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User profile for user: geofffromdowney
geofffromdowney Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

bluetooth Mice are unusable with mac mini m1

I asked this same question a year ago, and maybe convinced myself that the advice in that thread worked, or else I decided to live with it. Looks like I can't reply there though: magic mouse 2 lag with m1 mac mini - Apple Community, so I'm starting a new thread here.


My magic mouse 2 is at times unusable with my m1 mini. 80% of the time the tracking is fine, and it works great. the rest of the time, it's slow, laggy, and slow to catch up to motions i've made. This is the second magic mouse 2 that's had this issue, I bought a replacement thinking that it was perhaps an issue with the first mouse.


i've tried:

re-pairing the mouse

cleaning the optical sensor

turning off and on bluetooth

trashing the mouse preferences and re-pairing the mouse

turning off wifi (I'm on a hard wired connection to the internet/network)

putting my phone in airplane mode (I thought it maybe was interfering)


None of this works. I've also tried a second, non apple mouse, a logitech M720. It has similar symptoms. It uses an external bluetooth dongle, which I have connected through a USB3 hub.


My wired mouse works fine, but the way, but the way I'm set up, I would strongly prefer to use the bluetooth mouse (using a tiny standing desk several feet away from the computer and monitors.).


Any advice is greatly appreciated. I can't exactly haul this setup down to the genius bar to replicate it for them...


This feels like a software issue that apple hasn't yet fixed. I'm on big sur, 11.6.1. I *could* upgrade to monterey, but I fear that some of my software will not be compatible.


Thx

Geoff



Mac mini, macOS 11.6

Posted on May 16, 2022 7:36 AM

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User profile for user: den.thed
den.thed
User level: Level 10
82,564 points

Posted on May 17, 2022 5:42 AM

geofffromdowney wrote:

None of this works. I've also tried a second, non apple mouse, a logitech M720. It has similar symptoms. It uses an external bluetooth dongle, which I have connected through a USB3 hub.

My wired mouse works fine, but the way, but the way I'm set up, I would strongly prefer to use the bluetooth mouse (using a tiny standing desk several feet away from the computer and monitors.).

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I can't exactly haul this setup down to the genius bar to replicate it for them...


I concur with Woodmeister50's last statement, that "High Speed USB Devices and Cables" can cause wireless interference.

have a look at > Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference - Apple Support

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User profile for user: den.thed
den.thed
User level: Level 10
82,564 points

May 17, 2022 5:42 AM in response to geofffromdowney

geofffromdowney wrote:

None of this works. I've also tried a second, non apple mouse, a logitech M720. It has similar symptoms. It uses an external bluetooth dongle, which I have connected through a USB3 hub.

My wired mouse works fine, but the way, but the way I'm set up, I would strongly prefer to use the bluetooth mouse (using a tiny standing desk several feet away from the computer and monitors.).

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I can't exactly haul this setup down to the genius bar to replicate it for them...


I concur with Woodmeister50's last statement, that "High Speed USB Devices and Cables" can cause wireless interference.

have a look at > Resolve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth issues caused by wireless interference - Apple Support

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User profile for user: woodmeister50
woodmeister50
User level: Level 7
20,503 points

May 17, 2022 4:44 AM in response to geofffromdowney

Does the issue occur at relatively random times or does it most often happen at a particular time of day?


Do you also have a Bluetooth keyboard? If so, what is the charge level of it when this occurs? Sometimes when the charge level gets low on a single device, it can, but not always, create odd issues.


Also, this can be somewhat related to the first question, is your setting a dense populated setting, i.e. like an apartment or a high density office complex?


One last item, do you have any USB devices and how many are connected to the Mini? High speed USB devices can also cause such sort of interference. I would check the USB cabling and if possible, get better quality, well shielded cables.

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User profile for user: geofffromdowney
geofffromdowney Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

May 17, 2022 10:41 AM in response to den.thed

Ok, thanks for the responses everyone. I'll try some of those suggestions tonight. It is definitely possible that it's as simple as interference. The apple article was helpful.


A quick google tells me that the bluetooth antenna in the mini is in the bottom of the enclosure. I have my mini sitting on top of my equipment rack which has some big metal pieces in it, so definitely possible that it could be messing things up. (though that doesn't really track with the logitech mouse, since that uses a separate bluetooth dongle that I have plugged into the USB hub...)


Will report back, thanks

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bluetooth Mice are unusable with mac mini m1

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