Catalina mouse lag

[anarti]

Has anyone noticed the mouse lag on Catalina? I use Apple wireless mouse as well as logitech wireless (for CAD) and both show some lag like system was dinging something and mouse cursor wouldn't keep up.

I've reset NVRAM and that helped but only for 2 days.

I was wondering if its just me or other folks might experience the same issue.

There was nothing like that on 10.14

I use 2018 Mac Mini with beefed up spec to its not a computer being laggy but just a mouse cursor.

 

[syawaworht]

I've got the same issue. Have a macbook12 hooked up to a 4k monitor. The mouse now lags noticeably when moving it around. It's fine when not connected to the monitor.

 

[crjackson2134]

Using both a MM1 & MM2. I have no such problem. I’m on a MP51...

 

[syawaworht]

Looks my issue is actually: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/dell-up3216q-4k-monitor-can-only-output-30hz.2205690/

External 4k monitor is going at 30fps instead of 60 fps before.

 

[MacRum2011]

my mouse is set at the fastest tracking speed and its still slower than it was (USB Logitech mouse) (MacBook Pro 2017 15-Inch) to get from one side to the other side of the screen (External LG 4K 27-Inch Monitor). was fine until the Catalina update. Scrolling and everything is normal. Using the trackpad is on the MacBook is fine and normal performance.

 

[yunuzzz]

Same here. I think. It's up to Catalina. My 2017 iMac's magic mouse 2 lagging and it's like same as you. I've tried mouse with my 2018 MBP on Mojave. Mojave doesn't have this issue. Interestingly my gaming steelseries mouse is does not have issue like this in both machine.

 

[ja14000]

Looks my issue is actually: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/dell-up3216q-4k-monitor-can-only-output-30hz.2205690/

External 4k monitor is going at 30fps instead of 60 fps before.

For me this was (mostly) the issue too, unfortunately I had to purchase a new hub that can do 4k 60 to fix it. Although the overall stutter has been fixed the mouse still hitches every once in a while when using bluetooth, with the unifying receiver it's flawless though.

This is true for both my MX Ergo and my MX Anywhere 2.

 

[Marple]

I also have slow tracking speed although speed is set to max. MBP with Mojave. Slow mouse is Apple gen 1, A1296.

At the same time Logitech MX Anywhere 2S and the trackpad are normal.

Is this issue already solved?

 

[JonBOY26]

Hi All, just thought I'd chime in here with my own experiences in case it helps someone.

I have a 2013 MacBook Air that's running Catalina. Normally it runs perfectly fine but on rare occasions I would notice severe lagging of my Magic Mouse v2. Today was one of those days so after getting sick of it I decided to investigate the issue.

First, I connected my old Magic Mouse 1 and found that it suffered the same lag issue. So then I decided to plug in a USB mouse and check that. Now, in order to plug in the USB mouse, I had to disconnect my iPad, which I had connected for charging. The USB mouse worked perfectly, but then I discovered that so too were both the two Magic Mouses.

So what was the problem? The iPad charging! It seems that charging the iPad sucks up too much power or something, and the bluetooth performance suffers as a result. I confirmed that as soon as the iPad is plugged back in to charge, the Magic Mouse begins lagging again. So problem solved for me.

This might just be particular to my situation because my MBA is quite old and/or because the MBAs operate at low power and struggle to provide the necessary power to charge the iPad. However, anybody experiencing lag of any bluetooth-connected mouse might want to try disconnecting any high-power peripheries to see whether your mouse performance improves.

 

[the writer]

I have mouse skipping issues running macOS X 10.15.6 Catalina on a mid 2017 5k iMac. In addition to the built-in 5k monitor I'm also driving an external Ultra fine LG 5k monitor and I've noticed that the running both of these monitors usually maxes-out the 8GB video memory on the Radeon Pro 580.

I'm wondering if it might have something to do with the way the Thunderbolt 3/USB bus is used to drive my peripherals, including the LG monitor. Perhaps the mouse traffic gets bumped down in priority and plays catch-up, thus jumping from the point it lost control of the i/o bus to the point it regains control of the i/o bus. It may also be related to the way the OS places the mouse pointer in the video memory.

I suppose I should disconnect all my TB3/USB peripherals, including the LG monitor and see if the mouse continues to jump around. That will have to wait for a couple of weeks as I'm in the middle of a project and don't have time to play around right now. Sigh....

The problem persists with a variety of wired mice.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I suppose I should disconnect all my TB3/USB peripherals, including the LG monitor and see if the mouse continues to jump around. That will have to wait for a couple of weeks as I'm in the middle of a project and don't have time to play around right now. Sigh....

The problem persists with a variety of wired mice.

Some other things to try:

• Create a clean new user account, restart the computer, login to the new user account only, leave the new user account clean and see if the mouse lag still happens.
• Boot into Safe Mode and back to normal mode. Safe Mode will cause the system cache to get recreated.
• SMC reset.
  

