Mac Mouse Fix

[nopcode]

After testing & buying everything out there, I settled with LinearMouse [0]:

  - FOSS (a plus but don't mind paying)
  - Control of scrolling mode settings different for Horizontal vs Vertical
  - Can disable mouse acceleration (I think only CursorSense can also do this).
  - Universal back and forward buttons (replaces SensibleSideButtons)
  - Settings are different per input device, scrolling can be per app

I cannot stand any mouse acceleration. And I don't understand how people can work with it. You have to retrain the muscle memory each time you switch OS.

[0]: https://linearmouse.app/

[cnity]

Same with scroll acceleration. Someone honestly sat down and thought the mousewheel should work like this on Macos:

1. Turning the wheel one notch should scroll the page 1-5 pixels.

2. Turning the wheel two notches should scroll the page 10 pixels.

3. Turning the wheel three notches should scroll the page one full page.

Very clever and helpful.

[andrewmcwatters]

Because it makes no sense to design a mouse pointer with unknown range in such a way that it is linearly mapped to range on a viewport.

Users need full range of precision. No one wants to wave their arm around several times to get to the other side of the screen because someone thought it was an excellent idea to make sure every millimeter was mapped to every pixel.

And no one wants a pointer so imprecise that the slightest nudge sends you 400 points left right up or down.

There is no universally agreed upon acceleration curve. So what, do you complain that not every single vehicle has the same foot peddle resistance?

[pxc]

> Universal back and forward buttons

I didn't realize people actually wanted this! I thought it was just a thoughtless default from hardware manufacturers. Every time I activate back or forward via a special mouse button (or via gestures!), it's an annoying mistake.

I would much rather have (and do have) next/prev tab buttons than browser back and forward!

I'll second LinearMouse, though! It's nice that there's a free solution for this now. Apple seems to periodically break third-party tools that fix their mouse acceleration problems.

[aa-jv]

Just FYI, re-training muscle memory is how you avoid RSI with keyboards/mice. Its important to switch up your input devices every few months and give the muscles in your hands a chance to de-calcify from the previous ergonomics.

[nick_]

Same here. Finally, Sonoma will have a mouse acceleration disable setting. This should be good for battery life as tools like LinearMouse all report somewhat significant CPU usage while moving the pointer.

[eviks]

Indeed, this is an awesome tool, especially love its speed multiplier with a key so you can easily scroll within long documents! (or even medium ones)

[zuhsetaqi]

Does this app work with two users logged in both using this app?

[guax]

Thank you, this was a nice find.

[jzelinskie]

It looks like this competes with Mos.app[0]. Honestly, I'm not sure how folks use non-magic mice without this.

If you use macOS on a desk setup, I still recommend the magic trackpad over everything else; macOS is just designed around trackpads. It might not be the best for ergonomics, but if that's your concern and you work as a programmer, you should just optimize your workflows around the keyboard instead of the mouse.

[0]: https://mos.caldis.me

[leidenfrost]

Totally unrelated, but since we are talking about QOL tools on macOS, i thoroughly recommend BetterDisplay[0]

It enables reting scaling functionality on any external monitor, regardless of the resolution or the Apple compatibility.

It's great for 2k monitors that are totally hiDPI but are not deemed enough by Apple, and even for FHD secondarh displays that don't need that much display real state so you can use that real state to scale everything nicely.

[0]: https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

[Falkon1313]

Ah, I see. I use a normal cheap generic gaming mouse with my Mac specifically because I hated the 'magic' mouse and trackpad. I just want a normal mouse that works properly, the same as it does on Windows and Linux machines, without automagically doing stuff I didn't want it to do.

I really despise hidden secret swipe controls and the double/triple tap thing.

[__jonas]

> Honestly, I'm not sure how folks use non-magic mice without this.

I use a non-magic mouse, it seems fine to me.

I remember in the past there was this problem with scroll direction being the inverse of what I expected and I had to use some app to change it just for my mouse and not the trackpad, but with my current setup the mouse behaves as I would expect, not sure if it's due to this mouse's firmware or a change in MacOS or something, I am curious what advantages these apps offer since I seem to be the target audience?

