Remove Scroll Bouncing in Lion

Ahh, a voice with knowledge. Ya, this confused me. I was wondering how those files are used by the system as Xcode and all the other frameworks are loaded elsewhere (or are those the files Xcode uses at compile time? I don't think they are. Aren't those in the SDK folder in Developer?)

BUT, since the elasticity is enumerated there, I was wondering if being sneaky and changing the enumerated names or values would have an effect of the apps at runtime, or just what would happen?

Assuming that I am able to browse the WebKit source (just finished a check out) and I find the spot to change, how does one go about identifying how to write these changes to a plist or in NSGlobalDomain as in the examples below?

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO

defaults write com.apple.Mail DisableReplyAnimations -bool YES

defaults write com.apple.Mail DisableSendAnimations -bool YES

defaults write -g NSWindowResizeTime -float 0.01

Thanks in advance. Once I get this done, I'll see what I can do to disable the Auto quitting of apps and the animation speed of the panels in Xcode handled.

It is just terrible that Apple has been so loathe to give us a switch over these so that some can code up a simple Preference Panel. I don't know of anyone who likes them, just people who either hate or tolerate them.

FYI, we got this a few weeks ago:

defaults write -g NSScrollViewRubberbanding -int 0

Have OS 10.8.1 on my iMac and still can't find a way to stop the very annoying scroll bounce. Not just on Safari but ANY open window with scroll bars. Tried setting 'Accessibility' panel to 'without inertia' for mouse options but just stopped inertia NOT the bounce at the edges. If the window with both side and bottom scroll bars is small then the effect is making me sea sick with all that content bouncing around.

I don't fancy messing around with machine code.

Please, please Apple put in a button to switch it off for my magic mouse. I have to walk away from the mac from time to time to give my eyes a rest.

Not exactly a good advert for Apple!

Yeah, it's garbage.

You can't turn it off in Safari or Chrome. Both use Webkit and Webkit has it hardcoded in. You'd have to download and recompile Webkit/Safari for this to work.

Firefox, and most other apps will obey the "defaults write" setting. There is no other way to turn this off.

Open the Terminal app from your Utilities folder, paste in the line below and press return:

defaults write -g NSScrollViewRubberbanding -int 0

You can quit and relaunch your apps and the bounce will be gone. This is not "messing with machine code", it's simply declaring a setting for all well mannered apps to obey.

This is absolutely TERRIBLE functionality from iOS that was pushed onto the Mac for no worthwhile reason whatsoever.

Also, if you want to turn off the auto quitting of apps, I can show you how to do that too.

There is also a nice little application(*) that gives you a user interfact to tweak some of these annoying Mountain Lion animations:

http://tweaksapp.com/app/mountain-tweaks/

And TinkerTool also helps:

http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html

Though neither of them can get rid of the bouncing in Safari.

Robert Cailliau

(*) I also hate the word "app".

Thanks Robert. I'm the guy who sent those tips into the maker of TinkerTool.

Regarding Safari, it's hardcoded into the application (since you hate the abbreviation app). You also can't turn off the view wobble (window contents drag away from the edges) that is very iOS like, yet useless if you have gestures turned off as I do.

Webkit (which Safari uses) explicitly turns bouncing on if the MacOS version is > 10.6.8, so this would require a recompile of Safari or the open source version of Safari.

It should be a well behaved app-lication and read the system setting for this, but it doesn't.

If anyone knows how to override Safari's internal settings without having to rebuild the application, please let me know. I'm sure Apple would not be happy with someone else releasing a fixed version of Safari.

Alex,

I tried to copy and paste your line in my terminal and it did not work. I have it turned off in Chrome and most other applications I use. However, iTunes is being a beast and I can't get rid of it there and it is very annoying and the STUPIDest thing Apple has done.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

D

By "it does not work", you're not telling me much.

"It does not work". For what?

Sorry Alex,

I thought my post would go directly under yours making sense!!!

I want to get rid of the bouncing scroll in iTunes. I have already turned off inertia. So it's gone in Chrome and other things.

I went to my terminal and copied and pasted your suggestion and restarted iTunes. The bouncing scroll did not go away.

Here is what I pasted:

defaults write -g NSScrollViewRubberbanding -int 0

So after doing this, the bouncing effect did not go away. I saw some other changes you suggested but wasn't sure what to do and like others, I am not comfortable mucking around code in my Mac!!!!

Everything else I use on a daily basis works just fine with no bounce. I don't use iTunes too much as I use my iPod most of the time. But the bounce is driving me NUTS!!!!!

Thanks for your help!

D

Ahhh, in iTunes. That's what I needed to know. Yeah, iTunes uses a WebKit instance to display a lot of its content and that's the same beast that Safari uses. Sadly, when I looked at the source code for WebKit I saw one area where it appears that WebKit reads a user preference and yet another where if the OS is Mac OS and the version if >= 10.7, the rubberbanding is hardcoded on.

This is simply horrible programming, but besides that, there isn't even an AppConfig.plist file where we can turn this off.

It also appears that iTunes is using a version of WebKit that might be outside the app and I can't figure out how I'd find, fix, build, codesign and replace that instance of WebKit.

There is a WebKit2 framework within /System/Library/WebKit2.framework/ folder, but it's codesigned and that prevents modifying the contents of the bundle.

IF that is what's used, I'd love to add a key to the info.pList and add some code to only enable the bouncing if that key is set to true.

In short, it's beyond me and I don't have any time past what I've already spent trying to work around this annoyance. It's expensive and user hostile reasons like this why I still to most of my work in 10.6.8.

Users should not be expected to have to take actions like this to turn off new and undesired functionality.

Sorry bud.

In September 2011, after long hesitation, I finally bought a Macbook Pro with Lion (now Mountain Lion) to try all this stuff out on a machine entirely separate from the Snow Leopard (10.6.8) workhorse that I really use.

In a few months' time, it will be an entire TWO YEARS since I started the project of migrating, and I will probably still be on 10.6.8 because I just want to be productive, not wrestle the whole time with an interface that interferes with me and drives me crazy.

Hey, maybe that's the word: not "the Mountain Lion user interface" but "the Mountain Lion user interferes".

:-)

(I have started to learn Ubuntu...)

Actually, intertia isn't the culprit - but it may disable rubber band bouncing as a side effect in certain apps when you are using the Magic Mouse.

The problem is applications or frameworks that ignore the user defined setting (NSUserDefaults) in a certain "domain" (NSGlobalDomain), ie, user preferences.

The setting for

defaults write -g NSScrollViewRubberbanding -int 0

Should really be

defaults write -g NSScrollViewRubberbanding -bool NO

or

defaults write -g NSScrollViewRubberbanding -bool false

but since 0 equates to NO and NO as a bool means false, it's actually OK.

In the above defaults command line, -g means "globally" or applying to the NSGlobalDomain which means that it affects all applications for the current user.

So, your problem (and mine) is that all applicaitons that use the WebKit display engine (Safari, iTunes, Chrome - for a few more releases http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/5/4186302/google-chrome-blink-coming-to-chrome-28 -in-10-weeks) are going to have rubberbanding hardcoded on since that is what WebKit does on the Mac.

Pretty crappy since we have paid 70 dollars per Magic Mouse and now, to turn it off, we would have to spend more money to try another scrolling device.

Also, the "tearing away from the edge of the containing window" of the Safari content is another disconcerting annoyance that we have been subjected to in Lion and Mountain Lion. The only solution I know of (other than to use Snow Leopard) is to completely disable gestures - but then I think if you are a leftie and you touch the middle scrolling region of the Magic Mouse, the tearing of the internal content, wobble and snapping back to the proper place within the window still happens. It is a common undesired annoying functionality that is visuallly disturbing and difficult to disable. Again, disturbing items like this make spending the 30 dollars to upgrade simply not worth it since there is no additional functionality provided in Lion or Mountain Lion that is worth tolerating these disturbances to the user experience.

Good luck. I think switching browsers, mice and possibly iTunes (check out my loss of 6000 podcasts bug) or reverting to a previous verision of the OS are your answers. And speaking of iTunes, issues like what we are trying to solve, plus this utter hideousness of the new iTunes interface and use of Helvetica Neue on the Mac, all add up to simply ruin what was once a wonderful user experience - and the reason why we used the Mac in the first place - because it had a GOOD user experience.

Good luck. If the past two years of releases of the Mac OS are any indicators, the people who will ruin the Mac experience is Apple itself.

I hope they see otherwise and retain the usability and pleasant user experience that Snow Leopard offered. 10.6.8 weas great - which is why I still use it now.

Robert. I've been using the Mac since 1985 and for most of my career, I have earned my living using a Mac and have tens of thousands of dollars of Macs, iDevices, etc.

I think you have hit the nail on the head.

Mountain Lion and Lion. These are simply terrible user interfaces that are more flash and animation than function.

I want to get my JOB DONE, not watch animated garbage fly across the screen or start wobbling that I CAN'T TURN OFF.

This GARBAGE in Mountain Lion where clicking a disclosure triangle on a folder in the Finder ANIMATES the roll out of content inside?!!!!!!

This used to be INSTANT in Snow Leopard - Even in Lion! And we can't turn it off! WHY!!!!!!???

I earn my living developing for iOS as registered personal and Enterprise developer. Pushing the iOS metaphors to the desktop on Mac OS actively illustrates the wrong way to advance the Mac experience and executives let this ship.

Twice.

If this continues and restrictions like "sandboxing" keep creeping into the Mac OS, I'm right there with you and bearing in mind the **** of iOS certificates and provisioning, I'll be a million times happier when I'm free from this.

Until then, I have my 17" MBP with 16 GB of RAM, a big and fast SSD, a Thunderbolt display, 8TB backup RAID and Mac OS 10.6.8. The OS where I get the vast majority of my work done, because that is the last Mac OS where "it just works".

Well Alex: I got my 128k Mac in 1984... I have spent just as much money, and have also recommended Macs to many other people. Wehae used them at home since that first one.

I've come to the end of the tether. Apple is just not interested in people like us anymore. It makes good business sense for them, it is **** for us.

I agree completely: pushing the iOS metaphors to the desktop is wrong. iOS is for consuming information, the desktop is for producing information.

I have also stopped buying i-devices.

Though I did some developing on NeXT (way back in 1989) I have left that area and only program for my own utility. That I do in LiveCode. Have a look at

http://www.cailliau.org/Alphabetical/L/LiveCode/Why%20I%20use%20it/

and perhaps at

http://www.cailliau.org/Alphabetical/L/LiveCode/Compass%20App/%20Compass%20App-e n.html

or enjoy thinking about the second problem of

http://www.cailliau.org/Alphabetical/M/Mathematics/APR/Description/

:-)

Good night. (it's 23:23 here)

To disable the scroll bounce in iTunes you need to enter this command, and then quit and relaunch iTunes:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes disable-elastic-scroll -bool YES