after Catalina applied its latest update (all of this was in the first hour of the Mac).

Thankfully, when I got back to it a few hours later, I tried removing that adapter out of desperation and it fixed it. Throwing that little guy away! And I repeated it over and over, trying different ports on the mini, etc.

Gosh this little mini sure is nice. I put 16GB of RAM in it myself. Honestly, my 2011 server was ok with SSD, but I love this thing and Catalina, though I miss dashboard.

 

[Fishrrman]

A wired (USB) keyboard and a NON-bluetooth mouse will fix this.
I use a Logitech with the "unifying receiver" (uses its own radio channel).
No lags...

 

[Boyd01]

Well, I started to freak out because my old Mighty Mouse was doing it too, although not quite as bad as the Magic Mouse. And no, I didn't have both connected at the same time.

I have my Magic Mouse (space grey, like yours) paired on Bluetooth and my wired mouse (cheap Targus I got at the drug store) connected to a USB-A port on the Mini. They both work fine while connected at the same time, I can pick either one up and use them with no problems.

Never really liked the Magic Mouse in the past, but thought I'd give it chance on the new Mini. It is fine for MacOS, and fine in Windows Explorer. Buy I use an older GIS program (for making maps) heavily on Windows, and the middle mouse button is essential. Also need the tactile feedback of a scroll wheel for zooming, with the Magic Mouse it is too easy to "over-shoot" while the program is still updating the screen.

All in all, I wish I'd saved the money and not gotten the Magic Mouse, the touch features don't do much for me, have never been very fond of trackpads. OTOH, I'm happy with the extended Magic Keyboard (also space grey, LOL). No problems with it.

FWIW, I don't use wifi on the Mini, am using gigabit ethernet. That may be a factor with bluetooth issues. But I do have two external SSD's connected via USB-C.

 

[Jolly Blackburn]

I had this same issue and permanently fixed it by using the steps given here. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-mini-2018-bluetooth-issues.2157086/page-20