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How to disable mouse dispatch and other odd mouse behaviour on MacOS (10.15.4+)

A guide on how to deal with the odd mouse behaviour of macOS. This guide aims to solve this for whatsoever mouse and not but for Apples Magic Mouse.

Apr 22, 2022 • vii min read

tl:dr ("also long didn't read") version of this, can be establish at the end of the post.

Many people struggle with the mouse behaviour on mac Operating Systems. Especially when switching from Windows. This behaviour (which is generally caused by the heavy mouse dispatch on mac systems) can't be turned off in the Organisation Preferences. Mouse dispatch means: the faster you movement the mouse, the bigger the distance travelled. This behaviour aims to make it easier, to move further distances (on smaller surfaces), while allowing for precision, when information technology is needed. Generally speaking, the downsides overweigh. That is, because information technology messes with your musculus memory and makes it harder to predict, where the mouse cursor will end upwardly on your screen, when travelling bigger distances. It often is (speaking for professionals) unwanted behaviour and absolutely unacceptble for gamers who rely on muscle memory and immediate precision. If y'all move your mouse 2 centimeters (no matter the speed) it should always travel for instance fifteen cm on your screen. And not 20 cm, just because you lot moved your mouse slightly faster this time.

Prerequisites: If you want the best effect with any third party mouse, you will additionally accept to download a small tool, provided by SteelSeries (a trusted peripheral manufacturer). This tool is free and works for pretty much all mouses and is provded past SteelSeries, to make sure that their mouses (and fortunately almost any other mouse) work as intended on macOS systems.

Turning off mouse scaling

Outset of all, nosotros want to disable mouse acceleration. I will explicate later, why this is non the only matter we need to practise. Unfortunately you can not plough mouse dispatch off in your Organisation Preferences. To turn it off, you will need to use the command line. You practise not demand whatever prior knowledge and it is simply i command. If you don't like the new behaviour of the mouse for some reason, I do explain how to set information technology back to default again.

To turn off mouse acceleration, open the Terminal. Hitting CMD + Space to open Spotlight and so blazon in Terminal, select the Last application if it isn't selected yet, and striking Enter. Yous should meet the post-obit window (with your Systems name instead of mine of course):

Mouse acceleration in macOS is linked to mouse sensitivity for some reason. But to make things more complicated, the mouse sensitivity y'all can set in the Systems Preferences, is not the aforementioned thing as the actual DPI you ready for your mouse.

Now, back to turning off the mouse acceleration again. First of all nosotros want to know your current setting every bit a dorsum upwards. To check your current preference, execute the following command:

              defaults read .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling

This should return a number. You can type downward this number if y'all want to modify it back to what information technology was later on.

To turn off mouse dispatch, utilise this control:

              defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1

Setting the scaling to -one turns off the dispatch. If you want to go back to what yous had before, either just go to your Arrangement Preferences > Mouse and set it to what you had before or to exist more accurate and work with numbers, you can utilize the number yous but backed up in the previous step change it back like this:

For case (with your number instead of two):

              defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling ii

Your mouse preference should be updated by now and if you set it to -1, your acceleration should exist turned off. In some occasions information technology may be needed to restart the computer. Afterwards restarting, bank check via the command provided previously, if your settings accept been reverted. If they reverted, it is most likely due to programs provided past your mouse manufacturer (more often than not used to assign mouse buttons, DPI, study rate and more than) similar Logitech's GHub or others. If you should utilize Apples Magic Mouse, y'all should be set. Make sure to not have whatever tertiary party mouse software installed, if you lot intend to solely utilize the Magic Mouse, because thet tend to turn on your mouse acceleration over again.

Third-party mouses

If you are using a third-party mouse, y'all demand to go one step further due to the reason, that the DPI setting of 3rd party mouses interfere with macOS's preferences. This can result in stuttering and just a very inconsistent feel of the mouse. To prepare this behaviour, make sure you lot have installed the Software from your manufacturer. In my case it is Logitechs GHUB. Equally just mentioned, this may turn on mouse acceleration once again. I volition explicate later on, how to set up this.

For you it could be SteelSeries or whatsoever other manufacturer. Download the Software according to your mouse and install it. Later on you have launched and ready the preferred DPI and other settings of your mouse, your mouse.scaling (which should be set to -one subsequently we changed it) could be reset to a positive value again, which then would enable mouse acceleration. Also every bit mentioned before, the DPI defined in your mouse manufacturers tool, will interfere with macOS. To set both of this, there is fortunately a tool called ExactMouse for macOS, provided by SteelSeries. This tool works for any mouse and can be found here:

It is quite hidden on the website and you lot volition accept to scroll down and click on Miscellaneous to discover information technology. Or you tin but employ the following link, to start the download:

https://downloads.steelseriescdn.com/drivers/tools/steelseries-exactmouse-tool.dmg

This tool is (for obvious reasons) simply provided for macOS... which should hopefully some day give Apple a hint, to permit users to handle these things easier.

Back to track: Download and install the tool and run it. Afterward you have started the SteelSeries ExactMouse Tool, you should see the ExactMouse tool icon in your tiptop bill of fare bar. Click on it brand certain its set to "Steel Series Verbal Mouse: Ever On" and "Start on Log On".

After this, brand sure that your mouse scaling is still gear up to -1. If not, utilize the defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1 over again, to alter it dorsum to. But you shouldn't have to, because ExactMouse is taking intendance of this regularly. At present, the macOS operating Arrangement should no longer interfere with the mouse dispatch, mouse smoothing or what then always and you can alter the sensitivity to your desired DPI in your manufacturers software. The mouse sensitivity set in your Systems Preferences will exist ignored at present, so it no longer inteferes with your DPI.

Final but not least I realised, that DPI is translated slightly different to Windows and MacOS machines. If yous for case take a DPI of 1600 ready on a Windows auto, you will accept to set it approximiately x% higher on Mac to go the same event. So in this case, you lot will have to ready information technology to around 1760 DPI. I suggest to just play around with your DPI until it feels right. I had to set mine to 1750 DPI to have the pretty much same event equally on Windows (with mouse acceleration turned off in the windows settings). But yous will need to play around with this on your ain, to observe what's working all-time for you. Some users who switch over from Windows, simply utilize a ruler to measure the altitude of the mouse and arrange their DPI accordingly until they take the right number. There is no way to calculate this unfortunately, considering there are besides many factors from which are many enclosed in black box. But this approach resulted in perfect issue for me.

tl:dr

Read your current settings for backup via defaults read .GlobalPreferences com.apple tree.mouse.scaling.
Plow off acceleration via: defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple tree.mouse.scaling -1.
If you're using the MagicMouse, you should exist happy by at present. If not, go along with Stride 4 in the tl:dr.
Go to your mouse manufacturers website and download their mouse management tool. You know it's the right tool, if it allows for setting your DPI and more.
Go to https://de.steelseries.com/engine, scroll down until you see the Miscellaneous department, open up it and download the ExactMouse tool. Otherwise just click here to download it. Even though SteelSeries provided this tool, it works pretty much all mouses.
Install information technology. Y'all should see information technology in your top menu bar now. Click on it and make sure it is fix to "Always On" and "Starting time on Log On".
Restart your calculator.
Repeat Step ane and if it returns anything else than -1, repeat Step 2.
Done! If y'all desire to revert these settings, just plough off or uninstall the tools and set your preferred mouse sensitivity in your macOS Organization Preferences. This will plough on the mouse acceleration once more and you can verify this, past running Stride 1.