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Tell HN: Can we surface the M1 Mac laggy/choppy cursor and scroll bug?

104 points by nwienert ↗ HN
Just want to surface this to see if anyone has it fixed or so anyone at Apple can give it a look. I remember finding a fix involving editing a cursor file a while back, but it must not work as I've been seeing it again (and can't find that fix searching anymore).

There's a lot of reports:

https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookair/comments/pome1y/mba_m1_c...

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/nlbf6w/weird_cursor_...

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/qtfc2e/lagging_jittery...

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/qj77mq/cursor_lag_cont...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252777347

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253079227

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252732117

There's this one video with a fix, but I already have shake to locate off and it happens without using any bluetooth mouse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsPlbpbCiVI

31 comments

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jbverschoor
Yeah I sometimes have the same, but it comes and goes. It's very weird. I have it with the internal trackpad
pwinnski
Weirdly, I've been getting a laggy/choppy cursor since upgrading from Catalina to Monterey--but not on my M1 Mac mini, on my Intel MBP.

I think this is part of what makes things like this hard: most people might be misdiagnosing what they're seeing.

etimberg
I have similar issues on Catalina on an Intel MBP. It's really frustrating
ben7799
I also have definitely had this on my 2021 Intel 16” MBP but NOT on my M1 MBP. Intel is on Big Sur due to software compatibility, M1 is on Monterey.
FlyingAvatar
I had a friend with this issue on a new Intel MBP and it ultimately required a mainboard swap to fix. They covered it under warranty, however as the machine was <1 year old.
cschmittiey
I also have this issue. It’s especially bad on the latest developer betas. I remember in previous iterations of the OS if I killed an app it would be fine but I don’t remember which app. Maybe safari?
herpderperator
From one of the links[0]:

> I have two M1 macbook airs, both have this issue. It's only present when macOS resumes after running out of battery. Restarting fixes it, but that's a pain and defeats the whole point of the low battery resume feature.

> Interestingly the cursor isn't the only thing that's slow. I maintain an old OpenGL codebase and rendering performance is degraded until I restart. I've optimized for the M1 so it's definitely not a rosetta issue. It's almost like the gpu gets stuck in a low power mode after shutting down due to low battery.

I can attest to this - also with an M1 Air. When macOS resumes from 0% battery, it's stuck in 30Hz mode. Not just the cursor - everything. I've always restarted to fix.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/qj77mq/cursor_lag_cont...

throwawayninja
> When macOS resumes from 0% battery, it's stuck in 30Hz mode

This sounds like detailed, testable data; I wonder how much effort it is to query this in code at resume just to confirm?

herpderperator
iStat Menus will tell you the current "Frames Per Second", which is where I recall seeing it cap at 30Hz no matter what interaction I tried, after the 0% resume event. You have to basically scroll or do something that is supposed to be smooth to force the GPU to work as fast as it can, then immediately check the "Frames Per Second" in the iStat Menus toolbar. The "Frames Per Second" wouldn't display a number past 30Hz, whereas right now in the non-buggy state I can easily make it show 60Hz by scrolling in HN and clicking the iStat Menus toolbar immediately. It's been a while since I let my M1 Air fall to 0% but I am almost certain that's how I confirmed it.
yourabstraction
Oh wow, great to see this info. I've had the choppy mouse a couple times on my M1 Air, but it was always when I was super tired, and I had assumed it was just me. Good to know that I'm not crazy and there's a workaround for the time being. Hopefully Apple can get this fixed soon.
mozillamaxx
2019 MBP, Big Sur: I have the same issue.

I have had better luck with the magic Trackpad plugged in via USB than over BT.

e4e78a06
Happens to me on an Intel MBP when I use the trackpad at the same time I have a wireless (dongle) mouse connected.
juancn
It could have a myriad causes. On the video is over bluetooth, so a noisy radio environment, or some weird glitch on the bluetooth controller.

If it happens on the trackpad, it could be a defect on the trackpad itself, or something overloading the USB hub it's attached to.

It could also be a sign of swapping, too many interrupts, badly prioritized processes, etc.

A bug in adaptive refresh rate might do it.

A process messing with events (such as an app listening on mouse moves or an antivirus).

It may not be a single bug, but just a symptom of something else.

gafferongames
I can confirm this. The very first thing I noticed when I bought a new M1 Mac air :(
ryall
I get this on my M1 Air, maybe once or twice a week.

I use a Magic trackpad, and when it occurs the built-in trackpad still works fine.

To fix it I disable Bluetooth on the M1, then re-enable and everything is fine again.

This lead me to believe it was related to the Bluetooth stack, but if people are experiencing it while using built-in trackpad if be interested to know if my workaround still fixes it.

selimnairb
I had this problem on my 2019 i9 MBP. It seemed to involve the keyboard. One way to trigger it was to use the calculator app. Entering simple arithmetic expressions (e.g., '3' then '+' then '4' then '+' then ... '=') with the built-in keyboard would often result in the result not being displayed until I moved the mouse pointer using the built-in trackpad.
united893
I also have this issue. Have noticed it often happens when interacting in an external screen.
burlesona
I have this on Intel MacBooks, and it seems like the issue is fixed by turning off Bluetooth. I think it happens when there’s an accessory that’s on the edge of Bluetooth range and struggling to stay connected, because I notice it most often when working at a table that’s about 20 meters from my desk (where I have a Bluetooth trackpad).
benatkin
I'm getting double typing on my M1 MBP. It's infuriating. Also seems to only happen when I am not watching my every keystroke. It certainly is happening though.
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masswerk
I had a problem on a M1 24" iMac / Big Sur, where the (Magic) mouse would behave choppy and slow. I found, re-plugging a USB device (and by this restarting the driver stack) solved the issue. I'm not sure, if this is the same problem, but this was definitely a more general problem with the USB driver stack, not just with the cursor that eventually displays the motion. (That issues are reported for both scrolling and cursor movement also hints in this direction.)

There's also a wakeup-immediately-after-sleep issue, which seems to be linked to the USB stack, as well.

joeman1000
I find that scrolling in safari can be very unresponsive and choppy at times. I’ve got an MBP w/ M1 Pro.
throwaway81523
We could even start a gofundme, if Apple can't afford a QA department to surface its own bugs instead of letting Reddit to it.
craftoman
MacBook Pro M1 owner here. Scrolling is lagging like I'm on a $300 laptop. This is a ridiculous behavior for a high end laptop like this. I seriously don't know what to say, it's frustrating.