Mouse lag/not smooth on M1 Air. Any suggestions?

[imp3rator]

Wonder if I'm just used to high refresh rates (used a 144hz monitor with a Windows desktop previously)

Definitely yes... It's like when I set 30hz on monitor vs 60hz...Or If I see 60hz iphone display i think that ios is laggy...

I have Magic Mouse, MX Anywhere 3, Logitech B330 - Macbook Air M1- 60HZ LG 4K monitor - and with bluetooth or with dongle speed are same like trackpad (but laggy with bluetooth on Big Sur)
Just MX Anywhere 3 (because have 4000dpi) with dongle are liitle bit smoothier than others...

 

[TechnoLawyer]

I don't think I've ever had a laptop with solid bluetooth, windows or Mac. It's weird, because every cell phone I've ever used bluetooth with is solid. Go figure.

Anyway, I wanted to share I was having some mild intermittent mouse freezes on my 14in M1 MBP using a Logitech MX Master 3 through the dongle, with the dongle being connected to a USB hub. I switched the dongle to be directly plugged into the laptop (using a USB A-to-C dongle I had sitting in my tech junk drawer), and the issue is gone.

Honestly, that's ridiculous. I've never had that issue with a PC. What's up with that, Apple?

 

[imp3rator]

Monterey does have problems with USB hubs - I have problem with occasional unmounting external HDD with several USB hubs or USB-C to USB-A dongles. Some HDD works with some dongles / hubs and vice versa. So your freezing can related to these problems with hubs...

Do you have connected dongle in USB 3 hub ? If so, usb3 ports itself can cause intermitting - I use USB-A -> USB-A 2.0 extension cable and have dongle in it - out of bluetooth or usb3 devices...

 

[darngooddesign]

I’ve tried two different mice with my M1 Air and find the cursor movement is slightly laggy and not smooth at all compared to using the built-in trackpad. I did some research and it seems others are experiencing something similar with certain mice.

It’s leading me to believe I’ll need to buy the Magic Mouse, but the only issue I have with that is the ergonomics of it.

Is anyone experiencing this issue and if you’re not, what mouse are you using with your M1 device?

I have a cheap $25 refurbished Logitech M535 that uses internal BT and it seems to be fine. Takes a sec to reconnect if I haven't used it in a bit, bit otherwise fine. The single AA battery has lasted over a year and is still going strong.

 

[TechnoLawyer]

I don't think I've ever had a laptop with solid bluetooth, windows or Mac. It's weird, because every cell phone I've ever used bluetooth with is solid. Go figure.

Anyway, I wanted to share I was having some mild intermittent mouse freezes on my 14in M1 MBP using a Logitech MX Master 3 through the dongle, with the dongle being connected to a USB hub. I switched the dongle to be directly plugged into the laptop (using a USB A-to-C dongle I had sitting in my tech junk drawer), and the issue is gone.

Honestly, that's ridiculous. I've never had that issue with a PC. What's up with that, Apple?

Just thought I'd post a follow up.

Still works perfectly, and I find I enjoy the mouse.

For fun, I tried some MS mouse I have (I think it came with an ergo keyboard). I plugged it into the hub, and it was so laggy it was a joke. Same mouse, same hub, works 100% on my PC.

Since mice (of all ridiculous things) seem to be a potential issue here, I'm sticking with this Logitech MX Master 3.

 

[billbobbopeep]

I have a cheap $25 refurbished Logitech M535 that uses internal BT and it seems to be fine. Takes a sec to reconnect if I haven't used it in a bit, bit otherwise fine. The single AA battery has lasted over a year and is still going strong.

In my desperation I snagged the M535 and to my surprise, it's actually a lot better than all the others I tried. Still a touch of lag, but nowhere near as bad as the others. Very usable. Thanks for the post!

 

[darngooddesign]

In my desperation I snagged the M535 and to my surprise, it's actually a lot better than all the others I tried. Still a touch of lag, but nowhere near as bad as the others. Very usable. Thanks for the post!

You're welcome, its a great mouse and doesn't use any of the USB ports. Stupidly long battery life.

 

[imp3rator]

I tried moving window of logi options app than only cursor, because shows better "laggy" move of logitech mouse.

