If you’ve just switched from Windows to Mac, there’s a good chance the scrolling feels backwards. Swipe up on the trackpad and the page moves up instead of down — which can feel disorienting until you know exactly where to flip the setting.
The good news is that changing scroll direction on a Mac takes less than 30 seconds once you know where to look. This guide covers System Settings for both trackpad and mouse, plus a few extra tips and third-party tools for fixing slow or overly sensitive scrolling along the way.
- Why Mac Scrolling Feels “Backwards”
- 1. Change Scroll Direction for a Mouse
- 2. Change Scroll Direction for a Trackpad
- 3. Third-Party Apps: Scroll Reverser & BetterTouchTool
- Bonus: Adjust Scrolling Speed
- Bonus: Disable Inertia Scrolling
- Fix Slow Scrolling on a MacBook
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
1 Why Mac Scrolling Feels “Backwards”
macOS ships with Natural Scrolling turned on by default, which mimics how touchscreens behave.
By default, macOS uses what Apple calls Natural Scrolling for both the trackpad and any connected mouse. With this setting on, content moves in the same direction your fingers travel — swipe up, and the page slides up with your fingers, just like scrolling on an iPhone or iPad screen.
Long-time Windows users are used to the opposite behavior, where swiping or scrolling up moves the content down, as if you were physically pushing a scrollbar. Neither approach is “wrong” — it’s simply a difference in convention, and macOS makes switching between the two straightforward.
- Content moves with your fingers
- Matches iPhone/iPad touchscreen behavior
- macOS default setting
- Content moves opposite to your fingers
- Matches classic Windows/PC behavior
- Preferred by many long-time desktop users
If you use a Magic Mouse or any other connected mouse, here’s how to flip its scroll direction:
- Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen.
- Choose System Settings.
- Click Mouse in the left sidebar.
- Select the Point & Click option.
- Toggle Natural Scrolling on or off to switch the scroll direction.
Flip the Natural Scrolling toggle under Mouse → Point & Click to reverse mouse scroll direction.
With the toggle enabled, content moves in the same direction as your fingers on the mouse. Turn it off, and you get the traditional, Windows-style behavior instead. The change applies immediately — no restart needed.
If you rely mostly on your MacBook’s built-in trackpad (or an external Magic Trackpad), the process is nearly identical:
- Go to the Apple menu → System Settings.
- Click Trackpad in the left sidebar.
- Select Scroll & Zoom.
- Toggle Natural Scrolling on or off to reverse the trackpad’s scroll direction.
Trackpad → Scroll & Zoom is where you’ll find the same Natural Scrolling toggle for gestures.
Toggling Natural Scrolling for your mouse doesn’t affect your trackpad, and vice versa — each input device has its own separate setting in System Settings, so you can mix and match if you like.
If Apple’s built-in toggle feels too limited for what you need, a couple of dedicated third-party apps go much further with scroll customization.
Scroll Reverser
Scroll Reverser is a small, free, open-source utility built for exactly one job: letting you reverse scroll direction independently for your mouse and trackpad, with vertical and horizontal scrolling handled separately if needed. It’s a great pick if System Settings’ shared toggle doesn’t give you quite the combination you want, and you don’t need anything more elaborate than that.
BetterTouchTool
For something far more customizable, BetterTouchTool lets you rebuild how your Trackpad, mouse, keyboard, Touch Bar, iPhone, and even the Apple Remote behave — well beyond just scroll direction. It ships with no pre-configured setup, so every shortcut and gesture is one you define yourself. With it, you can:
- Record your own key sequences, movements, and gestures to trigger actions on your Trackpad, mouse, keyboard, Touch Bar, iPhone, or Apple Remote
- Assign specific shortcuts to specific apps, so the same gesture can do different things depending on what you’re using
- Build new Touch Bar buttons or redesign the existing Touch Bar layout
- Use its built-in clipboard manager to copy and access multiple items at once
If all you need is independent scroll-direction control for your mouse and trackpad, Scroll Reverser alone will cover it. If you also want to build custom gestures, shortcuts, and Touch Bar actions across your whole setup, BetterTouchTool is the more powerful — though more involved — option.
If Natural Scrolling isn’t the issue and the scroll speed itself feels too fast or too slow, macOS lets you fine-tune that too — for both mouse and trackpad.
- Go to the Apple menu → System Settings.
- Click Accessibility in the left sidebar.
Pointer Control under Accessibility is where trackpad and mouse fine-tuning options live.
- Click Pointer Control.
- Select either Trackpad Options or Mouse Options, depending on your device.
Choose the input device you want to fine-tune inside Pointer Control.
- Drag the scrolling speed slider and test changes live before closing the window.
Test different speeds live — changes apply instantly as you drag the slider.
Inertia scrolling lets the page keep gliding for a moment after you lift your finger off the trackpad or mouse, gradually slowing to a stop. It’s a nice touch for some, but others find it makes scrolling feel imprecise — especially in spreadsheets or long documents.
- Go to Apple menu → System Settings → Accessibility → Pointer Control.
- Choose Trackpad Options or Mouse Options.
- Turn off the toggle next to Use inertia when scrolling.
Switch off “Use inertia when scrolling” for more immediate, precise stops.
You can flip this toggle back on any time if you decide you’d rather have the smoother, gliding scroll behavior back.
Sometimes scrolling feels sluggish no matter what you change in the settings above. That’s usually a sign the slowdown isn’t about scroll configuration at all — it’s your Mac struggling under the weight of background processes, resource-heavy apps, or general clutter.
Keeping your Mac’s background activity in check with a maintenance tool can help restore smoother, more responsive scrolling and overall performance:
- Install and open a Mac maintenance/performance tool.
- Run a performance scan to identify resource-heavy apps and processes.
- Review the flagged items and choose which ones to quit or optimize.
- Apply the changes and relaunch any apps where scrolling felt slow.
If scrolling only feels slow in one specific browser or app, try closing unused tabs or restarting that app before assuming it’s a system-wide issue — it often resolves the problem without any extra tools.
7 Frequently Asked Questions
fn + Shift + F12, which helps prevent accidental scrolling in spreadsheets and certain documents.
8 Conclusion
Here’s the quick recap of how to change scroll direction on a Mac:
- Mouse: System Settings → Mouse → Point & Click → toggle Natural Scrolling
- Trackpad: System Settings → Trackpad → Scroll & Zoom → toggle Natural Scrolling
- Need more control: Try Scroll Reverser for independent mouse/trackpad settings, or BetterTouchTool for full gesture and shortcut customization
Whether you prefer the touchscreen-like feel of Natural Scrolling or the classic Windows-style behavior, macOS makes it quick to switch — and with the speed and inertia tweaks covered above, you can fine-tune scrolling to feel exactly right for how you work.
🖱️ Get Scrolling Just the Way You Like It
Pick the method that fits your workflow and you’ll be scrolling comfortably in under a minute.