Mouse Aide Support

Last updated: 9 October 2026

Mouse Aide lets your mouse and your trackpad scroll in different directions, which macOS otherwise refuses to do. This page covers the questions that come up most.

Getting started

Mouse Aide lives in the menu bar and has no Dock icon. On first launch it explains why it needs Accessibility permission — called Device Control and Data Access on macOS 27 — and asks for it. Once granted, scroll once with each device and it will appear in Settings, where you can set its direction, speed and sideways modifier.

Why does it need this permission?

On macOS 14 to 26 the permission is called Accessibility, and on macOS 27 Device Control and Data Access. Under either name, it is the only category macOS provides for an app that needs to change an input event as it passes. Mouse Aide uses it to read and adjust scroll events and the presses of the mouse buttons it can remap. From version 1.4 it can also read clicks or trackpad touches, but only while you have one of its middle-click options switched on. It never reads what you type or sees your screen, and it has no network permission at all, so macOS itself prevents it from reaching the internet. See our Privacy Policy.

I granted permission but nothing happens

macOS ties this permission to an app's exact signature, so an older copy can sit in the list looking switched on while the current one is not actually trusted. To clear it, first quit Mouse Aide from its menu bar icon. Then open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Device Control and Data Access (on macOS 14 to 26, Accessibility). If Mouse Aide is listed, select it and press the − button to remove it. Then press the + button, add Mouse Aide and make sure it is switched on. Open Mouse Aide again, and it picks up from there.

Scrolling goes the wrong way, or nothing changes

Another mouse utility is probably also inverting your scrolling, and two inversions cancel out. Open Settings → General, where Mouse Aide lists any other mouse software it can see, including background helpers left behind by apps you have already deleted. Turn the scroll direction off in one of them.

My Magic Mouse scrolls like a trackpad

A Magic Mouse sends the same kind of scroll events a trackpad does, so its scrolling is treated the way a trackpad’s is rather than a wheel mouse’s. It still appears by its own name in Settings with its own direction and speed, so inverting a Magic Mouse leaves the built-in trackpad on a laptop exactly as it was. Having no middle or side buttons, it shows no Buttons section.

Which mice does it work with?

Mice that report a scroll wheel to macOS, wired or wireless. No drivers are required.

Middle click — Mouse Aide 1.4 and later

Mouse Aide 1.4 can make a middle click without a middle button — click a link this way and it opens in a new tab. There are two options, set separately for each device and off until you switch them on. Choose Settings from the menu bar icon, select the device, and find its Middle click section. A device appears in Settings once you have scrolled with it.

• Tap with three fingers, on a trackpad’s page: tap a link with three fingers. The trackpad’s own gestures keep working as before.
• Hold Fn and click, on a mouse’s or a trackpad’s page: hold Fn (the globe key on newer Mac keyboards) on your Mac’s keyboard as you click with that device.

If Tap with three fingers says Paused, the trackpad already uses three fingers for Look Up or for dragging, and Mouse Aide waits rather than make one tap do two things. To use the tap for middle click instead: for Look Up, open System Settings → Trackpad → Point & Click and set Look up & data detectors to Force Click with One Finger; for dragging, open System Settings → Accessibility → Pointer Control → Trackpad Options… and choose another Dragging style. Mouse Aide only reads these settings and never changes them.

If every click opens a new tab, press Fn once. While Hold Fn and click is on, a click the Mac sees with Fn held becomes a middle click, so if the Mac still counts Fn as held, every click does. A single press of Fn should clear it. If it carries on, switch Hold Fn and click off for that device and let us know.

If one tap gives two middle clicks in a particular app, that app may make its own middle click from a three-finger tap. iTerm2 has such a setting: “Three-finger tap reports middle click to apps”, in its Pointer settings. Switch off the app’s own setting where it has one, or use Hold Fn and click in that app instead of a three-finger tap.

If one of these does not work with your trackpad, mouse or keyboard, write to [email protected] with the model and your macOS version, and we will look into it.

How do I turn it off or remove it?

Choose Quit from the menu bar icon and scrolling returns to normal immediately. To switch it off without quitting, turn off Adjust scrolling in Settings. To remove it entirely, drag the app to the Trash.

Contact

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SUMMERCLOUDE PTE. LTD. — registered in Singapore
[email protected]