BetterMouse is the best option I’ve found for my MX Master 3, and so far it’s working great and a relief to ditch Logi Options+.

Excessive Context

I was just minding my own business this week, not thinking about my simmering annoyance with Logi Options+, not wondering once again why a person would ever need an AI prompt builder for their mouse, blissfully unaware that the already-annoying software depends on cloud service in order for the peripheral to function.

And then Robb ruined it.

His Mastodon post said that a breakage in the internet pipes meant his mouse didn’t work, which is of course needlessly stupid. I’m glad I noticed, however, because @reillypascal kindly pointed out that there are options beyond Logi Options!

I immediately uninstalled Logi Options and began trying them. This is not the smartest order to work in, but I was eager to hurl that software into the sun and I assumed something else would work.

I use an MX Master 3 and I like it.

Newer models have come out, and I’ve been tempted especially as I’ve worn several smooth spots into it with use, but now we’re old friends. I freshened it up with some grip tape and kept on. The wheels still turn and the buttons still click, and even though the grip tape is quite worn now we’ve had a lot of good laughs together.

I use it almost stock, with a higher sensitivity than macOS allows by itself and a press of the thumb button to spread all my windows into tiles with Mission Control. When I lose my place with too many windows open, a thumb boop lets me find whatever I’m looking for. I rely on that regularly, and I’ve never met a nicer scroll wheel in my life. The horizontal one is just there, but the vertical scroll wheel between the left and right buttons is glorious. Solid metal with a nice weight and just enough texture to feel satisfying and be functional. A smooth but tactile scroll, where a strong enough flick can translate into a free spin. After this scroll wheel, every other one I’ve tried feels like joyless, primitive nub made of rubberized sadness.

I really can’t tell you where I am on the tracking and scroll speed/acceleration spectrum. All I know is that I can perceive even the slightest change to these settings, and said change makes it feel like I’m drunk and it’s my first time using a mouse.

A friend coaching me through Escape From Tarkov was once bewildered and enraged at my mouse sensitivity being way too high, though that was a different mouse and a different computer. But now we’re really off track, here.

Field Notes

I tried each option Robb listed, hoping to use my MX Master 3 and get

  1. Normal left+right click behavior.
  2. Stock vertical scroll behavior, including the little clutch button.
  3. Stock horizontal scroll behavior.
  4. Thumb button Mission Control.

I use the forward/back buttons maybe twice a year when I remember they’re there, so I don’t care much about them.

LinearMouse was where I started, and while it felt pleasantly simple I couldn’t get anything to happen with the thumb button. So no Mission Control. (Same was true of beta v0.10.3-beta.2.)

Mac Mouse Fix was next, and it didn’t register the thumb button either.

SteerMouse was my winner for the remainder of the day. I didn’t expect it to be, because it was more expensive and more dated-looking, but it registered the thumb button and everything worked like I wanted. Then I had Reeder open and was scrolling its sidebar and something felt wildly off. The scroll rate felt totally different and there was a strange lag to it. Clearly Reeder does some kind of smoothing or adjustment to scroll input in that panel, but it was never weird with Logi Options. I didn’t take notes testing the day before, so I tried all the apps. Again.

BetterMouse was chronologically earlier in my testing loop, but I wrote it off because even though it registered the thumb button I couldn’t map it to Mission Control. It turns out I was just being dull: Button 5 simply needs to be mapped to App Launch → Mission Control. (I hadn’t noticed that it was in the submenu, and yes I tie my own shoes.) BetterMouse has a weirder interface with more options than I need, but it’s working wonderfully and it doesn’t behave strangely with Reeder’s sidebar. I trust sidestepping this weird issue means I’ll avoid other ones I would have bumped into with SteerMouse. (BetterMouse also has app-specific profiles, so if I do have app-specific oddities I’ll have a way of fixing them.) The vertical scroll behavior is ever so slightly smoother now in a way that I actually like, though I’m not sharp enough to explain why.

If you’ve been stuck with Logi Options and you’re about to liberate your beloved mouse, I hope it works for you too!