Hundreds of Mac OS users in forums are complaining about the mouse lag that first appeared with an upgrade to Monterey. There is no mention of this being addressed with the latest update to 12.5. None of the solutions offered by forum members seem to help. I am going to go forward with the update to 12.5 and hope that it is resolved — but until Apple directly addresses the issue, there is no reason to believe it has been resolved.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.4
@JMcGee2018, doesn't that keyboard come with a USB unifying receiver, so you don't necessarily have to use Bluetooth? My current work around for this issue is using an Apple wireless keyboard, which I run wired 95% of the time, which is obviously not an ergonomic keyboard ... when running in Bluetooth it has occasional hiccups and even as a developer, for me, it's easier to overlook that it'll fine, fine, fine ... entire word delayed, etc... The mouse side of things is totally unacceptable for me. So, on that front, I use a Logitech M720 triathlon mouse. In Bluetooth mode it's fairly useless. But using the unifying receiver it's really very good EXCEPT, my computer is remote from the mouse with an external monitor, so I have a usb extension to bring the receiver closer to the mouse and it works very well.
The receiver is on a usb extension to a hub and really has no issues.
Side note: reasonable to point out that if the ~2.4ghz receiver needs and extension wouldn't the Bluetooth (also ~2.4ghz) need an extension to work well? Maybe, but that's a separate issue as even if my mouse is any range from the computer it's still effectively useless due to these intermittent lag issues. I have tested that with this specific mouse and others when I'm on the go.
FWIW, in a very quick look I don't have an apple.com.bluetooth.plist as you mentioned but I do have:
From when I was testing those.
@JMcGee2018, doesn't that keyboard come with a USB unifying receiver, so you don't necessarily have to use Bluetooth? My current work around for this issue is using an Apple wireless keyboard, which I run wired 95% of the time, which is obviously not an ergonomic keyboard ... when running in Bluetooth it has occasional hiccups and even as a developer, for me, it's easier to overlook that it'll fine, fine, fine ... entire word delayed, etc... The mouse side of things is totally unacceptable for me. So, on that front, I use a Logitech M720 triathlon mouse. In Bluetooth mode it's fairly useless. But using the unifying receiver it's really very good EXCEPT, my computer is remote from the mouse with an external monitor, so I have a usb extension to bring the receiver closer to the mouse and it works very well.
The receiver is on a usb extension to a hub and really has no issues.
Side note: reasonable to point out that if the ~2.4ghz receiver needs and extension wouldn't the Bluetooth (also ~2.4ghz) need an extension to work well? Maybe, but that's a separate issue as even if my mouse is any range from the computer it's still effectively useless due to these intermittent lag issues. I have tested that with this specific mouse and others when I'm on the go.
FWIW, in a very quick look I don't have an apple.com.bluetooth.plist as you mentioned but I do have:
From when I was testing those.
Confirmed that OS 12.6.1 has the same issue with a Mac Studio. I found that the DisplayLink adapters from Sonnet fix the problem. However, I'm not able to use this adapter at the log in screen when the computer boots. So, I connect 1 monitor to the HDMI port on the Mac and the second to the DisplayLink. This allows for the log in screen with the builtiin display and extends to a second display without causing the lag. The lag occurs only when a second display is connected directly to the Mac rather than through the DisplayLink.
Still, this is a bad issue.
Having the same mouse lag with a Mac Studio. With two displays connected, it is the worst. I found 1 workaround by using a DisplayLink monitor adapter from Sonnet. Because it uses its own drivers it allows for multiple displays outside of the limitation of the M1 Macs. Ironically, the Mac Studio supports 5 monitors natively. But, connecting more than one causes the mouse lag unless I use this 3rd party adapter.
Just sharing my own experience with this issue or similar issue.
I had something similar happen but with a newer Mouse and newer display Dell S2722
I recently bought the new Logitech MX Master 3S for Mac. Wanted that model as it didn't have a Bluetooth receiver dongle, and worked natively with the Mac. But the cursor lag was atrocious. As a designer, there was no way I could work with it. This was with Monterey. I sent it back, and went back to my trusty decade old Logitech G400 wired mouse.
But I started noticing that it too now had lag (though not as much)! However, it was only associated with my external display as using the mouse with my MacBook Pro 14 M1 was smooth. I was thinking it may have had something to do with newer Logitech drivers/software which I had removed, but I hadn't restarted my computer for changes to take effect. Doing solved the issue and my wired G400 is back to being incredibly responsive.
