Since the first public beta of Catalina 10.15.4 the trackpad/magic mouse scrolling has changed somehow.. It feels slower, with less inertia. Anyone else experienced the same behavior?
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MBP 16 trackpad scrolling change since Catalina 10.15.4...
- Thread starter domsodidavid
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I know exactly what you mean and it makes me furious. First thing I noticed after the update how slow and unwieldy the scrolling feels. I haven't really found many others reporting this issue or a fix even, but I keep looking. Maybe there are some settings that we can change via terminal to revert this change.
Yes, it's drive me mad too.
What I've already tried, and mostly worked:
1. Edited the .GlobalPreferences.plist hidden file in ~Library/Preferences/
(Shift + Cmd + . to show hidden files)
[/I]
<key>com.apple.trackpad.scaling</key>
<real>0.875</real>
<key>com.apple.trackpad.scrolling</key>
<real>7</real>
[I][/I]
<key>com.apple.mouse.scaling</key>
<real>2.5</real>
<key>com.apple.scrollwheel.scaling</key>
<real>0.58</real>
[I]It's not a solution, it's not great but aceptable.
2. In Smart Scroll pref pane, the settings below:
What I've tried, and unusable:
Steer Mouse app
CursorSense
ControllerMate
Mouseaccelerationpref
USB Overdrive
I found that it's not a scrolling speed issue, rather some kind of acceleration issue, when you start the movement, you feel that it's not follow the movement of your fingers and it has a delay.
Please Apple if you read this, restore it to the previous setting, it's terrible!
Yes it is most likely an acceleration/inertia issue. I doesn't ramp up as fast and slows down to fast in my opinion. I'm going to have a look at your suggestions. Thanks!
Edit: Just to make sure, I went into the Accessibility Settings and increased the scroll speed of trackpads by one tick. Have you tried this before? Not sure yet if that makes it feel better. But it does speed it up a bit.
Edit: Just to make sure, I went into the Accessibility Settings and increased the scroll speed of trackpads by one tick. Have you tried this before? Not sure yet if that makes it feel better. But it does speed it up a bit.
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If you want to have a non zero chances that someone at Apple reads about this, use Feedback Assistant.
@Ritsuka absolutely, but I would also like to find a solution/fix that can be applied right now. If Apple changes this in a future update, that's good, but if we somehow fix it today, that would be even better. 
Edit: @domsodidavid are you .plist changes supposed to be used together with Smart Scroll or should they work independently?
Edit2: I've opened a thread on reddit as well if you want to have a look there. No solutions just yet though. Handed in some feedback using the Assistant as well.
Edit: @domsodidavid are you .plist changes supposed to be used together with Smart Scroll or should they work independently?
Edit2: I've opened a thread on reddit as well if you want to have a look there. No solutions just yet though. Handed in some feedback using the Assistant as well.
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Together, but this is my taste, it's possible, that it's too fast for someone else.
Sry for the double post, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I have compared the values of "com.apple.trackpad.scrolling" in the ".GlobalPreferences.plist" file between this update and a previous version and sadly, they are identical. It appears that Apple has changed something deeper down in the system. :/
I think the same, it's not accidentally changed. Neither a bug. It's a decision, maybe some kind of unification between iOS and macOS, who knows, what is the cause behind... but I'm sure, that 99,99% of Mac users will never ever notice that.
Yup, that seems to be the case, the scrolling in tvOS has changed as well, feels better there though. For now I've increased the scrolling speed on macOS to the second highest setting and it sort of gets the job done for me. At least the difference is not so drastic, that I can't adjust at all.
I too am extremely upset by this. MacBooks used to have the best scrolling experience of any device I'd ever used, but now my hand physically hurts from using this new behavior over a full work day.
How do we report this and make sure Apple knows it needs to change? I tried to use the Feedback Assistant, but apparently you have to be a beta-tester, which I'm not.
How do we report this and make sure Apple knows it needs to change? I tried to use the Feedback Assistant, but apparently you have to be a beta-tester, which I'm not.
Experiencing the same issue here. I have three computers on 10.15.4, and all three have this "new" weird scrolling problem. Looking forward to a workaround or fix...., whether from Apple or from our community. Thanks
I have the same issue. Very annoying. When I press a scrolling arrow there is a two or three second delay. If I press the key 3 times after the delay the pages advance 3 times.
I had similar issues with scrolling after updating to Catalina earlier today. It was solved by going to preferences -> mouse -> setup bluetooth mouse -> delete the existing magic mouse and let it reconnect to add it back. A few hours of frustration led me to this thread, but everything is back to working order again.
Oh. True. I imagine the issue would have to be similar though. If by removing the Magic Mouse and then setting it back up resolved the scrolling issue for me, then for trackpads it has to be something similar like clearing out a similar system, pref, or cache file... at least that’s the theory...
I have not noticed an issue with the trackpad on my 2015 MacBook Pro on Catalina 10.15.4 but then I am not using the new 16" MacBook Pro.
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