Mac Scrolling Feels Backwards? Fix It in 10 Seconds

If you have just moved from Windows, the first thing most people notice is that scrolling goes the wrong way. Nothing is faulty. macOS enables natural scrolling by default, where content follows your fingers rather than the scrollbar. Here is how to set it back to what you are used to.

The fix

1. Open System Settings.
2. Click Trackpad (or Mouse, if that is what you use).
3. Under Scroll & Zoom, turn off Natural scrolling.

It applies immediately, and it covers your trackpad and any mouse at the same time, because macOS keeps one setting for both.

Should you flip it, or adapt?

Worth being honest: if you use a Mac and a Windows machine side by side every day, matching them is usually less friction. If the Mac is becoming your main computer, many people find that a fortnight of natural scrolling makes it feel normal, and it matches the iPhone and iPad. There is no correct answer, only the one you stop thinking about.

The other day-one settings

Since you are here, these are the ones most switchers change next:

• Show file extensions, which macOS hides by default
• Turn off autocorrect and smart quotes if you write code
• Speed up key repeat, which is slow out of the box
• Auto-hide the Dock with no delay to reclaim screen space

There is a fuller list in our guide to the settings worth changing right away.

Every setting here is a one-click, reversible toggle in Mainspring — no Terminal, and an undo button on all of it.