How to fix the scroll wheel on your Apple mighty mouse

I love the scroll wheel on top of the Apple mighty mouse, but after a while the sweat and oil on your finger combined with grit and dust clogs the whole thing up. This manifests itself in the scroll wheel not scrolling down, or up, or in worst cases, not scrolling all. Here’s how to fix the problem.

I rang Apple and said my scroll wheel was not working and they gave me this simple but effective solution over the phone.

Simply take a sheet of clean white paper, put it on top of the mouse, and press down on the scroll wheel with your finger, but with the paper between your finger and the scroll wheel. Press quite hard with it and at the same time scroll around – moving it up and down and round and round. Move to a different area of the paper and give it another go.

The paper seems to absorb all the oil and gunk off the scroll wheel, and the scroll wheel in turn when it is clean must absorb the gunk off the sensors or whatever is underneath it.

I have found that a better method, especially with a dirty mouse, is to turn the mouse upside down and run the scroll-wheel in circles on a clean piece of paper until all the dirt comes off.

Make sure you use a brand new clean piece of paper.

Do not use alcohol. The rubber scroll wheel is sensitive and the alcohol is not needed.

No not use water. You don’t want water getting into the inside of your mouse!

It’s just dirty. It’s funny that I could not find this information anywhere on Google or on the Apple web page.

This clean paper trick works amazingly well.

Written by Wayne Connor
Mac user since 1996
Helping people master their Macs since 2005


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304 responses to “How to fix the scroll wheel on your Apple mighty mouse”

  1. Bryson

    WOW.
    Prompted by your entry I dug out my old mighty mouse, dusted it off, gave it a “paper clean” and now it works again!!! I have happily disconnected my clunky-looking but functional Microsoft mouse and reconnected my sleek-looking (and now) functional mighty mouse. All is right in the world again.

  2. Trish

    You are a genius

  3. flatiron

    Thank you! Now I have solved the problem once and for all.

  4. Len

    Thanks Heaps. i bought a new mouse as I could not get the other scrolling, Have just taken my old one and did above, and “voila .’ it works perfectly.

  5. Yan

    Thank you so much for this tip! I was ready to take my mouse apart because the scroll was completely unresponsive. I tried rubbing wet tissue paper, microfiber clothes, to no avail.

    This paper thing really works! I just turned my mouse upside down and rubbed hard out on blank pages on my diary. Then bit by bit all the scrolling came to life!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!

  6. Matt

    Amazing! Your a massive dude! Thanks

  7. Maree

    Thank you!!! I have been putting up with only an upward scroll for a couple of years. I tried with the paper on top first and it didn’t work, but after reading Yan’s post, I turned it upside down and rubbed very hard for a long time and little bits of dirt kept coming out. Now I have a downward scroll too!!

  8. Rachel

    yup it works. Hallelujah.

  9. Tom

    Tried it… :( sadly my mouse wheel wouldn’t go up before trying this trick, but now it won’t go down either. Time for a new one I guess!! lol I’d still try this if I was someone looking for a quick fix. 1 fail out of 10 is good odds!

  10. Tom

    It didn’t work for me. I accidently popped off the rim, and I am cleaning out the whole thing before I seal it again. I only did this so I wouldn’t have to risk breaking it unscrewing the little screws that hold it.

  11. DannyB.

    I turned it upside down and rubbed very hard for a long time and little bits of dirt kept coming out. Now I have a downward scroll too!!

    thanks

  12. LeanneM

    UNBELIEVABLE!! This works brilliantly…. having spent days looking up settings trying to fix an unresponsive mouse wheel this finally solved my dilemma!
    Found it works best if you turn the mouse upside down and rub frimly and rapidly on the clean pages of a notebook for a minute or two a single sheet of paper on top didn’t work for me!!

    Much thanks for this help- absolute Gold

  13. Bob

    Worked. Thank you!

  14. Ashlyn

    Beautiful! Didn’t think it would work for ours but it totally did. Do flip it upside down – that’s when I saw results. Do it on a hard surface with a single sheet (i.e. not a notebook)

  15. Theo

    Mate, you are a magician:-) hahahaha
    I was calling my mouse funny names all morning and now it is fixed in 2 secs by just using a tissue.

  16. Francois

    … Great!!! Also works with a “wired” Apple Mouse!

  17. Amy

    I’m so impressed! I’ve almost wasted an entire lunch hour trying to fix my scroll function, then did this and it fixed it immediately! Hurrah!

  18. Mate, you are a magician:-) hahahaha

    Brilliant dude, I have tried a lot of tricks but was not able to do it.

    I was going to buy a new mouse by today but thought to give a try once again & this fixes it up.

    Thanks a lot for saving thousands of Rs. for me..

  19. John

    This is simply great thank you so much, i was having problem in scrolling down and its now fixed with you help.

  20. Prakash

    what a magic!!! my mouse works perfectly now,…thanks for the info..

  21. Carrie

    Right-on!!!

  22. gw

    thanks! what a relief …

  23. John

    thanks! ive been trying to figure this out for a long time!

  24. Eileen

    I…think I love you…!!!

  25. Dave

    My up scroll quit (wired mouse), so on other advice wiped the ball with a damp cloth. That did not fix it so tried the upside down firm roll on paper and out came a piece of dirt, so that combination worked for me, thanks.

  26. bella

    OH MY GOD IT WORKED! my mouse hasn’t worked for years and this worked like magic!!

    1. Fabulous!!!! Haven’t been able to scroll down….works great even though no dirt came out…what an easy tip!!

  27. John

    Amazingly simple and amazingly effective

  28. photosit

    LIFE SAVER! If it doesn’t seem to work at first, put the paper on your hand and turn the mouse over on top of it and press hard and roll it around. This finally got it to work for me. The finger just wasn’t doing the job I guess. Awesome tip!

  29. Michiel

    Thanks. It worked.

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