Use safe mode on your Mac – Apple Support (AU)

Safe mode can help you to determine whether an issue is being caused by software that loads as your Mac starts up.

support.apple.com

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

The SMC is responsible for managing power on your Mac. Resetting it can resolve certain uncommon issues related to power or thermal management.

support.apple.com

 

[Bazza1]

I had to give up on my Magic Mouse as it was running through batteries at a terrific rate (100% to 8% in less than 5 hours, most of that in sleep - Apple Support had no ideas, short of what I've no doubt would be a costly after-warranty repair) and have been using a $15 Logitech wireless mouse instead. That said, I have noted stuttering, lag and lack of precision on occasion. Swapped out the battery. Nothing. Dug about on the net, including Logitech's own site - wondering if their might be a new Driver that would overwrite whatever Apple had on file. Nothing there, but I did find a Firmware update for the actual USB receiver widget, dated after Catalina's release. It never occurred to me the receiver might be the issue.
Downloaded it and let it run, rebooted, and yes, my mouse is by far and away more responsive and accurate. Huzzah!

I'd certainly suggest you look for similar if you are using a similar 3rd Party mouse. As for the Magic Mouse - well, maybe I'll wait until after I win a lottery.

 

[notabadname]

I have this now that I finally upgraded to Catalina. Even with my 2018 MBP's own built-in trackpad it does it IF I have an external monitor connected. If I disconnect the external, no issue. Very frustrating to do anything "fine", such as Photoshop work, with a laggy cursor. the selection tool can be a nightmare.

 

[StellarVixen]

Have you tried turning off mouse acceleration?

 

[tlavigne]

So what was the problem? The iPad charging! It seems that charging the iPad sucks up too much power or something, and the bluetooth performance suffers as a result. I confirmed that as soon as the iPad is plugged back in to charge, the Magic Mouse begins lagging again. So problem solved for me.

This might just be particular to my situation because my MBA is quite old and/or because the MBAs operate at low power and struggle to provide the necessary power to charge the iPad. However, anybody experiencing lag of any bluetooth-connected mouse might want to try disconnecting any high-power peripheries to see whether your mouse performance improves.

This solution seems like crazy sauce -- why would something charging on USB kill the bluetooth mouse performance? But unplugging everything from the USB ports (charging Jabra earphones) "fixed" my bluetooth mouse that has been driving me nuts for weeks. As above, my hardware is "vintage": late 2013 macbook pro

Note: the headphones weren't even charging as they were fully charged, but they were plugged in. And the macbook itself is plugged into the wall, so it isn't running on battery. I've played with this some more -- plug anything into the USB, mouse starts skipping, lagging, sucking...whatever you want to call it.

 

[Obsidian6]

I have this now that I finally upgraded to Catalina. Even with my 2018 MBP's own built-in trackpad it does it IF I have an external monitor connected. If I disconnect the external, no issue. Very frustrating to do anything "fine", such as Photoshop work, with a laggy cursor. the selection tool can be a nightmare.

I'm struggling with this exact issue. It's impossible to do any design work with an external monitor right now with this cursor lag. However the interesting thing is that it only started happening (for me) with the 10.15.7 supplemental update that rolled out recently to my machine.

I've tried everything I can think of to reset and it's extremely irritating. Yet as noted above, as soon as I unplug the monitor the cursor lag disappears.

 

[tlavigne]

I'm struggling with this exact issue. It's impossible to do any design work with an external monitor right now with this cursor lag. However the interesting thing is that it only started happening (for me) with the 10.15.7 supplemental update that rolled out recently to my machine.

I've tried everything I can think of to reset and it's extremely irritating. Yet as noted above, as soon as I unplug the monitor the cursor lag disappears.

So, I had like 2.5 glorious weeks of lag free mouse usage. And then my macbook upgraded to the 10.15.7 supplemental update....and now it is terrible again. Before that update, it would lag with anything plugged into USB but would instantly become magically delicious again once I unplugged the USB. After that upgrade it seems like it is laggy whether I have anything plugged in or not. Anybody else seeing the same thing? I guess cross fingers and wait for Big Sur and hope it gets fixed with that?

 

[notabadname]

I'm struggling with this exact issue. It's impossible to do any design work with an external monitor right now with this cursor lag. However the interesting thing is that it only started happening (for me) with the 10.15.7 supplemental update that rolled out recently to my machine.

I've tried everything I can think of to reset and it's extremely irritating. Yet as noted above, as soon as I unplug the monitor the cursor lag disappears.

Mine is working normally. But I switched to a Display Port connector instead of the USB-C to USB-C connection as well (via a doc). I am not sure if that fixed it or the subsequent OS update that pushed as well.

 

[damianv]

I had the same problem with a mighty mouse. It is only the mouse cursor lagging, I tried with keyboard inputs, and it has no lag. Same with a wired USB mouse. I would draw a circle, and every 2.5s the mouse cursor would freeze for about 0.3s and then jump to where it would normally be.

Following the hints with the screen I found it was only when my secondary screen is turned off but still connected via thunderbolt adapter converting to DVI. I turn the screen on, everything is back to normal.

I'm on an iMac lat 2013, still using 10.13 High Sierra, this issue seems not to depend on the version of mac OS.