How to disable middle mouse button scrolling in Chrome

Martin Brinkmann
Oct 14, 2014
Google Chrome
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13

I have always used the middle mouse button in browsers to open links in a new tab. It is a comfortable option and way better in my opinion than having to right-click and select the option to do so from the menu or hold down Shift and left-click to do the same.

Sometimes when I middle-click in Google Chrome or other Chromium-based browsers, I get a scroll icon instead which allows me to scroll the page while moving up and down.

The feature is called automatic scrolling and while it does not happen when you middle-click on links, it happens when you middle-click anywhere else on the page.

Depending on how you use the browser, this may happen a lot to you, only occasionally or never. I run into the issue from time to time and while it does not take long to resolve it -- all you need to do is left-click -- it can be frustrating.

Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers don't offer a setting to turn that feature off.

mouse auto scroll chrome

Good news is that there is an add-on for the browser that takes care of that. While lightweight, it requires permissions to run on all sites you visit.

No Smooth Scrolling does only one thing: disable auto-scrolling in browsers based on Chromium. After you have installed the extension in the browser you need to restart it. This is not mentioned on the extension page on the Chrome Web Store but the extension won't work unless you restart the browser first. You will also notice that it won't work on internal pages and I read in the comments that it won't work on app pages as well.

So how are other browsers handling this? Firefox users can enable or disable the feature in the options. A tap on the Alt-key and the selection of Tools > Options opens the window. Here you need to switch to Advanced > General where the "use autoscrolling" option is listed.

Internet Explorer has the feature enabled by default and there is no option in the browser to turn it off.  If you are using a touchpad, you may be able to disable auto-scroll in the mouse properties but if you don't, there does not seem to be a way to do so.

Summary
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Software Name
No Smooth Scrolling
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Comments

  1. Dave said on January 25, 2022 at 2:10 am
    Reply

    You can turn off Chrome Smooth-Scrolling this way: chrome://flags/#smooth-scrolling Change it from Default to Disabled (or from Enabled to Disabled). Once Disabled, restart the browser and your mouse no longer does that.

    1. Anonymous said on January 3, 2023 at 10:11 am
      Reply

      IT WORKED! Big thanks to Dave for posting the solution!!

  2. asdf said on January 22, 2022 at 3:52 pm
    Reply

    the no smooth scroll extension no longer exists

  3. dgh said on January 22, 2020 at 10:27 am
    Reply

    add-ons blocked by adminstrator. How to turn this OBNOXIOUS ANNOYING “feature” off, WITHOUT any add-ons?

  4. Mathias said on March 21, 2019 at 8:34 pm
    Reply

    Middle mouse button opening a new tab is the most annoying thing because I use autoscroll a lot. But assume a google image search – I always have to find one of those small gaps between the thumbnails in order to scroll. I hate every single new tab that throws of my concentration.

  5. blup said on August 20, 2018 at 5:09 pm
    Reply

    I am so, so very thankfull for this. this has been bothering me in firefox since i GOT this machine, thank you thank you!

  6. Brendan said on June 14, 2018 at 3:11 am
    Reply

    For about a month the “No smooth scrolling” extension stopped working so I wrote my own. Mine is functionally the same, but it’s good to have choice I think.

    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/no-smooth-scroll-2/hmnphcnjmmddnocmhmdmlgbdkabcccho

  7. Greg said on April 15, 2017 at 5:55 am
    Reply

    THANK YOU FOR THE LINK!

  8. Lai-Lai said on April 11, 2015 at 5:44 am
    Reply

    This does seem to have irradiated the problem of Chrome scrolling irradically up & down on its own. Thanks.

    1. English Teacher said on March 2, 2018 at 9:38 pm
      Reply

      It’s radioactive?

      It eradicated the problem of Chrome scrolling erratically.

  9. Dwight Stegall said on March 4, 2015 at 11:56 am
    Reply

    Middle mouse button opens every link for me in a new tab. I never had that problem.

  10. empty said on October 14, 2014 at 12:51 pm
    Reply

    O_O How you browse internet without autoscrolling???

    1. Blue said on October 14, 2014 at 8:19 pm
      Reply

      Either hardware (vertical & horizontal scrolling), or keyboard. As for using the browser to control my hardware I simply ignore that because I use a programmable gaming mouse for gaming and everyday computing. My preference of the middle button … I use it to close open tabs/windows.

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