How to Change the Scroll Direction on a Mac

A guide to changing the mouse wheel or trackpad scrolling direction on a MacBook or Mac desktop

Co-authored by Stan Kats

Last Updated: December 30, 2022

Trackpad Scrolling

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Mouse Wheel Scrolling

To change the scroll direction for your Mac's trackpad, click the Apple menu → click System Preferences → click Scroll & Zoom → toggle the Natural scroll direction on or off.

Things You Should Know

For a trackpad, you'll find scrolling preferences in "System Preferences" > "Trackpad" > Scroll & Zoom.
For a mouse, including Apple Magic Mouse, your preferences are in "System Preferences" > "Mouse."
Check or uncheck the "Scroll direction: natural" box to reverse the scrolling direction.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Trackpad Scrolling

1
Click the Apple menu.
2
Click System Preferences. If a submenu opens instead of System Preferences, click the Show All button at the top of the window.

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3
Click Trackpad.
- You can change a number of things in your trackpad settings, like tracking speed and double-click speed.
4
Click the Scroll & Zoom tab.
5
Click the Scroll direction: Natural checkbox. When this is enabled, swiping down on the trackpad with two fingers will scroll up and vice-versa. When this is disabled, swiping down will scroll down.^{[1]
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Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Mouse Wheel Scrolling

1
Click the Apple menu.
2
Click System Preferences. If you see a submenu instead of the main System Preferences menu, click the Show All button at the top of the window.
3
Click Mouse.
4
Click the Scroll direction: Natural checkbox. When this is enabled, moving the wheel down will scroll up and vice-versa. If you disable this option, moving the wheel down will scroll down.