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Disabling shake-to-find-cursor?

PowerBook-G5

PowerBook-G5

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 30, 2013
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Does anyone know of a way to disable the "shake to locate cursor" feature in El Capitan? I'm not on the beta yet, but was wondering about this.

EDIT: It appears that it has been found! I'm not on the El Capitan beta, so I can't test it. Here's the code:

Code: 
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences CGDisableCursorLocationMagnification -bool YES

This was first posted in this thread by @ps3zocker. Hopefully this works!
 
Last edited:
X--X said:
You can


You can. If you're a graphic designer for example painting with the mouse.
Click to expand...

That's a very good point that I overlooked. Maybe Apple will add an option to disable the feature in future releases.

Wouldn't a graphic designer be using a tablet device? Do we know whether this 'shake to find' feature appears when scribbling with a connected tablet?
 
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Maybe in the accessibility settings? That's where I would look.

Is it actually useful? I was scratching my head when Federighi showed this 'feature'. It's something I would expect to find in the 'All the little things' thread, not in a keynote.
 
KALLT said:
Maybe in the accessibility settings? That's where I would look.

Is it actually useful? I was scratching my head when Federighi showed this 'feature'. It's something I would expect to find in the 'All the little things' thread, not in a keynote.
Click to expand...

I would think there's some kind of command you can put in the Terminal to disable it.
 
I agree there should be a way to disable it, at least to keep myself from playing with it :)
KALLT said:
Is it actually useful? I was scratching my head when Federighi showed this 'feature'. It's something I would expect to find in the 'All the little things' thread, not in a keynote.
Click to expand...
The idea behind it makes sense (it's possible to lose track of where the cursor is, especially on larger screens), but the truth is that it isn't a hugely needed feature. Otherwise it would have been added long before now.
 
KALLT said:
Maybe in the accessibility settings? That's where I would look.

Is it actually useful? I was scratching my head when Federighi showed this 'feature'. It's something I would expect to find in the 'All the little things' thread, not in a keynote.
Click to expand...
It's probably a big deal for people with 6 monitors.
 
redheeler said:
I agree there should be a way to disable it, at least to keep myself from playing with it :)

The idea behind it makes sense (it's possible to lose track of where the cursor is, especially on larger screens), but the truth is that it isn't a hugely needed feature. Otherwise it would have been added long before now.
Click to expand...

It definitely happens all the time on bigger screens but also if you're on a dark screen since the cursor is black. As you shake, the white border becomes more thicker and easy to find.

I am using it dozens of time per day to find my cursor already so far. My family constantly do the shake to find their cursor. So, this is a brilliant feature to have.
 
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I agree with what others are saying. This is handy, and very useful, especially the mouse is hiding somewhere on the screen.
 
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LewisChapman said:
That's a very good point that I overlooked. Maybe Apple will add an option to disable the feature in future releases.

Wouldn't a graphic designer be using a tablet device? Do we know whether this 'shake to find' feature appears when scribbling with a connected tablet?
Click to expand...

The shake to find feature does activate when using a Wacom tablet (no matter what you do, it is simply disabled), only the mouse. So, not really an issue for those using tablets, but I can imagine if anyone is using a mouse in that way it can be a problem.
 
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I have 2 large screens and I find it very useful. Switching to windows and already missing the feature.
 
When you present things or even simply try to show something to your office mates, you frequently perform a circling gesture. The mouse enlargement is quite annoying then.

I would like to have an option to turn it off too. That's what betas are here for.

Submit a feedback to apple. The only question is how. Why do they make it so difficult? Is there another way than bugreporter?
 
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