What is mouse acceleration on Mac?
Mouse acceleration on a Mac was a new feature released with macOS Sonoma. It basically means the cursor speed changes or adapts based on how quickly you move the mouse, making slow movements precise and fast movements cover more screen space.
So, the big question is, can you disable or change it? Keep reading.
Why should you turn off mouse acceleration on Mac?
Some users, especially gamers and creatives aren't fans of the newish mouse acceleration for Mac feature. If you need absolute control or precision, then you might find the adaptive acceleration just plain annoying.
For designers and creatives, not being able to move your pen or tool with complete control makes it difficult to complete simple design tasks, and the same can be said for gamers; not having total control over your mouse movement might be the difference in winning or advancing to the next level.
Explained: mouse acceleration Mac
Luckily, there are a few things you can do to manage mouse acceleration.
Adjust tracking speed
If you don't want to completely disable the mouse acceleration speed on your Mac, you can alternatively adjust the speed of your mouse to meet your needs: here's how:
- Open the main Apple menu > System Settings > Mouse.
- Adjust the Tracking speed to your liking.
Disable mouse acceleration on Mac
The next option is to completely disable the feature with Terminal; here's how:
- Open Terminal from Finder > Applications > Utilities.
- Enter the below:
defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1 - Close Terminal. This feature will now be disabled until you restart your Mac.
Now you know what mouse acceleration is on Mac, how to manage it, and why you might want to use it.