I don't really see the point in these gestures to switch spaces etc., and scrolling / mouse movement seems fine to me, what am I missing?

Edit: I just realized, my mouse works as expected because I have it set to inverted in BetterTouchTool, which I originally installed for other reasons, so I suppose I do see the point in these Apps

[happymellon]

> you should just optimize your workflows around the keyboard instead of the mouse.

The one issue I have is that out of the box, MacOS does not let you use the keyboard for all of the actions required. It doesn't even expose some actions to be able to b̶o̶n̶d̶ bind keys to, and you have to use 3rd party tools just to navigate with your keyboard.

[sgt]

Interesting - I'm a macOS power user (at least I would think so, having used it since 2003). Not really using my mouse all that much. Mostly I use keyboard shortcuts when possible. I don't really like trackpads and mice too much, and macOS is still very powerful. What do you need the trackpad so much for?

[seanp2k2]

https://www.usboverdrive.com/index.php/information/ Can also do some useful things for mice, keyboards, and gamepads / joysticks on MacOS. I’ve had a license for many years.

[denkmoon]

Unnatural scroll wheels is the only app I need for using a regular mouse, which it looks like mos also has, but I don't need the other stuff. I use a magic trackpad in office and a mouse at home.

[rcme]

I tried using the magic trackpad. I liked it a lot, but something about how I held my pinky and ring finger kind of "tucked in" eventually lead to pain and I had to switch.

[joelkesler]

It looks cool, but there is no screenshot or video of the settings you can configure.

The videos show only the effects (scrolling, etc) and not how you can use your mouse or set it up to do it.

[guidedlight]

This website really struggles to define the problem, it goes straight into the solution.

If I have a Magic Mouse do I need this?

[grishka]

Definitely not. This is intended for those "gaming" PC mice with extra buttons. I tried it with mine (I normally use a magic trackpad but sometimes, rarely, I need a real mouse) and it works really nice. The only thing I'm missing is horizontal scrolling but I have no idea how to fit it in there.

edit: it can scroll horizontally if you hold shift while scrolling

[upon_drumhead]

> Is Mac Mouse Fix compatible with the Apple Magic Mouse?

> Mac Mouse Fix makes your third party mouse better! But it has no effect on Apple's Magic Mouse.

[globular-toast]

They're probably scared to write this but Apple cripples every mouse other than "Magic Mouse" to make "Magic Mouse" seem good despite being a piece of shit. This uncripples other mice.

[_rs]

No probably not. I’ve been using this app for years, it lets me program the extra buttons on my Logitech mouse to switch spaces or open Mission Control and such, among other things

[alpaca128]

No, it's for any mouse with a middle button. Or if you happen to use both the touchpad and a mouse, like maybe on a Macbook, in which case you can actually set the scrolling direction for trackpad and mouse separately - which is otherwise not possible, really annoying.

[dmitshur]

This tool exists to make scrolling on other mouse devices feel more like it does on the Magic Mouse. Since you already have that, you don't need the tool.

[bombcar]

I use SensibleSideButtons for all my mouse customization needs (which aren't much) https://sensible-side-buttons.archagon.net

[thangngoc89]

Thanks for this. I’ve been using this Logitech mouse since forever and the side buttons doesn’t have any functionality

[justinclift]

Looks like it's Open Source too (GPL2): https://github.com/archagon/sensible-side-buttons

Hasn't had a commit in 6 years though. :/

[keyle]

yeah same, this is a nice one to simply get the back button on the mouse to actually go back...

[wffurr]

Doesn’t say what it actually does for what kinds of mice, at least from a quick scroll.

I have been using BetterTouchTool for years to program the extra buttons on my Logitech mice and add a three finger tip-tap tab switching gesture to the trackpad. Works beautifully.

[ghusbands]

The page doesn't describe how you do any of the actions with a mouse. It badly needs some text just explaining exactly what it provides and how.

[DavideNL]

Yea, that was my first thought as well...

[stevenguh]

I used this software for a long time, and it is targeted at people using a regular mouse but still want to have a trackpad ish experience (and making mac more mouse friendly). Things that I used day to day: smooth scrolling, horizontal scrolling, and middle click enhancements. It is free and open source.

[Reason077]

Thanks for the clear description! You should write the copy for the website, which explains none of this (at least not on the front page).

[Our_Benefactors]

I use steerMouse for this. I think the license was $8 and its lifetime for multiple machines, money well spent.

[j_crick]

And it supports lots of stuff and just seamlessly works in the background. And it has neat detailed options for custom shortcuts on any buttons and scrolling tweaking. It helped me a lot with many mice setups along the years.

New license is 19.99$ nowadays though. Still worth it imo!

https://plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/

[aplummer]

I'm surprised not to see more people use my setup, mouse in primary hand, Magic Trackpad along the opposite side of the keyboard for the other.

It's mostly to enable gestures and padding / swiping in macOS, but its also pretty nice getting to pan with one hand and use the pointer with the other.

[behnamoh]

I do this and much more using Logitech's software + LinearMouse + BetterTouchTools + Mos (optional).

[ramphastidae]

I read the website but can’t tell — does it support pinch to zoom? Would make life easier when using Figma - I currently have to take my hand off of my mouse and put it on my laptop, which is on a stand :-/

[mhrmsn]

I've started using this and also tried LinearMouse and LogiOptions. Using two Macs interchangeably with two different Logitech mice, I somehow fail to get a consistent experience across all setups. Scrolling behavior also 'feels' different depending on the application browser vs code editor, etc.)

And then there's some weird scroll wheel wobble on my MX Master 3, which gets interpreted differently depending on what software I use and the occasional disconnect even if the receiver is right next to the mouse...

Why is this so hard? :)

[varispeed]

It's so crazy that macOS can't get mouse to work properly. Like you have to install dedicated apps for a scroll wheel so they reverse direction of scrolling to match the trackpad and still you cannot get to control the scrolling properly. Then these apps tend to stop working randomly or reverse direction and you have to turn it off then randomly direction reverses again etc.

Mouse is the most frustrating experience on Macs. It's bizarre.

[ShadowBanThis01]

This is the opposite of what I want. Is there a fix for the defectively-large trackpad on Mac laptops, which causes spurious right-clicks, deselections, and cursor jumps while you're typing?

The fix would be to deactivate the outer inch or so of the trackpad.

I can only imagine the overly-complicated and ultimately unreliable touch-rejection logic Apple has ladled onto this thing, to work around a problem they created.

[ah27182]

Kinda unrelated, but has anyone had trouble with using usb wireless mice with the M1 macbooks?

I able to use it on my other intel MacBook without issues…

[barryvan]

I recently diagnosed a very weird problem on my M32 MacBook Pro 13" where the _HDMI_ cable I was using caused my Logitech mouse (with 2.4GHz dongle) to stutter and disconnect/reconnect. Nothing to do with the display, my adapter/dongle, other peripherals, or other running apps. Still don't know _why_ that HDMI caused those issues, because the display was fine, but... MacOS is just sometimes obtusely weird!

[upon_drumhead]

What do you mean by wireless usb?

[jdougan]

If you want something really flexible for HID customizations on MacOS, I would recommend ControllerMate. Graphical language that takes in and generates USB HID events.

(I've been wanting the equivalent for Windows or Linux)

[1] https://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/

[sneed_chucker]

All I really want is the ability to have inverted scrolling on the track pad and have normal scrolling when I use a mouse wheel. For some reason MacOS doesn't support doing these even though it supports things like remapping certain keys on USB keyboards only.

[cristianrgreco]

Just tried this out and agree it's made my mouse more usable - thanks!

I particularly like the click and drag for Mission Control & Spaces.

A couple of things I'd love to see: 1. When middle click is set to click there is a noticeable delay. 2. Icon in menu bar

[r3n]

Based on what I see on the website, I think some (if not all) of them can be done via custom key/gesture settings that supported by your mouse manufacturers (e.g. Logitech Options).