Scrolling lag on MacBook trackpad after upgrading to macOS Tahoe

Found that Bartender App was causing the problem in my case. Quit all processes one by one and determined this was the culprit. Scrolling is a much better experience now. Hope it helps someone.

I will admit I was totally incredulous that Bartender would be the culprit, but as soon as I quit it the issue resolved.

I never would have thought to suspect Bartender. Thank you for saving me hours (probably) of debugging!

Found that Bartender App was causing the problem in my case. Quit all processes one by one and determined this was the culprit. Scrolling is a much better experience now. Hope it helps someone.

The most obvious suspect is the Logi Tunes software, as it controls stuff like your mouse.

Check that it is fully up to date, and verify its settings.

You have a large number of VERY OLD kernel extensions:

Kernel Extensions:
    /Library/Extensions
        [Not Loaded] FTDIKext.kext - com.FTDI.driver.D2XXHelper (Wacom Technology Corp., 1.0 - SDK 10.14)
        [Not Loaded] G13Joystick.kext - com.driver.LogJoystick (Logitech Inc., 2.0 - SDK 10.10)
        [Not Loaded] EPSONUSBPrintClass.kext - com.epson.print.kext.USBPrintClass (Seiko Epson Corporation, 2.1.5)
        [Not Loaded] Dropbox.kext - com.getdropbox.dropbox.kext (Dropbox, Inc., 1.16.0 - SDK 12)
        [Not Loaded] LogiWheelForceFeedback.kext - com.logitech.LogiWheelForceFeedback (Logitech Inc., 1.0 - SDK 10.10)
        [Not Loaded] LogiGamingMouseFilter.kext - com.logitech.driver.LogiGamingMouseFilter (Logitech Inc., 1.0 - SDK 10.10)
        [Not Loaded] LogiGamingUSBAudio.kext - com.logitech.driver.LogiGamingUSBAudio (Logitech Inc., 1.0.0 - SDK 10.10)
        [Not Loaded] LogiWheelDriver.kext - com.logitech.driver.LogiWheelDriver (Logitech Inc., 1.0 - SDK 10.10)
        [Not Loaded] SiLabsUSBDriver64.kext - com.silabs.driver.CP210xVCPDriver64 (Wacom Technology Corp., 3.0.0d1)

Even though the report says they're not loaded, this leads me to believe that you may have been migrating and upgrading over many years. This accumulation of old stuff typically may end up causing issues. Many of the above were programmed for Intel macs about a decade ago.

It is usually recommend to start fresh on a new Mac, migrating ONLY the user accounts, especially when moving to a new architecture (like from an Intel Mac to your M2 Pro).

There are also a very large quantity of login items. These are loaded every time you log in. Do you need them all?

I followed this suggestion and it solved the issue for me!

Address Browser-Specific Lag (Chrome Users) 

• Disable/Re-enable Hardware Acceleration: For Google Chrome users, toggling hardware acceleration may help.

1. 1. Open Chrome's Settings.
   2. Navigate to System (you may need to scroll down).
   3. Turn off the "Use hardware acceleration when available" setting.
   4. Relaunch Chrome.
   5. Repeat the steps to turn it back on and relaunch again.

joo88 wrote:

I recently upgraded my MacBook to macOS Tahoe and since then the built-in and magic trackpad have been laggy when scrolling.

The motion feels stuttery instead of smooth

Restarting my MacBook temporarily fixes the problem, but after some time the lag returns and I have to restart again, which is quite bothersome. Has anyone else experienced this after upgrading to Tahoe?

If a quick Safeboot does not sort the issue...

A SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled temporarily.

Reboot as normal and compare your results. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

I would not hesitate to reinstall the macOS on top of your current macOS to sort upgrade anomalies

Apple makes this an easy process How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

Always shutdown and restart more than once after any point update or macOS upgrade: from the >Shut Down..

report back your success or failure here

joo88 wrote:

Tell me about it. I wonder if the Apple team actually checks out these posts. I hope they fix it because they're the experts. I honestly think the issue is with Tahoe, and I don't know know how to fix their issue.

No, they don't check these posts in search for bug reports or issues. This is a user forum.

You need to report the issue using the feedback page:

https://www.apple.com/feedback

pS: while I hope you get the issue resolved, I doubt that it is as simple as a "bug in Tahoe", for otherwise you'd probably have seen many many many reports, and this thread would be many pages long. There is a good chance that this is due to some software installed on the affected users' macs.

You could run the diagnostic tool Etrecheck and post its report here, and others may find something there, as is often the case.

It is possible there are processes running in the background that are using significant resources. Check Activity Monitor, CPU tab, sort by % CPU to see what's running hard.

Activity Monitor User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Thankyou so much for letting us know! Just quit Bartender and my scrolling is back to being buttery smooth again!

It was driving me insane!

Appreciate the heads up and nice detective work!

If the problem goes away in Safe Mode, it clearly indicates a problem with some third party software.

Don't reinstall.

Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.

We may be able to find something in the report, as is often the case.

I had the same problem and apparently the same solution. I quit bartender and the problem was resolved.

Removing BarTender di not work for me - but here is some New input >>>

Safe mode did not work for me either - BUT - when I logged into the same computer with a different account - all was fine.

The issue? my trackpad is fine always under any conditions - my Magic Mouse with any browser - Firefox, Safari, Chrome does not smooth scroll - go to apple.com - flick down / up - it almost moved as if there are pages. On a trackpad - smooth as silk.

The weird thing is that I have been trouble shooting a totally different problem on my partners machine where MSOFT Office apps just hang - totally unusable - been working this through off and on for nearly two weeks - this too has come down to the user - login as a different user .. the issue is not there …

ie ...

Problem 1 - MSoft Office crashes and hangs with user A - but not another user/guest

Problem 2 - a stuttering mouse on any browser if going through Bluetooth - but not another user/guest

I wonder if Cupertino knows this?

It worked for me! I have reboot in safe mode, result is no more lag on scroll, i was so happy to recover smoothness that i was tempted to stay in safe mode^^.

Then i have restarted in normal mode, result is farly better.

I think i will try reinstall.

Thank you

The latest Bartender version does make it a little better, but I still had to increase scrolling speed and disable spring loading to make the trackpad closer to tolerable. Definitely something with the OS in addition to Bartender issue.

joo88 wrote:

upgraded my MacBook to macOS Tahoe and since then the built-in and magic trackpad have been laggy when scrolling.

Thanks for your help, but unfortunately it’s still not working. I still have to restart daily, and it’s very frustrating...

no resolve Apple would like to hear about this on your MacBook Pro (M1, 2020)

To be proactive you can file a bug report / submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple