68

Middle click failure plagues nearly every mouse I've owned, OEM, Logitech, wired, or wireless. I take full advantage of the middle click shortcuts like opening links in new tabs, but I don't think I'm putting it through undue stress either. As far as I can tell, I'm clicking it with the same force as I would the other mouse buttons and much less frequently than the left click.

Failure usually starts with occasional missed middle clicks, which after some point, rapidly progresses until it's failing to register more often than not. At that point, everything else will still work perfectly. No improvement even if I take it apart to clean out what little dirt had accumulated.

One of my mice has managed to avoid this fate far longer than the others but I've just recently stopped using it due to the rubberized exterior turning all gooey and sticky. The only middle mouse buttons that seem immune to all of this are the ones on ThinkPads. Anyone else notice this or could recommend a good mouse that can stand up to a bit of middle-clicking?

all 43 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 1 points 6 minutes ago

Nope. The he only issues I've ever had were with the left button.

[-] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

The first mouse that failed on me failed because my cat chewed the cable and damaged it. I recently had my 2nd mouse failure, my Kensington wireless trackball died. Seems to be a power issue. I think I can fix it, we'll see. Never had a mouse button fail on me yet.

[-] biggerbogboy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 49 minutes ago

I got a mouse like a year ago from a brand called Rapoo (never heard of them), and it was a solid mouse that supported standard dongle wireless as well as BT, and it is quite nice ergonomically compared to the Logitech one I’ve got for another computer.

Then I started having issues with left click, with it surprisingly often clicking twice (or more) or not clicking at all, which is causing me to accidentally close every app open just because it double/triple/quadruple clicked somehow. Then there’s middle click, which works slightly better, it only skips sometimes, but the Logitech mentioned earlier is the one I heavily use middle click (since I close and open browser tabs using it very often), and that one is pretty close to actually just failing.

Not sure why, but the most recent mice have just worked like shit, with both of these being brand new. As a comparison, I’ve got 2 Microsoft arc touch mice (the old one with a dedicated touchpad for the scroll area but not the buttons,) and I used both for school, with friends snapping it between their postures hundreds of times out of curiosity, which they’ve sustained really well, and no buttons have gotten issues apart from the touchpad of one of them, which likes to deactivate when I scroll too much which is plain inconvenient.

[-] shiroininja@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Nope. I never use it. And I honestly never use the side buttons it has either.

[-] lorty@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

Nope, it's either right click or the goddamn scroll that fails.

[-] redparadise@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 3 hours ago

The middle scroll wheel on my mouse creaks like a 19th century door while scrolling and clicking, and of course not repairable...

[-] chunes@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

I've killed dozens of mice and in every single one, left-clicking was the first to break.

[-] darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 20 hours ago

No, that's not something that I've ever noticed. It never happened with any mouse I had before (even though I had a few mice fail mechanically in other ways in the past) and 17 years ago I bought two (one for home, one for the office) of the classic HP 3-button optical USB mice, which I've used more or less daily ever since without anything ever failing:

I find it somewhat hard to imagine that these mice could ever fail in any way, and even harder to imagine why the middle button would in any way be different from the two outer buttons.

[-] wizbiz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 18 hours ago

I seem to always kill m1 and get a new mouse every 5 years

[-] Tabitha@hexbear.net 4 points 22 hours ago

100% of my failed Logitech mouses were left clicks.

[-] stormio@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 day ago

The most common mouse problem I experience is when the left click or right click buttons intermittently double click on a single click. The second most common problem is when a button won't stay "down" when I'm holding down the button, causing erratic drag-and-drop behaviour. I've actually never experienced your middle click problem.

[-] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

That's what's happening to my mouse right now! Should I buy another?

[-] makeitwonderful@lemmy.today 7 points 21 hours ago

If it's a problem caused by hardware, you'll either want to repair or replace. It's probably fixable by replacing the mouse switches but that usually requires some soldering.

[-] cynar@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

I've fixed this several times with a bit of thick tape. It wasn't actually the button that had worn down, but the plastic stub that pressed it. A bit of extra material kept each working for months/years after.

My current mouse has this fix over a year back, and is still working reliably.

[-] Flyberius@hexbear.net 2 points 21 hours ago

For me, yes

[-] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 1 points 19 hours ago

Try to open the mouse and clean it sometimes dust/lint gets trapped and causes this.

[-] mx_smith@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

Middle click? Jokes on you I use a trackball.

[-] bulwark@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

If I had to take a guess, it's probably the most complex mechanical part in a mouse. The other buttons don't have the added extra movements. I've had the same Razor Deathadder for like 15 years, still going strong. I'm just glad they don't have actual rolling balls in them anymore.

