Is your 3rd party mouse driving you crazy in MacOS?
Since moving from a Windows based primary computer to an M1 Air, and then a Pro Max, I've wrestled with getting my trusty Logitech M720s (Im addicted to these) + the more occasional Anywhere MX 2s and Razr Basilisk X work as smoothly and reliably as in Windows. It's not really mouse or brand specific though, it's down to drivers.
There's been a lot of Googling, experimentation and words not suitable for print uttered in the process. I can't be the only one struggling with this and this little writeup is in the hopes of helping someone that might have the same issues.
There are several issues, movement jerkiness, sensitivity, acceleration and scrolling. Some only in specific apps, some universal. It's a real PITA. I've struggled particularly with the scroll wheel in the Adobe apps, like Photoshop and Premiere where command + scroll wheel to zoom or move along the timeline have been hypersensitive and erratic.
Note, I use Chrome as my primary browser with Edge as the secondary due to other ecosystems. What Safari does and doesn't I don't know. All I know is that Chrome scrolling works great this way, even arrow key scrolling is smooth.
So, here's one possible way to get everything working like you want.
1. Uninstall third party mouse apps/drivers, like the Logitech Options. Basically, any third party apps that has something to do with mouse and smooth scrolling.
2. (buy and) Install USB Overdrive (I'm in no way affiliated with this app), which basically will replace your mouse manufacturers or Apples stock mouse driver and give options to customise buttons and sensitivities ++.
https://www.usboverdrive.com/
Tip: If you start USB Overdrive and mouse sensitivity instantly seems "off" after you've adjusted it perfectly earlier on, kill it and restart it. It's something weird happening where the stock MacOS mouse driver takes over.
When the mouse shows up under "Status" in the Overdrive-app, it should be controlling the mouse properly. If it doesn't show here, some other 3rd party mouse drivers or the stock Apple ones are controlling it.
3. Install MOS. A small, free app that basically will smooth out scrolling.
https://mos.caldis.me/
4. Reboot.
5. Adjustments.
Overall mouse sensitivity
Adjust to your liking in USB Overdrive.
Smooth scrolling in Chrome and other apps.
Set in MOS - find settings that work for you, mine might be a starting point.
Fix hypersensitive/accelerated scrolling on per app-basis
There are two main steps to this. First you might have to exclude the app from MOS by adding it to its "Exceptions"-list. Ad it and uncheck/check the boxes and test how scrolling works. PS! Don't do the check/uncheck before you've completed the steps further down this post.
Secondly and most importantly, you need to make a profile for that problematic app in USB Overdrive
Then you need to change the amount of lines a click of the scroll wheel travels in that app. The "One Line" setting should do the trick in most cases. In this case it makes Photoshop zoom via command + scroll wheel like its supposed to, i.e. not jumping 100s of % per click.
Thats it!
6. Notes
Since moving from a Windows based primary computer to an M1 Air, and then a Pro Max, I've wrestled with getting my trusty Logitech M720s (Im addicted to these) + the more occasional Anywhere MX 2s and Razr Basilisk X work as smoothly and reliably as in Windows. It's not really mouse or brand specific though, it's down to drivers.
There's been a lot of Googling, experimentation and words not suitable for print uttered in the process. I can't be the only one struggling with this and this little writeup is in the hopes of helping someone that might have the same issues.
There are several issues, movement jerkiness, sensitivity, acceleration and scrolling. Some only in specific apps, some universal. It's a real PITA. I've struggled particularly with the scroll wheel in the Adobe apps, like Photoshop and Premiere where command + scroll wheel to zoom or move along the timeline have been hypersensitive and erratic.
Note, I use Chrome as my primary browser with Edge as the secondary due to other ecosystems. What Safari does and doesn't I don't know. All I know is that Chrome scrolling works great this way, even arrow key scrolling is smooth.
So, here's one possible way to get everything working like you want.
1. Uninstall third party mouse apps/drivers, like the Logitech Options. Basically, any third party apps that has something to do with mouse and smooth scrolling.
2. (buy and) Install USB Overdrive (I'm in no way affiliated with this app), which basically will replace your mouse manufacturers or Apples stock mouse driver and give options to customise buttons and sensitivities ++.
https://www.usboverdrive.com/
Tip: If you start USB Overdrive and mouse sensitivity instantly seems "off" after you've adjusted it perfectly earlier on, kill it and restart it. It's something weird happening where the stock MacOS mouse driver takes over.
When the mouse shows up under "Status" in the Overdrive-app, it should be controlling the mouse properly. If it doesn't show here, some other 3rd party mouse drivers or the stock Apple ones are controlling it.
3. Install MOS. A small, free app that basically will smooth out scrolling.
https://mos.caldis.me/
4. Reboot.
5. Adjustments.
Overall mouse sensitivity
Adjust to your liking in USB Overdrive.
Smooth scrolling in Chrome and other apps.
Set in MOS - find settings that work for you, mine might be a starting point.
Fix hypersensitive/accelerated scrolling on per app-basis
There are two main steps to this. First you might have to exclude the app from MOS by adding it to its "Exceptions"-list. Ad it and uncheck/check the boxes and test how scrolling works. PS! Don't do the check/uncheck before you've completed the steps further down this post.
Secondly and most importantly, you need to make a profile for that problematic app in USB Overdrive
Then you need to change the amount of lines a click of the scroll wheel travels in that app. The "One Line" setting should do the trick in most cases. In this case it makes Photoshop zoom via command + scroll wheel like its supposed to, i.e. not jumping 100s of % per click.
Thats it!
6. Notes
- This is running under Monterey 12.2 on an M1 Pro Max.
- My mice are connected via BT. Its stable and no issues, mouse lag is completely acceptable for BT.
- Everything works more or less as I'm used to from Windows using this approach, but obviously its a lot more hassle to set up.
- There are more ways to achieve this and several apps that do roughly the same things out there. It is also hugely app dependent whether scrolling is an issue for you. For some MOS alone can or will sort out your scrolling issues if you're not using apps affected by the hypersensitive accelerated scrolling.
