Window shifts position when scrolling
 

On our iMac running OSX 10.9.5 Mavericks the window for our browser is set at the maximum vertical size, extending from the top to the bottom of the screen. This shows the maximum amount of a long document or article in the screen and is fine as long as the window stays in the same position. The problem is it does not.

All too often when scrolling down to view the continuation of long documents and articles we find that the browser window suddenly starts moving down. The cursor is positioned over the scroll bar on the right of the window, the slider darkens, we start scrolling down, scrolling starts and then of its own accord the scrolling stops and the window starts sliding down the screen with the cursor.

Unlike with earlier versions of OSX we do not have the option of placing the cursor on scroll arrows at the bottom of the scroll bar. The only way to scroll down on a long document or article is to place the cursor on the scroll slider and drag the slider down.

We do not want the browser window to reposition or resize unless we make a deliberate action to change it. We particularly do not want this happening when we are trying to scroll down on a long article.

How may I lock the browser window in place on the screen to eliminate these unwanted window repositions when we scroll down?

Have you tried using the scroll function on your mouse or trackpad? Slide up or down using two fingers for a trackpad, or one finger when using a magic mouse. Does that produce the same result?

I suspect that somehow you're losing contact with the scrollbar, either the mouse button does not remain depressed or the mouse itself has a troublesome connection. It might help if you could let us know what hardware you're using. If possible try this with a different mouse and see if that improves the situation.

My roller button takes quite a strong press to get the scrolling mode. Sometimes I find the screen scrolling by itself - too many times to have this commanded action happen by mistake. Never found out why it happens.

Either way, the ball symbol with arrows is there but sometimes out of sight enough to miss it at first.

We have a desktop iMac with a Mighty Mouse. The mouse scrolling action started becoming unreliable, naturally just past warranty expiry. I tried various cleaning suggestions found in online searches. Nothing properly solved the issue so we gave up on the scroll ball. That was so long ago that I had forgotten that we initially used the scroll ball.

The Mighty Mouse scroll ball was fine while it worked but with it being a sealed unit with no sensible means of cleaning inside this mouse was never fit for purpose. We were forced to compromise and do without the mouse’s scroll ball function. Online searches reveal that this was a widespread problem. Any company of integrity would have recalled this flawed product and provided a properly designed replacement mouse that could easily be cleaned. Apple failed its customers!

The Apple mouse that came with our PowerMac 6100/66 was completely reliable over the nine years that we owned the system during which it was heavily used for a business. The rest of the system also gave good, reliable and long lasting service. The StyleWriter 2 printer was faultless in spite of those nine years of business use including printing many faxes. There was one problem with the 6100/66 when the L2 cache failed after about seven years and was replaced. There were initial problems with the functioning of the 6100/66 as Apple was stupid enough to supply it with only 8MB RAM, expecting virtual memory to be a suitable substitute. It was not. We soon installed additional RAM in the 6100/66 and had no further trouble.

Apple used to make user-friendly products that were reliable and long lasting. In recent years it has elevated Style over Substance. As long as it looks good is all Apple cares about and whether or not it is fit for purpose, reliable and provides long lasting service has been ignored. Fragile iPhones with a planned obsolescence/throwaway build and OS have flooded the market. This has worked fine financially for Apple as long as there has been an ever increasing market. Now the world market for smart phones is approaching saturation point and Apple is overexposed to this market. Perhaps Apple will regret abandoning its previous great quality and ease of use approach, particularly in those other market sectors.

The above comments also apply to Apple’s software. Many iWork users have been upset with features being omitted from later versions and backwards incompatibility. OSX had and still has problems. Last year I made the mistake of “upgrading” the iMac from Mavericks to Yosemite which proved to be unstable. Fortunately we left the 11” Macbook Air on the Mavericks that it came with. In August I went through the laborious process of taking the iMac back to Mavericks. Apple seems to be deliberately obstructive and unhelpful to users who want to revert to a previous version of OSX. However Mavericks has restored the iMac to its previous satisfactory performance.

Back to the issue. The only problem on the iMac now is scrolling too often causing the window to reposition. In the past it happened very occasionally but it has become more of a problem in the last few weeks. Perhaps something has changed? Maybe the mouse is dying? I will see if I can borrow another mouse to see if it will remove the problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

If the mouse does need to be replaced what do members suggest we should obtain that will provide all the functions of the Mighty Mouse but will not clog up or can be easily cleaned?

If you want all the functions of the mighty mouse, then I would suggest getting a Magic Mouse. I've used one for over three years with my Macbook and it is still a wonderful piece of machinery. You will need to change batteries, something I was originally against, but it runs for months on one set, and that is with daily heavy use.

Alternatively I have always been a fan of Logitech mice. Even the cheap corded ones are great if you ask me but you will not have all the functions that are possible with your Mac. I see that Logitech also produces a mouse specifically for the Mac but I have no experience with that one. I hope you can get this problem sorted out!

Where's Mixture when you need him?

What would he make of the Apple-bashing above, I wonder?

FBW

The window will reposition (instead of scrolling the content) if the mouse cursor gets too close to the right-edge of the window.

When the cursor is too close to the edge, you will notice the cursor shape changing from a regular arrow to a double-sided arrow (pointing left and right). That is the cue that a mouse-drag will reposition the window instead of scrolling.

If the cursor shape change is too hard to see, you can increase the cursor size from the Preferences > Accessibility > Display menu.

If you haven't, you may want to change the scroll bars setting in Preferences > General > Show Scroll Bars to "Always".

I'm also a fan of the Magic Mouse.

Thanks for the advice from various members. After considering the advice and looking at numerous online reviews of mice such as The Best Bluetooth Mouse of 2016 | Top Ten Reviews I decided the best way to solve it would be to obtain a replacement mouse that restores the convenience of the scroll function.

For the past three days I have been using a Microsoft Sculpt Touch Bluetooth mouse. Like any new device it takes a little time to get used to the feel of it. It paired with the iMac on OSX 10.9.5 straightaway. I am very pleased with it. The window has not moved. Problem solved. I should have done this a while ago.