Shame the newer mouse didn't work, and I didn't spend too much time troubleshooting it, as time is too valuable. The older Logitech G400 is working perfectly just with native Mac drivers, so I should probably stock up on this mouse as its so reliable.
UPDATE: So it turns out (for me at least) the problem is not mouse lag, it's the Refresh Rate of my LG UltraFine Display switching from 60Hz down to 30Hz (which makes the mouse appear slow).
Since my last post, I have restarted the computer in safe mode 2 times( Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support . The Bluetooth plist is back and my magic mouse and keyboard work PERFECTLY!
Update: I reinstalled macOS Monterey 12.5 on my iMac and had the same problem but there is no problem with the same OS on my older MacBook Air. I then switched my mouse and problem fixed :)
My mouse started acting up after my Monterey upgrade: unresponsive, slow, bouncing all over the screen — practically useless.
My fix was pretty puzzling: Stop using my mouse pad and place the mouse directly on my desk.
I can't explain it, but it seems to be a fix. My mouse pad was a solid matte black foam pad, which never gave me any mouse issues before the update. My desktop is a dark solid wood.
I have this problem as well. I've found ways around it, which are pretty frustrating, but only remembered it as an issue when I went back to an "old" computer running Catalina. The problem doesn't make a ton of sense to me, to be honest. Most of my mice are Logitech and a mix of bluetooth and 2.4ghz, with a usb receiver. What's odd is that there seem to be caches you can clear or removing the connection and rejoining - things along those lines that resolve the issue for a little while and then it will come back. Additionally, in the case of the 2.4ghz receivers you can make it so the receiver is essentially touching the mouse and it seems to be fine long term. A lot of this points to interference, i think, but what doesn't make sense is that the Catalina mac or this other mac with issues on Monterrey before the update didn't require any of these changes to work just fine in the same environments where the RF interference possibilities really shouldn't have changed all that much. It's baffling overall though, this has been an issue for a long time at this point and it doesn't seem like it's being addressed.
Not that this is a solution - but just what allowed me to forget about the issue for a while. I’m currently using the Logitech M720 Triathlon mouse, not with bluetooth but with the 2.4ghz wireless receiver and it seems to work well (lags on bluetooth). Many logitechs need pretty close proximity on the unifying receiver and have for years. this one isn’t very different, but i do enjoy stutter free mouse movements now… but have been traveling and using different bluetooth mice and forgot how bad this intermittent lag was. really thought it would’ve been addressed by now.
Because the guys at Apple don't give a ****. They're more worried about not allowing comments to contain bad words or tinkering with new emojis.
Are there multiple monitors connected to your computer? If yes, try this: press cmd F1 and then cmd F1 again. cmd F1 mirrors the monitors, so both show the same content.
In my case the mouse works as it should after that.
We just had this issue upon getting a new Dell U2723QE 27". Took a bit of figuring, and this thread was helpful. It seems to have gone away by setting the USB-C Prioritization to prefer the High Resolution (vs. Data Transfer) - Steps can be found in this Dell manual: https://dl.dell.com/content/manual12003775-dell-u3223qe-monitor-user-s-guide.pdf. We also set the Dell to be the primary display which allowed us to make sure it was set to 60hz (vs. 30). (May only need one of these steps, but at least the issue seems to be gone.)
I've spoken to Apple Tech Support a few times and I think our best recourse at this point is to make sure it's on Apples OS "radar".
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UPDATE: The Logitech mouse thought I purchased (MX Master 3S) came with a USB Bluetooth dongle thing for computers that don't have built in bluetooth. So I unpaired my mouse, and re-paired it using the USB Bluetooth thing. No more slow lag... but I have been noticing a different type of lag, where the cursor jumps forward quickly... This seems to only happen when I have a lot of programs open. Using the USB bluetooth is a major improvement though.
I know this isn't really a solution, and not helpful at all for anyone trying to use the Apple Magic Mouse... but I thought I would update.
I've been having this problem since I purchased my iMac 27" brand new in January. I thought maybe it was the Magic Mouse that came with the computer, I bought a $100 Logitech mouse... still lags at random times. I just updated to Ventura, still a lag issue. It happens periodically, but it's really annoying and actually prevents me from being able to work.
Mouse Lag in Mac OS Monterey
