Choppy Scrolling in Lion

well, it's definitely a software issue... which is good news, so let's just wait and see what the first update for lion brings... (which shouldn't be too far off).

@viciousvex,

I second that opinion: for awhile after I upgraded my 2010 MBP to Lion, scrolling worked fine. But because I switch between work (external monitor, bluetooth mac keyboard & mouse) and home (just the plain laptop) and Lion seemed to sometime get confused if I turned the machine off in-between (this was also the case in Snow Leopard) and sometime go into "recovery mode" upon boot, I got in the habit of simply disconnecting all the devices and then close the MBP - i.e. put it to sleep.

But now Safari scrolling (using the touchpad at least) is very choppy.

Hope somebody at Apple reads this. This problem is pretty annoying - I might go back to powering off again :-(

Same here on a brand new MB Air 13" (i5) with 4GB RAM and Lion.

Scrolling is a mess.

Had the same problem in my new MacBook Air 13" i7 ater transferring files and settings from my old MacBook - smooth scrolling after reboot, but choppy after sleep.

Reinstalled Lion from Recovery HD. (Press Cmd-R after reboot - files and settings are preserved, but be sure to make a backup just in case.)

Now scrolling stays smooth as silk all the time. Problem fixed. Hope this helps!

@Andreas24:

Thank you for the hint.

I'm not sure whether I really want to re-install Lion just yet. I didn't use the Migration Assistant to set up Lion, i. e. I transfered all the files onto my new MB Air "by hand". Don't think that any "faulty" settings or defective plist-files got transfered that way.

And still I have the "choppy" scrolling after waking the machine up from sleep ... !

I now have narrowed down the issue to a software named "Air Display" (which makes my iPad work as a second monitor). Uninstalling "Air Display" (via Finder -> Go -> Utilities -> Uninstall Air Display) resolves the problem. Note that simply turning Air Display off in the preferences will not resolve the issue.

Reinstalling Lion (which I did before) uninstalled Air Display as a side effect; this is probably which made it work. So check your system for third-party additions related to input and display and try to uninstall them.

Andreas,

Although I'm happy for you, that doesn't seem to be the cause of my choppy scrolling. I don't have "Air Display" and can't uninstall it. But I do have an external display - I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

It seems my problem is getting worse: before yesterday my only complaint was the choppy scrolling whilst in Safari. Yesterday, out of nowhere the mouse started being very unresponsive (meanwhile the touchpad was unaffected). After a reboot everything was normal. I suppose the problem could have been the bluetooth connection - but I just replaced the batteries and the mouse was within a foot of the computer - and my bluetooth keyboard didn't exhibit any problems during this time, so I doubt interference was the problem.

Very strange - I hope Apple comes out with a patch soon. I decided to, in the meantime, go back to shutting down my machine as I move between home and office.

andreas - that is superb - i uninstalled air display and now everything is running silky smooth - i've tried putting the macbook to sleep a few times and every time it comes back perfect - before it would immediately mess up. I don't know whether it was the cause or whether the new version of flash player has fixed (i uninstalled air display and installed new flash all in one go) it but i can also now run things like 4od and iplayer in fullscreen for the first time since upgrading to lion, they were also really choppy. Either way its fixed, great spot :-D

In my case I have discovered that a bloatted Safari Web Content process is often the cause of my choppy scrolling while in Safari.

Open Activity Monitor

Sort the list by "Real Mem" and note how much RAM the Safari Web Content has taken.

Next highlight the process in the list and hit the Red stopsign in the toolbar (Force Quit)

This does not quit Safari, but you will have to refresh each tab you had open. After this procedure scrolling was smooth again.

Hope this helps some, Cheers!

Well, I just installed the osx lion update.....but alas, no difference on my 2011 mac mini.

Anyone else having any success ?

Hey!

I hoped that 10.7.1 would fix this issue and installed it, too. No success.

The choppy scrolling and animations are reproducible by simply putting the Mac to sleep and waking it up again - as it was already said before..

The machine becomes so unresponsive, that even iTunes has interruptions when streaming music. No activity above 2,5% CPU usage in Activity Monitor whatsoever.

I really can't use my Mac for some real work after waking it up and not restarting it...

BTW, there is no Air Display installed on my system, so I couldn't remove it. Reinstalling Lion from scratch is not what I'm going to try.

Hope Apple knows about this issue and fixes it.

Regards

vex

vex, i would honestly just try looking at what third party apps you have installed - especially if you have anything to do with streaming or networking - i honestly dont think this is going to be something fixed by any lion update for the simple reason that both me and andreas have got round it by uninstalling third party software - leading me to think it might not be anything to with Lion itself. Its worth noting also that in my case, i've never actually had Air Display switched on, so it was causing a problem simply by being on my hard drive or some effect of that.

i would look at all your apps installed and if anything is to do with streaming or networking, try uninstalling them. Its been two days now and my system has stayed silky smooth after about 10 times of being put to sleep - so i would say its maybe worth an hour of your time to see if you can work out whats causing it on your system to help others should you work it out.

for what its worth i can confirm that none of the following cause the problem on my system so you can probably discount them (or make sure they are up to date)

skype, "air mouse", "air video server", dropbox, tweetie, transmission, mamp, VLC, adium, vlc streamer, div x player, spotify

hope this helps someone

@_bast_,

I can't speak for vex, but I don't have any third-party apps installed that do streaming/networking. Neither do I have Air Display. But I have a scrolling issue after coming out of sleep. I only notice it in Safari - and only with the mouse (the MBP's trackpad still seems to work as before).

Reset PRAM.

Nope, the update didn't help me either.

I have very few apps installed on my MBA 11 inch, so unless it's a problem with one of the maybe 5 apps I have, I think it has to be a Lion problem, not a 3rd party app problem.

I notice the choppy scrolling in Safari and Word (pretty much the only things I do on my computer). And only with my Magic Mouse. My built-in trackpad works fine as does a cheap wireless USB mouse I had lying around the house. I tried changing the batteries in the Magic Mouse and unlinking the bluetooth and re-linking it with no luck.

RANT ALERT: I don't know how to figure out which app could be causing a problem. I don't know about many apps. I don't know how to do any "script editing" or anything that involves programming the inner-workings of the computer and I don't feel like I should have to. That's why I bought a computer instead of building one myself. That's not my area of expertise. I bought a Mac because I love how my iPhone just works without problems. I don't do anything fancy on my computer. I want simple things like scrolling to just work.