Tool

Mouse tester

Click inside the box with every button and each one lights up with a count: left, right, the wheel and the two side buttons. The page also catches a button that clicks twice from one press, a scroll wheel that jumps the wrong way, and how many pointer updates a second reach the browser.

Run the four checks

  1. Click inside the box with each button once: left, right, the wheel, back and forward.
  2. Click the left button slowly, once a second, about twenty times, and watch clicks under 80 ms apart. It should stay at 0.
  3. Move the pointer to the scroll box and turn the wheel slowly down, then slowly up.
  4. Move the mouse in quick circles inside the click box and read pointer updates a second.

Read the result

  • Buttons. Each lights while held and counts every press. A button that never lights did not reach the browser.
  • Clicks under 80 ms apart. Two presses of the same button that close together are almost always one press that the switch reported twice.
  • Double clicks. What the browser counted as a double click, by your computer's double-click speed.
  • Wrong-way jumps. A single wheel step against a steady turn. A wheel that does this scrolls up while you scroll down.
  • Pointer updates a second. In browsers that pass on every report the mouse sends, such as Chrome, this comes close to the mouse's polling rate. Others count about one update per screen frame.

Test each check twice. Every button lit, no fast doubles and no wrong-way jumps is a healthy mouse.

If a button does nothing

Climb this ladder, smallest step first:

  1. Click inside the box. Presses outside it are not counted.
  2. Try a second browser for the side buttons. Not every browser passes button 4 and button 5 to a page.
  3. Check the mouse's own app. A vendor app can turn a side button into a key press, and then it never arrives as a button.
  4. Change the connection. A fresh battery, another USB port, or the receiver closer to the mouse.

What a web page cannot test

The page sees five buttons, the wheel and the pointer. It cannot read the mouse's DPI setting, buttons past the fifth, or buttons a vendor app has turned into keys. The update rate is what reaches the browser, and the computer can combine reports before the browser gets them, so treat it as a comparison between two mice or two ports, not as a measurement of the mouse.

Give the side buttons a job on a Mac

On a Mac, the side buttons reach the app in front, and many apps, Safari and the Finder among them, have no job for them. InputConfig, the free app I make, gives each one a job: back and forward, a keyboard shortcut, a macro, or a different job in every app. Mouse side buttons on a Mac has the setup. If both side buttons light here, the mouse is fine and the app was the gap.

Questions

How do I test my mouse buttons?

Click inside the box on this page with each button: left, right, the wheel, and the two side buttons. Each one lights while held and counts every press.

Why does my mouse double click when I click once?

The switch under the button is wearing out and makes contact twice. This page counts clicks that arrive under 80 milliseconds apart, which a finger does not do on purpose.

How do I check my mouse polling rate?

Move the mouse in quick circles inside the box and read pointer updates a second. It is the rate that reaches the browser, which can be lower than what the mouse sends.

Why do the side buttons do nothing on my Mac?

macOS passes them to the app in front, and many apps have no job for them. If they light up here, the mouse works; an app such as InputConfig can give them a job.

Related

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Download InputConfig on the Mac App StoreFree. macOS 14 or later. No account, nothing leaves your Mac. Open source on GitHub.