[-] iByteABit@lemmy.ml 2 points 23 hours ago

Didn't really use it that often, and it stopped working right as I was playing Sekiro, which was annoying because I had to remap the target button elsewhere

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

So far I had no mice break on me. And my most used buttons on the mouse are probably left, middle and then right clicking (I like opening new tabs instead of going back and forth).

Maybe too much pressure you put on your buttons?
Edit: I had 5 mice (at home)
Roccat Kova
Roccat Kone XTD (I think)
Logitech Mx Master 2s, 3 and 3s.

And I replaced the MX Master mice only because the rubber coating got sticky and I RMA'd it with Logitech support.

[-] Melobol@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago

Yup, for me it is the middle click the reason I'm buying new mice.
Tho I don't think many people are actually aware of the utility of the roller click. This is why I usually pass the broken ones down to my family lol

[-] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Nope. Right click every time.

Finally bought a mouse with optical switches.

[-] stormio@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 hours ago

Optical switches? How did I not know about this earlier? As someone who has thrown away several mice due to missed clicks or unwanted double clicks, optical switches sound like a game changer. Thank you.

[-] Cobrachicken@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Would you share which one?

[-] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Razer Viper V1.

Would have bought something else if I knew you could only change the device's onboard button mapping using windows. Yes, you can remap it in software, but that's not the point. I shouldn't have to set up some hacky bullshit to do something that the manufacturer didn't feel like supporting or documenting.

[-] davidgro@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I've had good luck with rubbing alcohol to remove the gooey mess. You'll end up with bare plastic instead of the rubber grip, but that's an improvement over sticky.

[-] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, though this time my g502 is starting to fail with mouse wheel tilt click

[-] Wahots@pawb.social 2 points 1 day ago

Mine failed that way, yeah. Though I think it was user error after trying to repair a mouse that wasn't designed to be serviced officially. All the rubber wore off the wing, so I had to disassemble and replace it with a generic part. The left and right clicks are a bit spongy now, and middle click only intermittently works now, but the mouse is grippy again. I wish more mice were actually repairable.

It's annoying to have mice that break down and need to be repurchased instead of a few replacement parts. 90% of the mouse was fine.

[-] bufalo1973@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

It's a shame they don't use the same tech used in the cell phone screens. Not putting a screen, only the sensor. My cell phone is working good after years of use.

[-] helix@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago

Then it wouldn't click though, as a capacitive sensor is not the same as a button. If you engineered something like an optomechanical switch it could still fail at the mechanical part.

You could however use a touchpad instead of a mouse.

[-] Fetus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Attempted fixing my wheel click a bunch of times by cleaning and lubricating the microswitch, it would improve for a while and go back to how it was. Missed clicks, multiple clicks, etc.

My mouse has a bunch of smaller buttons all over it, I ended up binding wheel click to a smaller button near the right button until I found a microswitch that suited, but I'm just really comfortable with the way I have it now.

Also, depending on the type of rubber coating, cleaning with isopropyl alcohol may help with the stickiness.

[-] destiper@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

I use middle click navigating my browser, but I also rebind Reload to MMB in every shooter game I can. I’ve been through more mice than I can remember since I started rebinding it but most of them were actually replaced for other reasons. I’ve only had 2 with faulty middle-clicks since probably 2020

I replaced my last mouse because the mmb was getting excessively squeaky and wouldn't scroll unless depressed, which made map navigation/zooming in certain games difficult.

[-] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

I use the middle click extensively. Probably as much as left click. I've never had it fail. Usually one of the side buttons goes first

[-] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Nope. Had the left button fail on two Sharkoon Light 2 mice in a row, though. Sad because I really liked that model otherwise.

[-] LeapSecond@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

On my current mouse it's the scrollwheel that's slowly failing but middle click works fine. There's also a box of non-functional mice in my house. Last time I checked it contained one mouse with broken middle click, one with broken left click and one with broken right click. So I guess I disagree with your theory.

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 2 points 1 day ago

I find the middle click button awkward to use so I typically rebind the forward side button to middle click

[-] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone -3 points 1 day ago

I use a touch pad, so I don't have this problem

[-] bufalo1973@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago

Imagine a mouse with a tiny touchpad for the buttons.

[-] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

I always disable trackpad in bios, such an annoying "feature"

[-] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Macbook touchpads are so good I actually prefer them over mice most of the time

[-] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

I use an Apple Magic Trackpad on my desktop, because I liked the macbook touchpad so much! It's the only Apple product I use these days

this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
68 points (95.9% liked)

Asklemmy

52940 readers
241 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS