We all know that mouse acceleration boosts your mouse. You may require mouse acceleration for active gaming. However, some people don’t need mouse acceleration as per their daily work demands. That’s why you should know how to turn off mouse acceleration on Mac.
Mouse acceleration directly impacts your work progress and productivity. Not only that, but it’s essential to optimize the mouse speed.
What is Mouse Acceleration in Apple Inc?
The mouse acceleration is the standard mouse speed setting, enabled by default. Like Windows, mouse acceleration in macOS is quite excellent and practical, enhancing the overall user experience based on the actual movements. Many new users aren’t comfortable with the by default mouse acceleration and intend to disable it.
Furthermore, disabling mouse acceleration enhances overall precision and control. That’s why many graphic designers, architects, designers, and artists don’t intend to lose the accuracy and precision of their drawings. In addition to that, many games such as Fortnite and Counterstrike also need accuracy and consistent mouse control.
Turning off mouse acceleration offers a faster refresh rate (FPS) and, most importantly, improves the gaming experience. After disabling the mouse acceleration, the cursor on the screen moves at a ratio of 1:1 to the mouse movement. It means the cursor covers the same distance on the screen as the physical mouse on the desk.
Unfortunately, different movements under the mouse acceleration aren’t predictable. It’s because the mouse acceleration kicks in when you move fast. You should know that other parameters, such as sensitivity, speed, and distance, are directly proportional to your mouse movement.
Turn off Mouse Acceleration on Mac Trackpad
The good news is that this article discusses multiple methods using the command line, script, and preference panel.
Turn Off Mouse Acceleration From System Settings
Turn on your Mac laptop or computer, and log into the OS by entering your credentials. Next, select the Apple icon on the desktop to see the Apple Inc Menu.
Here, you must navigate to “System Preferences” and go to the “Settings” tab. Later, you need to click on the “Mouse” option to see different mouse settings, such as:
- Secondary Click
- Tracking Speed
- Scroll Direction settings
You can decrease the Tracking Speed settings on the Mouse panel to minimize the effect of mouse acceleration. This setting essentially controls the speed of the cursor or pointer and how it follows your actual movements.
Unfortunately, this method doesn’t turn off mouse acceleration; instead, it only reduces the acceleration effect.
How to Turn Off Mouse Acceleration on a macOS Using Terminal?
One of the easiest ways to turn off mouse acceleration is to use command-line syntax to disable mouse acceleration. All you need to do is enter the Terminal’s correct commands and press the execute button.
How to Find the Terminal?
You can go to the Utility folder within Applications to open the Terminal. Conversely, you can press the Command and Spacebar keys on the keyboard for the Spotlight Search bar to open. Next, you can type the Terminal in the search bar and hit the Enter key.
Command Defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling-1
You must be wondering which commands should you input to control or disable the mouse acceleration. Don’t’ worry’ because we have got you covered. Just copy the following:
- Command Defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling-1
The trick here is to adjust the “-1” present at the end of the command. It means you can use the number two or three to adjust the mouse speed according to your preference. However, you can only use decimals for this purpose.
Later, it would be best if you restarted the MacOS to implement the modifications. Next, move the mouse around to check the new settings.
Unfortunately, there is a drawback to this method. And that is you need to restart the computer every time you make the changes. We understand the entire process is going to be tiring and time-consuming.
How to Reverse the Mouse Acceleration Settings?
Lucky for you, you can reverse the mouse acceleration settings using the same command. The only difference is to modify the value at the end. However, each mouse has a different value, depending upon certain factors, including:
- The version of Mac OS X
- Type of the mouse
It means you need to check the speed value and then restore the settings. You can use the following command to find out the value before performing the acceleration modifications:
- Write Default read .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling
This way, you can note down the initial setting and later perform the changes. By default, if the mouse acceleration is enabled, the result of the above command will be a value between zero and three.
These values determine how fast the acceleration is. The -1 you use at the end of the command disables the mouse acceleration.
Alternatively, you can modify the “Tracking Speed” settings, available in the “System Preferences” to reactivate the mouse acceleration.
Moreover, any mistakes in the command syntax lead to irreparable modifications. It means you won’t be able to reverse the processor, in the worst case, any permanent damage or data loss.
Turn Off Mouse Acceleration Using Command Line Script
Another method to decelerate the mouse is using the command line script. It means you can run a code script to disable the mouse acceleration. Don’t worry; you don’t need to be a software programmer for that purpose because this article includes the entire process for your convenience.
First, you must download the “killmouseaccel” script in the terminal. You can efficiently perform the task by writing the following command lines in the Terminal:
- mac pro :~user$ curl -O http://ktwit.net/code/killmouseaccel
- The next step is to convert the downloaded script into an executable code, without which you won’t be able to turn off mouse acceleration.
- You must use the following command to make an executable script:
- Mac Pro:~ user$ chmod +x killmouseaccel
- Now, you can successfully run the script by using the following command lines:
- Mac Pro:~ user$ ./killmouseaccel mouse
You should note that the above process is only to disable mouse acceleration on Macbook Pro.
Disable Mouse Acceleration Using Preference Panel
The Mouse Acceleration Preference Pane for Mac OS X is a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays multiple speed parameters and acceleration curves for the mouse.
Moreover, you can tweak different mouse settings, including:
- Enhance mouse pointer precision
- Increase the speed of your mouse movement
- Customize mouse acceleration parameter
- Gain complete control with two simple buttons or knobs
If you aren’t comfortable using the command Terminal to turn off mouse acceleration, you can opt for a straightforward method. You can use the Preference Panel to modify the mouse settings using a cursor. The Preference Panel is essentially an external application, which you can use to control the mouse speed.
This method is relatively straightforward and faster because you don’t have to restart the Mac each time you make changes in the command line. Not only that, but the Preference Panel is a dedicated app, offering you a straightforward GUI to adjust the mouse and trackpad speed.
You can see the markings such as inverted, slow, and fat on the cursor line. All you need to do is move the line from left to right to achieve your desired mouse acceleration.
How to Use Chrome to Turn Off Mouse Acceleration
Lucky for you, you can use Pointer Lock API, introduced by Chrome 88, to turn off mouse two acceleration. It means you can use the same physical motion, either fast or slow, with the same resultant rotation. This way, it offers more accuracy by elevating your gaming experience.
Using Third-Party Apps to Disable Mouse Acceleration
You can use third-party tools such as SteerMouse to disable mouse acceleration. It’s a free tool that you can download from the official website. Moreover, you can run the following command to download the utility tool:
- Brew install -cask steermouse
After installing the app, you can configure the mouse acceleration settings accordingly.
Conclusion
To sum up, the process of controlling the mouse acceleration in MAC OS X is comparatively different from Windows. You can opt for other methods, such as command line, script, and Preference Panel, to modify the mouse acceleration.
