Change the mouse wheel scrolling acceleration

Question

I am new Mac user and I don't really like the Magic Mouse so I reverted to a good old 3 button mouse with a scroll wheel.

When I turn the wheel slowly, it only scrolls pixel per pixel (or per two pixels) If I turn the wheel more quickly, it scrolls nearly line by line. There is a kind of scroll wheel acceleration where the amount scrolled for each wheel step depends on the rotation speed of the wheel.

This behavior is not present in Windows where you always scroll a few lines per wheel step.

Is there a way to disable this behaviour or to tweak it in Mac OS X Lion?

Does the mouse's vendor have drivers/software for OS X? For example, Microsoft's Intellipoint mice come with a System Preferences pane that allows you to tweak scrolling speed: http://i.imgur.com/GJ4SM.png — Jari Keinänen, Aug 26 '11 at 10:50
It is a generic Dell mouse, but every mouse I have tested have the same slow scrolling acceleration — thieum, Aug 29 '11 at 10:54
If Chrome is your main browser you can use [this extension](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/khpcanbeojalbkpgpmjpdkjnkfcgfkhb) to add this feature to chrome. However, with this extension enabled you should only use the mouse to scroll in lion. No magic mouse or magic trackpad. — gentmatt, Mar 22 '12 at 17:15
@jokoon I got it through the vendor's product's download page (in my case [Microsoft/Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000](http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/d/natural-ergonomic-desktop-7000)). (edit: interesting, the `en-us` page does not have the link for IntelliType, but [`fi-fi` page](http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/fi-fi/d/natural-ergonomic-desktop-7000), which I used, does) — Jari Keinänen, Jul 28 '12 at 10:29
This behavior is really annoying. Seems like Apple wants to discourage people to use mice instead of his trackpad... — Pierre de LESPINAY, Mar 06 '13 at 11:00

score 21 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 23 '12 at 01:33

21

Hope you're still reading - I highly recommend one of the third party mouse managers like SteerMouse or USB Overdrive or ControllerMate.

I found the arch of the Magic Mouse just too low and went back to the old reliable Logitech MX Revolution, but I will never install Logitech software again without an excellent reason. These packages will let you configure all of the buttons and SteerMouse (haven't verified for the other two) will definitely let you specify linear or accelerated wheel scrolling with variable degree of acceleration.

answered Mar 23 '12 at 01:33

Adam Eberbach

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I'm also new to MacOS. I totally agree we should never install contructor drivers for this kind of device. But I'm used to opensource softwares. Is there really people buying applications for tunning their mice (in Apple world) ? – Pierre de LESPINAY Mar 06 '13 at 10:56
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I bought SteerMouse. As a developer I am happy to support another developer who makes my experience better. Open Source is a fine idea, but sometimes you just need one guy with a vision. – Adam Eberbach Mar 06 '13 at 11:39
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I undestand your opinion. I personnaly prefer freely contribute to projets than giving money. This is the original idea of opensource. – Pierre de LESPINAY Mar 06 '13 at 14:47
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is there any open source program? because I absolutely refuse to pay money just to slow down scrolling in finder. – Wyatt Ward Apr 22 '15 at 21:20
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Shrug. You see some value in it but won't pay for it? Use inbuilt preferences or install the vendor's drivers - you paid for those with the hardware. – Adam Eberbach Apr 22 '15 at 21:37
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Thank you for the SteerMouse recommendation. I had an issue with LCC in El Capitan where the mouse scroll wheel would accelerate in Chrome dev tools (i.e. 8 increments when adjusting numeric values with the mouse wheel in the Style tab). Un-installed LCC and installed SteerMouse and was able to map all MX Revolution buttons - including the search button override to middle click. My WebStorm issue where back and forward buttons could not be bound in the IDE were automagically fixed. Well worth the $20 license price! – Nazar Jan 09 '16 at 13:51
I've developed an app that does that among other things. The app is not free but that specific feature is free and will always be free. Check out Smooze in my answer. – Segev Mar 25 '17 at 13:46
SteerMouse is a godsend. I've been suffering with the Logitech drivers since getting the MX Anywhere 2. – tom Oct 06 '18 at 07:33

Segev · Answer 2 · 2022-01-12T11:45:09.810

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After many years of frustration with macOS & wheel mice, I've developed Smooze. Disabling the scroll acceleration and setting the number of lines you want to move on each tick are free features.

Smooze website

edited Jan 12 '22 at 11:45

answered Mar 25 '17 at 13:44

Segev

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Hi bro, what are the exact settings needed to make scrolling on Chrome **identical** to that of Windows? Would be great if there's a checkbox where the user can just tick to make it work like as per Windows... – Pacerier Aug 17 '17 at 20:23
Adding presets is high on my to do list. Regarding the Windows Chrome settings, I never tried to compare the two.. Windows 10 will defiantly be one of the presets, though. – Segev Aug 17 '17 at 20:47
Smooze breaks scrolling in XQuartz :( – Aido Jun 03 '19 at 22:10
If someone comes here in 2022, there's LinearMouse. It's free and open source. Not quite as fancy as Smooze, but free > $20 – Lord Zsolt Dec 24 '22 at 20:19

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 13 '13 at 08:17

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USB Overdrive changes the default scrolling behavior so that single ticks of a scroll wheel scroll in larger increments.

It also has an option to for example make a single tick always scroll a single line. It also supports changing the tracking (but not scrolling) acceleration, like SmoothMouse or MouseAcceleration.prefPane.

answered Dec 13 '13 at 08:17

Lri

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This works well, but it is "beg-ware" on bootup and whenever entering the dialog above, and costs $20 to register. – kmarsh Feb 07 '14 at 15:03
This does not work for the trackpad. – gklka Oct 22 '16 at 13:52
@kmarsh Yeah otherwise known as shareware? Do you not understand how that works? – tubedogg Feb 02 '21 at 06:57
Thank you for your concern @tubedogg, I am familiar with shareware, and other dying paradigms. – kmarsh Feb 10 '21 at 03:19
Clearly familiar enough to feel entitled to have the "beg" screen go away without actually purchasing the software instead of using it for free forever. – tubedogg Feb 18 '21 at 04:27
This app does not solve the issue of single step scroll using the wheel. Even after setup to 3 lines per scroll, it scrolls a single pixel instead of 3 lines. SteerMouse app saved my life. – Emre Tapcı Aug 09 '22 at 10:22

score 8 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

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There is now a free program called DiscreteScroll - https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/262329/221420 - it will make it so that one mouse wheel tick scrolls 3 lines.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

Community

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answered Jan 30 '17 at 04:56

Peter Thiem

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This answer should have more upvotes! – Himanshu P Apr 27 '21 at 09:54
@HimanshuP Hear hear. – Paul Sanders Jan 07 '22 at 22:12

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 23 '21 at 12:27

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https://mousefix.org/ -- Try this, I was facing the same issue. Sometimes wanted to use trackpad and a normal mouse together. It has a setting "Invert Direction" too. I am sure you will not go anywhere else after using this.

I am on mac Mojave 10.14.6. Its FREE!

answered Jan 23 '21 at 12:27

Jiten

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As a long time Linux user, this has made my transition a lot easier. – WhiteHotLoveTiger Feb 27 '21 at 03:08
This is one of the few up-to-date free options. Saved me some nerves! – Tiago Duque May 31 '22 at 16:44
As mentioned in the comment above, this is up-to-date and works perfectly for anybody migrating from Windows. (I am using it with the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Mouse). – PeterByte Oct 28 '22 at 16:11

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 19 '13 at 18:33

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If you have logitech mouse then you can try installing Logitech Control Center for Macintosh® OS X http://www.logitech.com/en-us/support/3129?section=downloads&bit=&osid=35

answered Dec 19 '13 at 18:33

nono

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score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 13 '14 at 19:25

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The application found here fixes the issue:

https://github.com/davekeck/DisableExtremeScrollAcceleration

answered Jan 13 '14 at 19:25

Joseph

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doesn't seem to work for me... should I log off and log on again, or restart applications ? – jokoon Jul 05 '14 at 07:18
check out this for Mavericks: http://superuser.com/questions/710926/disabling-scroll-wheel-acceleration-on-os-x-mavericks – Joseph Jul 07 '14 at 03:10

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 27 '16 at 16:38

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SmoothMouse donationware works great for me on OS X El Capitan 10.11.3

answered Jan 27 '16 at 16:38

Chris

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At least try to bother to read the title, this app only works for cursor acceleration, and not WHEEL SCROLLING acceleration... – Facundo Pedrazzini Jul 12 '16 at 19:30
Thanks for pulling me up on this (if a little aggressively) @Facundo. I installed this and was convinced it had fixed the scroll wheel, but have since discovered that it must have been something else, as I have lost the effect. – Chris Jul 16 '16 at 14:07
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Sorry for the aggressively part @Chris – Facundo Pedrazzini Aug 18 '16 at 18:18
Not at all thanks @FacundoPedrazzini and thanks for correcting my answer. – Chris Aug 21 '16 at 14:51
SmoothMouse does not work in OS X Sierra anymore, but you can control mouse pointer acceleration and scroll wheel acceleration via the command line with `defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.[mouse|scrollwheel].scaling`: http://dolphm.com/disable-mouse-pointer-acceleration-and-scroll-wheel-acceleration-in-os-x/ – Dolph Oct 06 '16 at 14:31
@Dolph The scroll wheel has a dead zone in addition to the acceleration - spinning the scroll wheel slowly does not register at all. The scaling preference only removes the acceleration. – Monstieur Nov 08 '16 at 08:55

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 28 '13 at 12:00

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You can use this the Mouse acceleration Prefpane, download it free here:

http://triq.net/articles/mouse-acceleration-preference-pane-mac-os-x

answered Jun 28 '13 at 12:00

Josep Viciana

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That let you tweak the mouse cursor acceleration, not the the acceleration of the scroll wheel – Alex Jasmin Nov 27 '13 at 01:27

gblazex · Answer 10 · 2016-12-16T12:24:16.127

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SmoothScroll for Mac fixes this problem (you can disable acceleration or give your own parameters). Even better it makes scrolling animated between wheel ticks so you get a smooth experience.

By paying for it you ensure that there's somebody out there who cares about the mouse scrolling experience on Macs.

(disclaimer: I am the developer)

edited Dec 16 '16 at 12:24

answered Dec 14 '16 at 10:28

gblazex

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score -3 · Answer 11 · answered Jan 19 '12 at 00:03

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System Preferences---Mouse

There you can speed up the scrolling speed.

Tracking Speed relates to how fast the mouse moves across the screen.

Good Luck!

answered Jan 19 '12 at 00:03

Robert

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You could enlighten Robert, and the rest of us… – jaberg Mar 22 '12 at 17:15
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I'll do it. *Acceleration* is, in this context, when the mouse cursor (or page, when scrolling) moves **farther** when you move your finger **faster**. For instance, as @thieum said in the original question, "When I turn the wheel slowly, it only scrolls pixel per pixel (or per two pixels) If I turn the wheel more quickly, it scrolls nearly line by line. There is a kind of scroll wheel acceleration where the amount scrolled for each wheel step depends on the rotation speed of the wheel." – Tuesday Mar 23 '12 at 01:39

Change the mouse wheel scrolling acceleration

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