Apple’s big reveal of M4 Macs this week came with the introduction of the manufacturer’s new peripherals: the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard, with USB-C replacing the previous Lightning charging ports – but they currently only work well with macOS Sequoia 15.1 .
This means that if you’re still using macOS Sonoma (Sequoia’s predecessor), Ventura, or an older version of the operating system, the new Mac accessories won’t work completely as intended. The problems have been noticed by users on the MacRumors forumsincluding claims that the Magic Mouse has scrolling issues, and that the Magic Keyboard’s Touch ID and function keys don’t work.
While it may be a surprise to see Sonoma and Ventura peripheral compatibility seemingly ignored (even Ventura isn’t more than two years old, after all), it’s also a shock to see that the beta version of macOS Sequoia 15.2 has the same issues – it’s important to note that Apple will likely add full support for the new peripherals later, but this is certainly not a given for the previous macOS versions.
Will macOS Sonoma and Ventura fully support the USB-C accessories?
Considering the omission of Wi-Fi 7 on M4 Macs (much to our surprise), this could be yet another strange decision by Apple, if the older OS versions remain partially incompatible with the new peripherals. The positive news is that the Magic Keyboard at least maintains a standard level of functionality, although honestly this is still not good enough for products this expensive.
As for the Magic Mouse, the main problem is its complete inability to scroll – perhaps Apple’s biggest blunder this week, since that’s one of the most basic functions a mouse should have. While it may be easy for most users to simply upgrade to macOS Sequoia, this feels all too familiar for Microsoft Windows and its often forced updates.
There’s a chance this is a temporary issue as the issues may already be being investigated, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple ignores previous macOS versions in an attempt to push users to Sequoia – let’s hope that’s not the case , as some users on work systems may not have that option.