Using Terminal to change settings on Macs with different hips

I've only ever used this:

defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling #

(Where # is a value between 1 and 8) By default it's set to 3

As info, Another app that works very well for mouse speed is called BetterTouchTool.

I don’t have a way immediately available to test the defaults command on an Mac M4 running macOS 15

There are some discussions of mouse speed and acceleration apps referenced here:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comments/repaup/how_do_i_disable_mouse_acceleration_i_cant_find/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/w8j3v5/how_to_properly_disable_this_weird_mouse/

One of those tools might help with accessing whatever additional speed and acceleration might be available.

Chr1sgould wrote:

I need to speed the pointer up, more than can be done with System Settings, on my new M4 Macbook Air. I did this with Terminal on my M1 Mac Mini, using a WRITE command similar to this READ one: defaults read -g com.apple.mouse.scaling. This gives an answer of 5.0, which is what I’ve set to.

The same command on the M4, however, fails with the following result:

2025-08-24 19:55:42.732 defaults[1808:41525]

The domain/default pair of (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication, com.apple.mouse.scalin

g) does not exist

Both computers are running macos Sequoia 15.6.1.

What do I need to do differently?

? this is not an M4 issue.

MacBook-Pro ~ % defaults read -g com.apple.mouse.scaling

2025-09-01 10:19:56.411 defaults[33214:1010316]

The domain/default pair of (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication, com.apple.mouse.scaling) does not exist

MacBook-Pro ~ %

Chr1sgould wrote:

defaults read -g com.apple.mouse.scaling. This gives an answer of 5.0, which is what I’ve set to.

The same command on the M4, however, fails with the following result:

2025-08-24 19:55:42.732 defaults[1808:41525]

The domain/default pair of (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication, com.apple.mouse.scalin

g) does not exist

Many times a macOS default value will not have an entry in any file. It is only after a user has configured a custom setting that you will be able to read it.

What you should be doing is changing it to a write command.....assuming it is still a valid command.....what you have on your other Mac may show it is valid, or it may just show an old outdated setting that was allowed to migrate/transfer to a later version of macOS.

Of course you should always make sure to have a good backup of your system before attempting any sort of customization.....especially if you are uncertain of the end result. Unfortunately with those command line customizations.....you don't know which exact file is being modified so you would have to either locate it somehow, or just restore everything from a backup.

You might give LinearMouse | The mouse and trackpad utility for Mac.LinearMouse a try. It's free.