{"id":807,"date":"2026-07-08T05:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T05:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/?p=807"},"modified":"2026-09-13T23:04:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:04:02","slug":"sidenav-fix-mouse-back-forward-buttons-mac-finder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/08\/sidenav-fix-mouse-back-forward-buttons-mac-finder\/","title":{"rendered":"SideNav \u2013 Fix Mouse Back\/Forward Buttons Not Working in macOS Finder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"SideNav<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On Windows, a mouse\u2019s back and forward buttons just work. Plug that same mouse into a Mac and click them in Finder<\/strong>: nothing. No back, no forward, nothing at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because Finder doesn\u2019t listen for raw mouse button numbers. It only responds to the \u2318[<\/strong> (back) and \u2318]<\/strong> (forward) keyboard shortcut. Mice with a proper macOS driver translate their buttons for you. Mice without one \u2014 most notably Razer<\/strong> mice like the DeathAdder, Basilisk and Viper, since Razer Synapse is Windows-only, plus plenty of unbranded ones \u2014 don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SideNav is a free, open-source menu bar app that fixes it. It listens for those side-button clicks system-wide and turns them into the shortcut, so navigation works exactly the way you\u2019d expect \u2014 in Finder, Safari, Chrome, and any other app that understands \u2318[ \/ \u2318].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Download for macOS<\/a><\/div>\n\n
View on GitHub<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Installing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Grab the latest DMG from Releases and drag SideNav<\/strong> into Applications.<\/li>\n\n
  2. It isn\u2019t notarized, so the first time, right-click the app and choose Open<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n
  3. macOS will add SideNav to System Settings \u2192 Privacy & Security \u2192 Accessibility<\/strong> in an off state \u2014 toggle it on. That\u2019s the permission that lets it see mouse clicks and send keystrokes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Click the \u2194 icon in the menu bar for Enabled<\/strong> (your instant undo \u2014 switch it off and your mouse is stock again), Launch at Login<\/strong>, and a one-click Uninstall<\/strong>. Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Will it work with my mouse?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Almost certainly, as long as its side buttons report as HID buttons 3 and 4, which is the near-universal default. If yours don\u2019t, the repo includes a tiny diagnostic script that prints the button number for every click, and the numbers are two constants at the top of main.swift<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How it works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    SideNav creates a session-level CGEventTap<\/code> listening for \u201cother mouse\u201d button events. When it sees button 3 or 4, it swallows the click and synthesizes a \u2318[ or \u2318] key event instead. Everything else passes through untouched. Login-item registration uses Apple\u2019s modern SMAppService<\/code> API, so it\u2019s always cleanly reversible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Karabiner-Elements or SensibleSideButtons can do this too, along with a lot more. SideNav is a single-purpose, from-scratch implementation that does exactly one job with nothing to configure. It has no network code at all, and the whole app is about 200 lines \u2014 read it. MIT licensed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Also in the \u201ctiny Mac fixes\u201d department: NaturalOnBattery<\/a> and WinDot<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Free and open source, and it\u2019s staying that way. If it saved you some time, you can buy me a coffee<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Razer and other mice without a Mac driver have side buttons that do nothing in Finder. SideNav is a free, tiny menu bar app that turns them into \u2318[ and \u2318] so back and forward just work \u2014 in Finder, Safari, Chrome and everywhere else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Fix Mouse Back\/Forward Buttons in Mac Finder \u2013 SideNav","_seopress_titles_desc":"Mouse side buttons not working in macOS Finder? SideNav remaps them to \u2318[ and \u2318] so back and forward work. Great for Razer DeathAdder and other mice. Free.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"mouse back button not working mac finder,razer mouse side buttons mac,deathadder mac back button,mouse forward button finder,razer synapse mac alternative","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78,77],"tags":[129,127,86,125,124,130,88,128,126],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-macos","category-projects","tag-deathadder","tag-finder","tag-macos","tag-menu-bar-app","tag-mouse","tag-mouse-buttons","tag-open-source","tag-razer","tag-swift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828,"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackharvest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}