How to Use a Mouse with iPad via Accessibility (iPadOS 13)
Want to use a mouse with iPad? Now you can, and it’s fairly easy to setup and use. Plus the iPad and mouse experience works really great with an iPad, particularly if you have the iPad setup as a desk workstation.
This article will show you how to setup and use a wireless Bluetooth mouse with iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Air, or iPad mini.
Update: using a mouse or trackpad with iPad is easier than ever with ipadOS 14 and newer, read here how it works if you’re on a newer operating system.
The ability to use a mouse with iPad is one of the best features of iPadOS 13 and later, and it works to use nearly any bluetooth mouse with iPad, iPad Pro, iPad mini, or iPad Air. In other words, those are the system requirements to get this working; you’ll need a minimum of iPadOS 13 on the iPad, and a compatible Bluetooth mouse. Most Bluetooth mouses will work with iPad, for example the Logitech M535, M336, and M337, work great and are affordable. Both the Apple Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad works with iPad as well, for those wondering.
How to Setup and Use Bluetooth Mouse with iPad
Make sure that Bluetooth is enabled on the iPad before beginning this process of setting up a mouse for use with iPad. You can turn Bluetooth ON in Settings if you have not done so already.
- Open the “Settings” app on iPad and make sure that Bluetooth is turned on
- Go to “Accessibility” settings then choose “Touch”
- Tap on “AssistiveTouch”
- Toggle the switch next to “Assistive Touch” to the ON position
- Now scroll down and tap on “Devices” further down in the AssistiveTouch settings screen
- Tap on “Bluetooth Devices”
- Place the Bluetooth mouse into pairing mode and wait for it to show up on the “Bluetooth Devices” screen, when it becomes visible tap on it
- When the Bluetooth mouse connects, tap on it in the device list and configure the button options as desired (for example, setting right-click to go Home)
- After the Bluetooth mouse is shown as a connected device and configured, tap or click back to “AssistiveTouch”, the mouse is now working with the iPad
- Scroll down to “Pointer Style” and tap on that to configure mouse cursor size, mouse cursor color, and if the mouse pointer automatically hides or not
- Next back at the AssistiveTouch screen, adjust the ‘Tracking Speed’ slider to determine how fast you want the mouse to move on iPad
- Optionally, uncheck the box for “Always Show Menu” to hide the onscreen AssistiveTouch button
- Exit out of Settings as usual
The mouse will move around on iPad screen just like any mouse you’re accustomed to using on Mac or PC, and you’ll find the experience works great.
The iPad Mouse Cursor
You will quickly see that the iPad mouse cursor looks like a circle with a tiny dot in the middle, it does not look like the traditional arrow pointer that most platforms use as their mouse cursor style including macOS and Windows.
Instead the cursor / pointer which looks like a circle with a dot in the center of it looks a lot like the dot reticle of an optical scope on a red or green dot sight, for those who are familiar with scopes, microscopes, telescopes, and other sighting systems.
You can change the color of the mouse pointer on iPad in the AssistiveTouch settings as was covered earlier.
Customizing the Mouse Buttons Behavior for iPad
One of the other great things about setting up iPad with a mouse is that you can set multi-button mouses to have different functions for each button.
There are tons of options available for what each button can do; Home screen, single tap, double tap, open menu, accessibility shortcut, app switcher, control center, dock, lock rotation, lock screen, screenshot, shake, activate Siri, you can even activate Siri Shortcuts and much more.
You’ll almost certainly want to assign at least one of the mouse buttons to be ‘Home’ so that you can easily return to the Home screen of the iPad from the mouse, and without having to either swipe or tap on the screen itself, or press any buttons on the iPad hardware.
There are a lot of mouse options out there, and some users may be wondering what the best iPad mouse is for them. That’s really a user preference, but many people like the various Bluetooth mouse options from Logitech, Microsoft, and Apple branded Magic Mouse. If you already have a Bluetooth mouse laying around, try it out with iPad and see how you like it.
Are you using a mouse with iPad? Do you have any particular experiences or thoughts about using iPad with a mouse? Share your thoughts, experiences, and tips with us in the comments below!
My logitech m585 is working on my pc. Working on my ipad as well, but when i updated it to ios 13.4 the right and left button is not working. Scroll is working though.. Only the left and right button are not.
What seems to be the problem?
You might try removing the mouse from the iPad via Bluetooth Settings, then re-pairing the Mouse again through Bluetooth settings to the iPad. Then go into the Mouse settings and make sure the right and left buttons are configured how you want them to be.
Hey thanks for posting this! I have gotten the mouse to work but want to note a few things.
I used a Fenifox mouse, which works great on my Mac, and did successfully pair to iPad using these steps so it´s an alternative if you cannot get a Microsoft mouse.
I also got the PIN Number request, using 0000 worked!
I also have a third party keyboard (Arteck) and it works fine, pairs to Bluetooth like normal. Except when using it in conjunction with the mouse, the keyboard types incredibly slow. It´s like it does not really function… once I turned off the mouse, the keyboard is back to normal…
Hopefully that helps someone. If anyone knows a workaround for the keyboard-mouse thing that would be awesome. I am using a 12.9¨ iPad Pro 3rd gen btw
Glad to hear you got the mouse working Nicole!
I have not heard of that specific keyboard speed issue, though I have noticed my Bluetooth keyboard can be slow to register if it’s not used frequently on iPad it seems to take a moment or two to be recognized again. Is that similar to what you are experiencing?
Also, you can now use the Apple Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad with iPad as well for those who are wondering.
Does anyone have any experience of using a mouse with iPad for use with Excel in particular?
I know Excel can be downloaded and used on the iPad with the touchscreen but I’m concerned that a circle for the mouse rather than a regular pointer isn’t going to work well?
I’m thinking of buying and iPad Air, with a Logitech keyboard and mouse as a substitute for my heavy and cumbersome laptop (which is great for using Excel).
I have used the iPad mouse with Numbers which is the Apple version of Excel and it works, but it’s not the best experience on the planet. This is the first time that iPad has had a mouse so it’s a work in progress I would say, it’s better than no mouse for some users, but not perfect yet.
But in my opinion I think a laptop is better suited for real work like heavy Excel, than the iPad with mouse. There are aspects of working with iPad that are so frustrating, like file handling, that even with a mouse it is just not as effective or efficient as a laptop. I prefer a Mac personally, but a good Lenovo is great too, there are plenty of thin and light laptops out there and the price will be comparable to iPad.
Isn’t this mouse feature for accessibility for people who can’t properly tap on screen? I don’t think Apple envisioned it as a direct accessory feature for a mouse. Although it works that way, its really for people who need assistance and can use a device to navigate target cursor on screen so as to make a tap input. It certainly works with a mouse for sure, but Apple never claimed it was a feature for that purpose. That is why its buried in the Accessibility menu.
That is correct. However, anyone can use Accessibility features, and this is the only way to use a mouse with the iPad.
Now if Apple could offer a keyboard/touchpad which would greatly move the iPad towards a notebook replacement. I still prefer my iPad for consumption and Macbook for work.
My iPad found my Apple mouse, but it asks for a PIN. (??)
Is it usable? That’s all that matters right?
I haven’t heard of a wireless Apple Mouse that is usable with Apple iPad
My goodness, Apple certainly went out of their way to hide all of this.
Thanks OSXDaily!
May options for mouse buttons but there are only 3 buttons on the mouse
OMFG Apple can you make this any MORE complicated?
They don’t seem to want anyone using a mouse on iPad unless they’re really committed to it. It’s not a super great experience anyway if you ask me, the iPad interface is a mystery and confusing even without a mouse. But I get that it’s helpful for Accessibility, it will allow many people to use the iPad that couldn’t before.
A Mac is still easier to use, it’s point and click, everything is obvious.
How is everything is obvious when you have to take all these steps just to use a mouse?
Don’t even get me started on what you have to do to update apps in iOS13.
Apple is today anything but obvious.
The Mac is obvious. iPad is confusing. That is my opinion.
With Mac, you point and click.
With iPad, you do a song and dance, you wonder, you’re never sure what is a button or what is not, there’s a lot of mystery features and mistakes, nothing is obvious or discoverable, it’s like the command line all over again minus the power.
Ipad doesn’t work with Magic Mouse, why?
You don’t mention about it
Nobody knows why Apple isn’t supporting their own mouse with iPad…
But the Microsoft Surface mouse works great with iPad!
A very helpful guide – as usual but it doesn’t work for my Air 2.
The problem is that (after updating iPadOS to 13.2) the final step of ‘pairing mode’ does not work – searching goes on forever with no result.
For ‘pairing’, I put my Apple mouse, switched on that I had just been using with my MacBook (now closed), next to the iPad.
Does ‘pairing mode’ require some other action?
You are probably doing everything right, but you should try with a different mouse.
Unfortunately the Apple mouse does not appear to be supported for using with the Apple iPad. Why is anyones guess, but that has been widely reported as an incompatibility.
For now, you will need to use a third party mouse to use a mouse with iPad. It’s possible this will change down the road. Logitech and Microsoft brand mice work fine in my experience.
I have an iPad with a folio keyboard. When I want to reply to an email an on-screen keyboard pops up and I can’t use my folio keyboard. What goes?
Your experience is not unique. My USB-C iPad Pro 12.9″ with keyboard folio cover will not work properly when a mouse is enabled in iPadOS assistive touch feature is enabled.
Nor will any Bluetooth keyboard that I have tried as well. This strange bug manifests itself when I try to type something. Some keyboard letters can be typed correctly while other keys refuse to register at all – no matter how often I depress the keyboard keys. Also, when certain keys are touched “weird” things happen.
However, mouse enabled cursor movements and mouse enabled menu selections or mouse actions work as advertised.
Pity Apple hasn’t figured out how to make keyboard and mouse functions co-exist correctly let on the iPad.
Your experience is not unique. I have noticed that my USB-C iPad Pro keyboard folio cover typing functions are incompatible when a mouse is enabled thru iPadOS’s assistive touch feature.
In fact, it would seem any attached Bluetooth keyboard will not function correctly in a “typing scenario” when a mouse is enabled.
I can use an external Bluetooth mouse and keyboard with my iPad, the two work fine together. You might try re-syncing the keyboard to iPad?
Thanks for the reply. I think I will be making a Genius Bar visit over this issue.
My iPad Pro keyboard Folio cover exhibits the same “typing errors” I have experienced using a Logitech mouse (it looks like the one seen in this article – and with a Microsoft Wedge Touch mouse) in conjunction with several other bluetooth keyboards (An Apple Magic Keyboard, a Microsoft keyboard and a folding keyboard)
All my keyboards work just fine when mouse support is NOT enabled. Once again, thanks for trying to help.
Please ignore my earlier post as I have just noticed that Magic Mouse and Apple trackpad are not supported for use with Ipad.
Bluetooth Devices screen just keeps searching without picking up Apple Mouse or Apple Trackpad.
I gave up after multiple attempts.
I can’t get Bluetooth to discover my Apple Magic Mouse. Is there a reason?
Yes, took me a while to figure out but the Magic Mouse 2 with iPadOS 13
To pair your mouse, go to Settings → Accessibility → Assistive Touch → Always Show Menu → Turn Off. Next, you’ll want to go to Settings→ Accessibility → Switch Control and further into Switches and tap Bluetooth Devices underneath the Add New Switch heading.