Magic Mouse not working so well- help?

[Tubamajuba]

I bought a Magic Mouse yesterday to use with my mid-2012 non-retina MBP, and I was absolutely impressed by the appearance. After using it, I love the gestures as well. Problem is...

The tracking is terrible. The pointer moves way too fast sometimes and way too slow other times, and it often goes from slow to fast and vice versa without a middle ground. As such, I find myself completely overshooting things that I try to click on. Even when I undershoot things, I still end up overshooting them when I try to move the pointer just a bit further.

To make sure I wasn't going crazy, I used my old wireless mouse again and it was exactly as I expected- consistent.

I tried changing the tracking settings, downloading MagicPrefs, and nothing makes the Magic Mouse any more consistent for me. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Weaselboy]

Have you perhaps installed some after market mouse drivers? What you describe does not sound like normal Mac mouse behavior. By default there is no "acceleration" like you see on PCs.

You might try going to System Preferences in the mouse pane below and ratchet down the tracking speed some. Where you see mine set at there is what I find comfortable with my Magic Mouse.

 

[Tubamajuba]

Have you perhaps installed some after market mouse drivers? What you describe does not sound like normal Mac mouse behavior. By default there is no "acceleration" like you see on PCs.

You might try going to System Preferences in the mouse pane below and ratchet down the tracking speed some. Where you see mine set at there is what I find comfortable with my Magic Mouse.

I noticed that as I turned the tracking speed to the maximum, I was able to perceive the mouse lagging and speeding ahead even as I maintained a constant speed while moving the mouse. So like you suggested, turning the tracking speed down even further from where I previously had it definitely helped. But it's not as fast as I would prefer, and my Logitech mouse can manage a faster tracking speed while still smoothly moving the mouse pointer.

I also checked to make sure no other mouse drivers were installed. I have the Logitech Unifying Software installed, but it doesn't appear to be active when no Logitech device is connected. I make sure to remove the Logitech USB adapter and turn the mouse off whenever I switch back to the Magic Mouse, so I don't think that's an issue. Unless of course, you recommend uninstalling the Logitech software altogether, which I would be fine with.

I'm absolutely not ruling out user error as the problem here, but it's difficult to understand why the Magic Mouse is having issues where my other mouse (and the built in MBP trackpad, for that matter) have no such issues.

Thanks again for the help, by the way!

 

[Weaselboy]

I noticed that as I turned the tracking speed to the maximum, I was able to perceive the mouse lagging and speeding ahead even as I maintained a constant speed while moving the mouse.

That is definitely not normal. Mine tracks smooth no matter what speed or how fast I move it.

Maybe check the pop the cover off and make sure the sensor lens does not have dust or anything in there? Are you using it on a relatively smooth surface?

If none of that helps, I would uninstall the Logitech drivers just to help troubleshoot.

 

[Tubamajuba]

That is definitely not normal. Mine tracks smooth no matter what speed or how fast I move it.

Maybe check the pop the cover off and make sure the sensor lens does not have dust or anything in there? Are you using it on a relatively smooth surface?

If none of that helps, I would uninstall the Logitech drivers just to help troubleshoot.

I'm using it on a cloth mousepad. Are there better surfaces I could use? And I just cleaned the lens off, didn't seem to help. I also uninstalled the Logitech drivers, and that also didn't seem to help. But I *did* discover that the Logitech mouse didn't need the drivers, so either way they're not going back on.

 

[Weaselboy]

I'm using it on a cloth mousepad. Are there better surfaces I could use? And I just cleaned the lens off, didn't seem to help. I also uninstalled the Logitech drivers, and that also didn't seem to help. But I *did* discover that the Logitech mouse didn't need the drivers, so either way they're not going back on.

Regular cloth pad should work fine. Only other thing I can think of to try is go to the Bluetooth settings and delete the Magic Mouse then re-add it. If that does not fix it, I'm going to say it is defective and you should exchange it.

No way should it be erratic like you described.

 

[Tubamajuba]

Regular cloth pad should work fine. Only other thing I can think of to try is go to the Bluetooth settings and delete the Magic Mouse then re-add it. If that does not fix it, I'm going to say it is defective and you should exchange it.

No way should it be erratic like you described.

I unpaired and paired it again, same issue. I think I'm just going to exchange it.

Again, thank you so much for the help. I appreciate it!

 

[Lankyman]

I don't want to rain on your parade. However, your Logitech mouse was by far the better solution providing you are not wedded to gestures. I long since gave up on the MM in favour of my old trusty Logitech. The Logitech has really good ergonomics and has much better battery life than MM.