Mac Mail trackpad scrolling issue

[larryleveen]

Running OS X 10.15.5 and Mail Version 13.4 (3608.80.23.2.2) on a MacBook Air. When an email is open, I cannot two-finger scroll down on the trackpad. However, if I scroll up slightly, I AM able to then scroll down as long as I keep my fingers on the trackpad or if I "momentum scroll" upwards and again touch the trackpad to scroll down before the screen stops scrolling up.

Toggling Scroll Direction: Natural on and off had no effect. Regardless of "which direction down is" scrolling up must be done first in order to scroll down. Mail is the only app that displays this behavior.

It's not THAT big a deal, but I'd love things to just work right. Any solutions? Thanks.

 

[dypark]

I've noticed the same across multiple macs and only on e-mails that contain body of text in a text common in newsletter format. Sometimes the scroll will work, other times can only use arrow key to scroll e-mail.

 

[larryleveen]

You are correct! It is not 100% of emails, which I didn't realize when I posted. It makes sense though — I probably wouldn't have waited so long to complain about it if it was happening with all emails. Hmm, so what is it about formatting of the text and why should it foul up Mail's handling of trackpad-triggered scrolling in one direction but not the other?

 

[koosolek]

Same issue, but also when using Magic Mouse :/.
For example Google, Calendly & Backblaze emails not scrolling.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Same issue, but also when using Magic Mouse :/.
For example Google, Calendly & Backblaze emails not scrolling.

My suggestion would be to create a new clean user account. Restart the computer, login to the user account and start adding in third party items one at time and see if that is what is affecting the scrolling issue. Also, take a look at what is in /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons maybe one of those items that is started when you boot the computer is affecting the scrolling. You could start by copying those to your Desktop, remove them from the folders, restart the computer. Check the scrolling after they are all deleted. Then add back in from your Desktop to /Library/LaunchAgents, restart and see if the scrolling is affected. Do that for each file. Also, look what is in ~/LibaryLaunchAgents and do the same as above. You really need to start with a clean system to get an sanity check, how is scrolling on a clean system and then how is it when you start adding in third party software.

 

[jjacontos]

I have noticed the same issue (Catalina OS X 10.15.7 and Apple Mail Version 13.4) but you're right - it's only when the email is a formatted special "letter" and not in a normal text font. One other thing that I found is that if you just click on it (cursor on the letter) it will scroll. I haven't seen any solutions posted. I think Apple designers should fix this bug in their software.

 

[larryleveen]

You know, the occasional "me too" on this thread is surprisingly validating. Fortunately, I think I am down to just one newsletter that comes in the problematic format. I'd rather Apple engineers fix the many other problematic things about Mail.

 

[alps.villar]

On MacOS 10.15.7 and Safari Version 14.0.1 (15610.2.11.51.10, 15610). I have the same issue described above for Mac Mail (two fingers swipe does not work, upon previewing a message). It's also unusually sluggish scrolling with two fingers on Safari, even when trackpad speed sensitive is configured at maximum. I have the impression these things are related : could it be malware ? (Malwarebytes did not detect anything though).

 

[larryleveen]

On MacOS 10.15.7 and Safari Version 14.0.1 (15610.2.11.51.10, 15610). I have the same issue described above for Mac Mail (two fingers swipe does not work, upon previewing a message). It's also unusually sluggish scrolling with two fingers on Safari, even when trackpad speed sensitive is configured at maximum. I have the impression these things are related : could it be malware ? (Malwarebytes did not detect anything though).

The problem I described is only with a small handful of messages formatted a certain way. I do not believe it to be malware — just an Apple Mail bug.