You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Magic Mouse - Disable horizontal scrolling ?

like the Magic Mouse a lot, just horizontal scrolling drives me nuts with some apps.

Could you disable horizontal scrolling and keep vertical scrolling activated ?

tx, W

dual 2 ghz PPC G5, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jan 8, 2010 8:24 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 9, 2010 11:54 AM

Open a command line window using the Terminal app (in your Applications/Utilities folder):

Paste the following command, and hit Return:

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse MouseHorizontalScroll -bool NO

Go to the Bluetooth Preferences panel in System Preferences, turn off your mouse with its power switch (watch in the pref panel that it has disconnected), and then re-power it, and your mouse should reconnect.
70 replies

Apr 19, 2010 11:54 AM in response to LEK2

**** - THANK YOU!! This has been driving me NUTS! I'm also an InDesign user, and there are other apps where I feel I have no control of the page - APPLE - you need to add this to prefs!!!

The terminal script:
defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse MouseHorizontalScroll -bool NO
worked great. I can't imagine ever wanting to turn it back on, but just in case, I'm bookmarking this page!

There's also the issue of Google Maps zooming in and out WAY too easily... but I think that's a Google problem rather than a mouse issue.

Thank you again - you probably saved me from having a stroke or something!

Oh, and I totally agree the video on the pref pane is overkill - not to mention annoying. Not a big fan of looping animations, Apple.

Jul 21, 2010 2:26 AM in response to walter maldeghem

Here's what I'd LOVE to be able to do - make an Actionscript that toggles between scrolling on and off. Period. i don't want to launch preferences or crazy terminal stuff - I just want to hit a function key and have scrolling (horizontal or otherwise) off when I'm in Photoshop for example, and then hit it again to switch it back on when I'm in Aperture. Is this possible? I'm a photographer, not a developer by the way. Heck, I'd pay someone to do this for me!

Aug 31, 2010 8:26 PM in response to walter maldeghem

THIS WAS SO DRIVING ME CRAZY. THANK YOU.

To turn horizontal scrolling off:
defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse MouseHorizontalScroll -bool NO

To turn horizontal scrolling on:
defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse MouseHorizontalScroll -bool YES

These commands are entered on the command line of the Terminal utility application.

NOTE: I didn't have to restart just turned on my mouse until it lost connection and turned back on. All is working fine. THIS WAS SO DRIVING ME CRAZY.

Nov 20, 2010 3:29 PM in response to LEK2

After seeming to have the same issue i tried the terminal fix and it worked perfectly. Here is my issue now, when I scroll up/down in iTunes, it scrolls down but on a diagonal, which was happening before the terminal fix, it was actually the main reason I started looking for solutions. Anyone out there noticing this as well? If so, does anyone know of a fix?

Apr 1, 2011 2:06 PM in response to walter maldeghem

There is a UI solution available via Finder if you don't like fussing with command lines, or scripts.
1. open finder
2. open the Library/Preferences folder
3. open the com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist file
4. Use the UI to change settings of existing items. If you do not see MouseHorizontalScroll, then add it and uncheck.

Also, you need to do this in each account. I did not see this preference in the root /Library/Preferences folder.

It would be nice if this were an app level setting. There are several apps where horizontal scrolling is desired, browsers, itunes, ... and others (text editors for example) where it is not desired. Would be nice to configure at an app level without having to turn mouse on/off.

May 4, 2011 9:02 PM in response to walter maldeghem

Just want to say big thanks to LEK2 for reducing my stress levels massively. The magic mouse is pretty cool, Apple have almost designed a good mouse for once. However, no middle-mouse scroll-click functionality means that 3d artists like myself are robbed of an essential feature for navigating in 3d scenes, so in that context, my corded $4.99 no-name brand mouse, still exceeds the versatility of any mouse that Apple has ever made.



AC

Aug 1, 2011 2:15 AM in response to walter maldeghem

I'm a new Mac user and horizontal scrolling is driving me nuts. I can't use a spreadsheet without it scrolling around all the time. I have a new iMac which came pre-installed with Lion. The above methods have not worked for me. I've tried inputting the commnds via terminal and also used the script downloaded from here. Switching off the mouse or rebooting afterwards but still no joy. Does anyone know if this method does work with Lion as I'm having no luck? Anyone got a solution for Lion?


Thanks.

Aug 2, 2011 5:54 PM in response to sket123

I too have this problem, and posted a suggestiong that I thought might help. If Apple would improve the mouse driver to recognize three distinct zones on the mouse, left, center and right, and three more zones for top, middle and bottom, then allow the user to configure which zones to recognize for scrolling.


The settings should be configurable by app since the current features work very well in read only apps such as browsers, but are useless in update apps such as word processors, program editors, ...


Given that I am right handed, and my hand is resting on the mouse nearly all the time, I would never want the top-left corner zone to respond to scrolls in any direction. I may also disable the right zone since my baby finger seems to trigger random scrolling.


If you like this suggestion, please vote for it so Apple knows it might be a good way to solve this issue.

Aug 3, 2011 8:22 AM in response to walter maldeghem

LEK2 - Thank you SO SO much. I like this new mouse, except for the fact (as mentioned by others) that it drives me CRAZY in InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop because the slightest brush of my finger (even when just lifting my hand from the mouse) would send my screen flying off the the side and I would loose my active items. Very frustrating. I used the suggested code in the Terminal application - and Presto - problem solved.


Thank you so much again!

Aug 9, 2011 1:52 AM in response to jeffmefun

no, it isn't true


if you want to do it just write this code in terminal:

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse MouseHorizontalScroll -bool NO


Go to the Bluetooth Preferences panel in System Preferences, turn off your mouse with its power switch (watch in the pref panel that it has disconnected), and then re-power it, and your mouse should reconnect.

Aug 9, 2011 6:32 AM in response to walter maldeghem

Ciao Raffo -


I'm not sure what you're saying isn't true.


The method you described has not worked for me in Lion. It did work in Snow Leopard. When I upgraded to Lion, horizontal scrolling returned. I have tried the method you describe above, repeatedly. I've even tried directly editing the plist file using xcode. That didn't work, either.


So, I will modify and repeat the question above:


- Can anyone confirm that they've been able to turn off horizontal scrolling in Lion after upgrading directly from Snow Leopard? (i.e. as opposed to after a clean install of Lion.)


Thanks, Jeff

Magic Mouse - Disable horizontal scrolling ?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.