Which plist has mouse/trackpad configs in?

[Sheza]

Hi there

I got a new iMac recently and chose to set up as new. I noticed that something felt off about my mouse and, to a lesser extent, my trackpad when compared against my old iMac which I had sitting side by side.

Even though they are the same mouse and trackpad, set to the same settings in System Preferences, the mouse pointer acceleration seemed weird. It seemed more floaty and was less accurate when slowing down to hit a click target.

I remember some years ago a tool called SmoothMouse that allowed you to select 'Acceleration: like in Windows'. It is my belief that I used this app when I got my first iMac, and then later removed it as it became incompatible with the OS.

However, I believe that the software made a change to the acceleration somewhere hidden in the OS and that meant that the Windows-like acceleration effect has remained ever since.

I have tried a tool that lets you change the acceleration and sensitivity on a fine scale, but have not been able to replicate the feeling of my old iMac. So I wondered if these settings would be contained in some kind of plist file that I could copy over to my new iMac. Any ideas?

 

[frou]

Not directly answering your question, but I can recommend Plentycom's software, which not only allows acceleration to be tweaked, but also disabled completely (i.e. cursor movement is then completely linear... all that matters is the distance the mouse was physically moved, not how fast it was physically moved).

 

[Taz Mangus]

Open System Preferences→Accessibility→Pointer Control. Look at Trackpad Options... and Mouse Options.... If that does not work the requested preference files:

Mouse Preference Files:

com.apple.AppleMultitouchMouse.plist
com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse.plist

Trackpad Preference Files:

com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad.plist
com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist

 

[Sheza]

I’ve copied across all those .plists and replicated the settings and yet, still, only my old iMac had the perfect mouse acceleration. I have no idea why but for some reason it’s different, despite there being no obvious reason why.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I’ve copied across all those .plists and replicated the settings and yet, still, only my old iMac had the perfect mouse acceleration. I have no idea why but for some reason it’s different, despite there being no obvious reason why.

Maybe try SMC and PRAM reset.

For sanity check, create a new clean user account, login to the new user and see if the issue still happens.

 

[Peacock22]

You can use the following commands in Terminal to read and modify the acceleration scaling for the mouse or trackpad:

Command to change mouse acceleration:
defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1

(Set to -1 to disable mouse acceleration, otherwise use a different number)

Check mouse, trackpad and scrolling values:
defaults read .GlobalPreferences

(The relevant settings will be listed somewhere at the bottom of the Terminal output.)

So you could run the read command on the old Mac that has the right mouse acceleration settings, then just run the write command on the new Mac and replace the -1 with whatever the old Mac's setting is. Remember that you may need to restart the Mac for the changes to take effect.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Maybe one of these will help. SmoothCursor:

SmoothCursor — Custom mouse and trackpad acceleration for Mac

Custom mouse and trackpad acceleration for Mac

smoothcursor.com

CursorSense:

CursorSense

www.plentycom.jp

 

[Sheza]

Maybe one of these will help. SmoothCursor:

SmoothCursor — Custom mouse and trackpad acceleration for Mac

Custom mouse and trackpad acceleration for Mac

smoothcursor.com

CursorSense:

CursorSense

www.plentycom.jp

Sadly they don’t - at least not CursorSense which I have tried before. The issue is the cursor acts too floaty at the deceleration phase. These apps change the acceleration but only that - I am still overshooting UI targets. On the windows-style acceleration there’s an appropriate deceleration that makes my cursor stop quickly and accurately

 

[Taz Mangus]

Maybe this might help:

• If you are using a wireless mouse and/or trackpad, remove them from System Preferences->Bluetooth, reset SMC and PRAM and add them back into System Preferences->Bluetooth.
• Create a clean new user account, login to the new user and see how the mouse and trackpad act.
  

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

The SMC is responsible for managing power on your Mac. Resetting it can resolve certain uncommon issues related to power or thermal management.

support.apple.com

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.

support.apple.com

 

[Sheza]

Maybe this might help:

• If you are using a wireless mouse and/or trackpad, remove them from System Preferences->Bluetooth, reset SMC and PRAM and add them back into System Preferences->Bluetooth.
• Create a clean new user account, login to the new user and see how the mouse and trackpad act.

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

The SMC is responsible for managing power on your Mac. Resetting it can resolve certain uncommon issues related to power or thermal management.

support.apple.com

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.

support.apple.com

I’m not sure how, as it’s a new iMac? I am saying that my old iMac has odd (but GOOD) behaviour, I have set up 2 new iMacs since then which don’t exhibit that behaviour, implying that they are the true default.