How to separate "mouse" and "trackpad" settings?

Solution 1:

I made a free application to solve this issue in recent versions of macOS (10.15+). It also allows you to disable scroll/mouse acceleration and configure the number of lines to scroll per mouse wheel click.

It's meant to solve the problem in the simplest way possible. It's also open source so if you're a bit paranoid about letting an app "control your computer", feel free to look at the code and build it yourself!

https://github.com/ther0n/UnnaturalScrollWheels

Solution 2:

I had the same problem when I started to use macOS.

I installed this little utility, which lets you reverse the scrolling behavior only for the mouse:

Scroll Reverser for macOS

Solution 3:

Update 2020/12/03: As other's have pointed out, this is not a feature of Karabiner in newer versions.

It appears that this is integrated in the Karabiner app so it works out of the box without any custom XML (which are described above).

You'll need the following settings:

• Karabiner Preferences > Change Key > Karabiner core settings > Exclude devices > Don't remap Apple's pointing devices
• Karabiner Preferences > Change Key > Pointing Device > Reverse scrolling direction > Reverse Vertical Scrolling

Set the Enable Natural Scrolling setting in the Mouse/TrackPad PrefPane to 'enabled'. This allows for the internal trackpad to work as it's supposed to. Any connected non-Apple external mouse will scroll in their own natural way.

Solution 4:

I found myself in the exact same boat (preferring Natural for TrackPad and normal for Mouse), and in case anyone attempts to do the same, I did file a bug report against Apple for this. They closed it rather briefly with the words "This is intentional" and no other explanation.

I'm guessing that it's a common request, and they're just tired of hearing it.