Left - logitech mx3 anywhere - in usb reciever (bluetooth is more laggy) and right is magic mouse.
It's like 30fps vs 60fps for me (you can download video and set 0,5x speed).

Can someone do similar test with logitech and magic mouse ? (i just record screen for one mouse, then for other and then play both videos side by side and record that screen )

Logitech reciever is directly inserted in USB- to USB-A converter. Other mouses are turned off. Cursor shaking is turned off...

Magic Mouse is smooth as wired connected mouses...

Using MacOS 12.3. and Logi Options+ 0.91.3227

 

[imp3rator]

Running into this issue with my M1 Max 16" and an LG 4K monitor @60hz. Running through UBS-C into the monitor (no hub, laptop lid closed, scaled display) and have tried multiple different options:

MX Master 3 (with and without Logitech receiver)
Magic Mouse
Magic Trackpad
G305

Latest OS. Turned off "Shake mouse" in accessibility settings. Ensured monitor was running at 60hz. Screwed with pointer speed. Logitech Hub / No Hub. Resetting bluetooth. Different ports for the receiver. All have the same issue. Extremely frustrating. When I use the laptop standalone with the trackpad built in it feels flawless & buttery smooth. Wonder if I'm just used to high refresh rates (used a 144hz monitor with a Windows desktop previously)

Can you try make video like me in previous post ?

EDIT : I made couple of test - using M330 and MX3 on Windows and using MagicMouse on Windows. Looks absolutely same - like in 30-45 fps mode.

Smoothiest movement is with MagicMouse and MacOS - probably some kind of custom communication between MacOS and Mouse...

 

[imp3rator]

Another test :

Open Pixelmator or other simple graphic editor a draw a "wave" by hand with logitech mouse and magic mouse.
Do you see a difference ?

 

[TechnoLawyer]

Just thought I'd post a follow up.

Still works perfectly, and I find I enjoy the mouse.

For fun, I tried some MS mouse I have (I think it came with an ergo keyboard). I plugged it into the hub, and it was so laggy it was a joke. Same mouse, same hub, works 100% on my PC.

Since mice (of all ridiculous things) seem to be a potential issue here, I'm sticking with this Logitech MX Master 3.

Thought I'd give a further update. For my MBP, it's clear. Any mouse that isn't a Magic Mouse, through bluetooth, is borderline useless. Any mouse, through a dongle connected to a USB hub, suffers freezes to an extent. Any mouse, through a dongle directly connected to the laptop USB-C port, works properly.

How did Apple screw this up? Did they literally test nothing but a Magic Mouse? And why does the Magic Mouse actually work properly via BT but nothing else will?

 

[imp3rator]

Did they literally test nothing but a Magic Mouse?

Yes Scrolling is choppy as well - you can set smooth scroll in Logitech Options software for mx3 but not for m330. You have to install 3rd party app like smooze...

And why does the Magic Mouse actually work properly via BT but nothing else will?

Probably own "communication protocol"... like airpods which are synced with video and other bluetooth headphones not...
I tested MagicMouse with Windows - and both Logitech (M330, MX3) and MagicMouse works same but not smooth as MagicMouse on MacOS...

And fun fact - Microsoft Designer Bluetooth Mouse stuttering with Windows 10 laptop

 

[billbobbopeep]

Well, sadly the Logitech M353 that was working fine is now intermittently turning to crap. Sometimes its fine, sometimes its alright, and sometimes its useless. Was unusable this morning to point of being comical. Yikes - not sure what I'm going to do at this point, sort of need a consistently usable mouse to operate the computer. Suppose my next route will be a wired mouse or tossing the entire computer out the window.

Curious if people are having similar issues on the Mac Studio. If it's worth anything, bluetooth on my m1 iMac 24" works perfectly fine in terms of this issue. 0 lag on there

 

[avonord]

Curious if people are having similar issues on the Mac Studio. If it's worth anything, bluetooth on my m1 iMac 24" works perfectly fine in terms of this issue. 0 lag on there

I saw a Mac studio review on YouTube that said there’s no BT issue.

 

[w5jck]

Yes Scrolling is choppy as well - you can set smooth scroll in Logitech Options software for mx3 but not for m330. You have to install 3rd party app like smooze...

