Utilize extra mouse buttons in Mac OS X

Question

I have a wireless USB mouse by Anker (https://www.anker.com/products/98ANWVM-UBA) with a few extra buttons that I would like to take advantage of on my Macbook Pro (running OS X 10.11.6). On their website, it says that these buttons can only be used in Windows browsers. Is there a way I can use a third-party tool or something else to allow me to use these extra buttons on my Mac?

Thanks.

Solution 1

If you just want the side buttons to do back/forward in ANY app/environment, this app is the most basic, streamlined one I've found for this purpose on Mac OS X, and completely free (donate!). http://sensible-side-buttons.archagon.net/

Solution 2

A solution that comes builtin with Mac OSX (without third-party apps nor workarounds) is setting the mouse three buttons within Settings, Mission Control, Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts. Here you'll be able to select the action for each of the buttons.

Solution 3

I made Mac Mouse Fix.

It lets you remap your side buttons to back and forward among many other cool features that make your mouse better.

On top of that it's open source, lightweight, easy to use and 100% free.

Download | GitHub

Solution 4

There are a few apps that can do this task. I use SteerMouse [$20] which can handle mice with up to 15 buttons.

The latest v5 can now use 'chords' [multiple buttons to generate a separate action] & modifier keys - that gives a potential 24 actions for every button, different for every app if you wish... if you can ever think of that many ;)

USB Overdrive is another I can think of, but I've never used that one, so can't comment.

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Comments

[Admin]

take a look at this related question: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/110177/…

[Logan]

Just what I needed, thanks! I gave USB Overdrive a shot and it works perfectly.

[Hamdan]

SteerMouse worked great after discovering Logitech lied about their driver support for MacOS High Sierra (to be fair, it's only been a mere 4 months since 10.13 was officially released).

[herrera]

Thank you very much: This is what I needed... Downloaded, tested it, and worked perfectly! Deserved a tip for sure!

[MuffinTheMan]

Neither USB Overdrive nor Sensible Side Buttons worked for my vertical mouse (J-Tech V628); however, SteerMouse is working amazingly so far.

[Tetsujin]

@MuffinTheMan - Since posting this I've actually moved from a dearly-departed MX-518, for which SteerMouse was ideal, to an MX Master... which only works properly with the Logitech panel. I miss my chords :/

[sargas]

It works on my Tecknet BM307 Bluetooth mouse. Thanks.

[Viktor Justo]

What's this, a free app for Mac OS? Am I dreaming?

[Nighto]

Works for Logitech M500 (M-U0007) as well. Btw Logitech software didn't.

[Lorgen GR Magpantay]

I'm using a Microdigit vertical mouse (very cheap). Sensible Side Buttons (forward-backward buttons) work on MacOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra) :') Free and light. With option for donation.

[syvex]

Couldn't get that to work with my Anker mouse. Did get (Karabiner-Elements)[karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/] working with this: github.com/pqrs-org/Karabiner-Elements/issues/1241

[w00dy]

Works for Trust vertical mouse + macOS 10.15.3!

[juliangonzalez]

I can't post answers to this questions but this one did actually what I wanted that was switching between spaces. mousefix.org Buy the guy a Milshake, please! (donate) Well deserved!

[LinusGeffarth]

This is perfect, thanks so much for sharing! 🙏

[Chad]

one note, I used virtualbox on a linux machine (old computer) and reprogrammed my "button 4" with the native software [KLIM AIM], Mac will not recognize it now, I need to revert it back to the default. Otherwise, this works great! Thanks.

[Chad]

works as advertised! macOS 12.2 w/M1 chip

[Admin]

Exactly what I needed.