Mouse button or wheel not working?

Test each control separately

Move the pointer over our mouse test area. The position readout should change. Click Left, Right and Middle once each and check the matching counters. Scroll up and down and watch the scroll counter. Right-click menus are suppressed inside this test area so the counter can receive the event; normal right-click behavior elsewhere is unaffected.

Locate a missing event

If movement works but one button does not increment, try the same button in another app. If the wheel turns but no scroll events appear, test another page with scrollable content. The counter records events rather than distance, so one wheel notch and one touchpad gesture may produce different counts. Extra side buttons are outside this tool’s checks.

Check connection and settings

Reseat a wired mouse or its wireless receiver. Charge or replace the battery on a wireless model. Windows Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Mouse lets you review the primary button and scrolling preferences. If a gaming mouse utility remaps a button, restore a basic profile temporarily and test again.

Compare devices before replacing anything

Try a different mouse on this PC or the same mouse on another PC. If the failure follows the mouse, hardware or its onboard profile is suspect. If every mouse fails only in one app, investigate that app instead. A web test helps localize the issue but cannot prove that a switch will remain reliable after thousands of clicks.

Mouse double-clicking on its own

If a single click sometimes acts like a double-click, or dragged items drop by themselves, the switch under that button is probably wearing out. Our mouse test counts left clicks that arrive less than 80 milliseconds apart as Fast repeats, which is quicker than a deliberate double-click. Repeats while you click once at a time confirm the problem. Check the mouse software for a debounce or click-delay setting, and check the warranty before replacing it.

Side buttons and the Mac

The test now also counts the Back and Forward side buttons. If they do nothing here, the mouse may need its maker's software to send them. On a Mac, check System Settings → Mouse for the scrolling direction and secondary click settings. A mouse that scrolls the "wrong" way usually has natural scrolling turned on rather than a fault.

Settings that change what a click does

Before blaming the hardware, check whether a setting has changed the button layout:

• Primary button swapped. Windows 11: Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Mouse → Primary mouse button. Mac: System Settings → Mouse → Secondary click.
• Vendor software. Gaming mouse apps can remap buttons to keystrokes or disable them per profile. Check which profile is active, or switch to the default profile.
• Scroll direction. On a Mac, Natural scrolling reverses the wheel. On Windows touchpads, scrolling direction is under Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Touchpad → Scroll & zoom.
• Scroll inactive windows. On Windows, the wheel scrolls the window under the pointer when this setting is on. If it is off, you must click a window before it scrolls.

Reading the mouse test counters

Each press in the test area adds one to the counter for that button. Press each button ten times slowly and compare the totals. A button that shows fewer than ten presses is missing clicks. More than ten means it is registering extra clicks, which is covered in the double-clicking guide. For the wheel, roll it one notch at a time. Each notch should add exactly one scroll event in the same direction.