Yes indeed, if people have certain MX mice they can use the Logi Options app by Logitech to set scrolling to "smooth". This works great even with my old MX Anywhere 2 mouse on BT.

 

[imp3rator]

Yes but it's not "smooth" as MagicMouse - smooze solve this.

 

[w5jck]

I’m not going to pay $20 for Smooze when the Logi Options works just fine.

 

[imp3rator]

Old price for smooze was 5$ but they made a "pro" version and it is bit pricey but you can use various gestures and it simulates magic mouse or magic trackpad scrolling - and I have a 2x M330 so scrolling would be unusable. But I don't force you to anything, just my experience or tip for others.

 

[lehoid]

I have and Air M1 + Logitech Mx Anywhere / Logitech Pop Mouse. Microstutters occured sometimes. I tried an M220 silent with it's stick attached to an usb hub. It worked like charm, no stutters and delay at all. Switched off shake to find -> much better but still not perfect.
After disabling wifi, both bt mice worked well. Figured out that - at least seemingly and at least for me - if I am on 2.4 GHz wifi, stutters occur. If I switch back to 5 GHz, it goes away and - at least so far - everything is ok. I have both 2.4 and 5 GHz hotspots at home and I guess, my macbook roamed between them, that may caused that sometimes mice were okay, sometimes not. But it is still a theory, so I will test it, and I would appreciate if anyone else could do such experiments and confirm it.
Also, I bought a magic mouse, which works flawlessly, but unfortunatelly, it's ergonomy does not fit to my hand.

 

[pshufd]

I have and Air M1 + Logitech Mx Anywhere / Logitech Pop Mouse. Microstutters occured sometimes. I tried an M220 silent with it's stick attached to an usb hub. It worked like charm, no stutters and delay at all. Switched off shake to find -> much better but still not perfect.
After disabling wifi, both bt mice worked well. Figured out that - at least seemingly and at least for me - if I am on 2.4 GHz wifi, stutters occur. If I switch back to 5 GHz, it goes away and - at least so far - everything is ok. I have both 2.4 and 5 GHz hotspots at home and I guess, my macbook roamed between them, that may caused that sometimes mice were okay, sometimes not. But it is still a theory, so I will test it, and I would appreciate if anyone else could do such experiments and confirm it.
Also, I bought a magic mouse, which works flawlessly, but unfortunatelly, it's ergonomy does not fit to my hand.

I like the Logitech M510 Wireless Mouse - it's a basic mouse but on the large size. My favorite is the M505 which is even larger but it only comes in wired and they don't sell it anymore. At the moment, my main setup is a 2014 iMac and I have it on CAT6 Ethernet with Wifi turned off so no interference issues. If I do run into interference issues (on other systems on WiFi), then I use a 6-inch USB extender cable and that always solves the problem. It may be an issue with line-of-sight or interference from something in the system but moving the receiver away by about 6 inches solves the problem.

It's just a nuisance to have to carry on a trip but the trackpad on the 2021 MacBook Pro 16 is so good that I've stopped using an external mouse with it.

Good analysis though. It would have been nice if Logitech used different frequencies.

 

[sercotec]

I have a mac Mini M1 and monterey 12.4 i am experiencing mouse lag when it is 4K and wifi is active (no lag for wifi because router is in 1 meter radius). So either it is HDMI cable or wifi interfring with bluetooth mouse.

I havent changed the cable yet , in my case when i turn off wifi and use ethernet issue is solved.

 

[billbobbopeep]

I've heard that mentioned multiple times, but sadly, seen no improvement when disabling wi-fi myself.

Probably just going to switch to a wired mouse at this point - bit ridiculous but what can you do

 

[loginatnine]

On a macbook pro m1 pro, m500s wired USB mouse, at random intervals during my work day, it'll start acting up and getting jittery. I'm fixing it by going back and forth on the refresh rate of the affected monitor and it works each times.

Not sure what's up, the mouse is connected in a usb switch (so it can be connected to 2 pc at the press of a button on the switch) which is connected to a usb-c dongle to give me some usb-a ports.

I tried changing cables and display input (DP or HDMI, same thing) and nothing works. Since it's fixed by a change in the refresh rate, I'm confident it's not a usb thing and really something in mac display driver or something...