Sequoia upgrade causes external mouse issues on external monitors?

Following the upgrade from Sonoma to Sequoia, my external mouse is drifting. This only happens with the cursor over the external monitors, which are connected through a docking station.


The computer: Macbook Air, with Apple M2 chip, 24 GB memory.


The mouse: Apple mouse, about 2021 vintage.


So far, I've tried:

  • Cleaning mouse optical area to ensure no debris is obscuring the sensor
  • Resetting pointers, including forgetting the mouse and reconnecting it
  • Rebooting machine
  • Changing pointer preferences for both trackpad and mouse
  • Reinstalling Sequoia


By "drifting" I mean that when the mouse is already moving, its movements are erratic, with a tendency towards the middle point of the two external monitors (it moves in different directions on different screens). The cursor does not move unless the mouse does, but a small up-and-down motion creates a significant side-to-side motion. There appears to be a slight bias for upward motion as well.


The only thing that changed causing this to happen was the upgrade from Sonoma to Sequoia.


Is anyone else having this issue? Thoughts on a solution? I'm tempted to do a clean install of Sonoma to roll back the upgrade, but that feels like going nuclear.

MacBook Air 15″, macOS 15.0

Posted on Sep 25, 2024 12:59 PM

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Posted on Oct 14, 2024 7:03 AM

I had the same issue after upgrading to Sequoia. MacBook Air M2. Apple mouse, 2 external 4k Dell monitors attached via a Minisopuru dock. Only affecting one of my 4k monitors. The dock requires DisplayLink drivers. I had been suffering for a few weeks but then read the post saying it could be to do with DisplayLink. I just upgraded from DisplayLink v1.8 to v1.10 and it's fixed.

68 replies

Oct 9, 2024 6:45 AM in response to Alliumcepa

I do have the same issue with my Logitech M70 Triathlon since upgrading to Sequoia.

Dragging around a window fast on any screen causes the mouse to "loose grip" or it may not "lock" on the window at all. The M720 can use bluetooth or the logitech unified dongle. Tried both connection methods, same issue.


Then I connected my HP Travel mouse from work with my M2 MacBook Pro - issue gone.


It may be driver issue for some pointing devices in Sequoia but obviously not all.

Until the issue is resolved, the Logitech M720 is not usable with my Mac.

Oct 3, 2024 8:44 AM in response to mminassian

I'm not sure what approach Ruben-52 is using. For my part, I'm using a hub provided by my IT department. The hub is USB-C, and provides HDMI ports. The monitors are wired HDMI to HDMI.


The hub worked as intended prior to Sequoia. I have also tried another hub with a different connection mechanism (dual vs. single USB-C), and had the same issue.


I have ordered USB-C to HDMI and USB-C to Displayport cables to try the proposed solution and bypass the hub. While this is inconvenient, it may be at least a temporary fix to preserve my sanity while my mouse and trackpad continue to misbehave.

Oct 27, 2024 1:52 AM in response to 1Apple0PC

I stand corrected. Two of my mice have a button that has reached "end of life" obviously. The M720 and now the same happened to my HP Travel mouse. Found an old Speed Link mouse and with the dongle plugged in to one of the monitors everything works fine. So the defective mouses tend to release the button for maybe milliseconds if they are not constantly pressed with hard force.


Mar 20, 2025 7:50 AM in response to Alliumcepa

just started running into this, on my company laptop i was forced to update to sequoia 15.3.2 this morning, and the issues started immediately. But i think it may be a displaylink issue, even though it seems like it could be bluetooth...


First, I have an apple magic mouse 2, which has been perfect for years, and now it's all kinds of jacked up on external monitors. if i have my laptop open, and the cursor is on it, it runs just fine, BUT if i move to one of my external monitors all of the sudden there's like a weird lag, and also the cursor drifts in various directions, often upward. so if i just shake the mouse back and forth, it will go left and right but also upward... if i move my cursor around and try to stop on something, it seems to stop then jump up, it's annoyingly noticeable, and wherever i try to move the cursor, it dances around it.


I grabbed an old USB Dell mouse, and plugged it in and noticed right away that it didn't do this, and it's actually moving faster than the magic mouse. there doesn't seem to be the random drift.


I've restarted both my computer, my mouse, the bluetooth and even turned off the acceleration but nothing fixed it.


HOWEVER, as i type this, on my external monitor... i am noticing a delay in typing... so it's not just the mouse. i did upgrade my displaylink to the latest version which is 1.12, that didn't seem to fix it. my keyboard is an older wired mac keyboard, so it's plugged in. I just moved this window over to my laptop screen and there's no delay in my typing... SO, i'm thinking there's something messed up with displaylink...


funny enough, i have several co-workers who recently pitched a fit that their docks were "broken" and dying because of a random lag, and now i'm starting to wonder if they had upgraded and thats why...


Hope this gets resolved soon.

Dec 3, 2024 5:35 AM in response to Alliumcepa

I had the same issue which I reported here (no DisplayLink, but jerky Apple Magic Mouse) - but it got removed, because I mentioned pre-release software (which doesn't change anything, because the problem persisted in Sequoia 15.1). I wasn't even informed about the removal...


Meanwhile I disconnected the new Apple Magic Mouse 2 and connected an old Magic Mouse 1 and everything works just fine... (So the solution is not removing some posts, but fixing the issue or help the community).



Dec 17, 2024 12:53 PM in response to Alliumcepa

I am having the same issue with my Mac Studio. Mostly when using Left click and fine movements are a disaster across the board using all Apps. Logic Pro 11 piano roll is ridiculous. If I use my slim blade ball no problems. Only my Apple Magic Mouse. I have tried all of the mentioned fixes. I am so frustrated. I have updated Sequoia to 15.2 and Logic Pro 11.1.1. Still an absolute mess...........Apple you need to fix this ASAP. We pay good money for your products for the reliability....not so much with this update!!!!


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Sequoia upgrade causes external mouse issues on external monitors?

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