Hey all,
I’m returning to the game after a few year break, and could use some help with a key bind issue I’ve run into.
I used to be able to bind spells and actions to the number row on my keyboard and then bind other actions to the 12 number buttons on my gaming mouse. For example, I had Fireball bound to the #1 key on the keyboard, and Combustion to the mouse button #1 on my mouse.
But now I can’t seem to do that anymore. The system doesn’t make the distinction between keyboard #1 and mouse button #1 they just overwrite each other. Any ideas on how I can get back to the setup I had before?
No keybinding experts out there that can help? Am I doomed to never go back to the way I had it 
This sounds like similar behavior to what I see (on either Mac or Windows) on my Corsair MMO mouse, whereby without any iCue software or any special drivers, the side buttons just function as the number keys on the keyboard. That sounds like the behavior you’re seeing.
I think the first step is to determine which mouse you have. If it is the Corsair one, I know that with the iCue software you can remap the buttons.
WoW just needs to be able to map an action bar location with an ability or macro to a key or mouse binding.
Here is an easy way to test how WoW sees your mouse buttons:
Go into your keybind settings (in WoW) and go to map an ability. Click one of the mouse side buttons and see what happens. Does it show as key 1, key 2, etc, or as a mouse button? If it’s a key number, the same as if you’d pressed the number on your keyboard, then you know that the mouse is just mimicking the number keys on the keyboard and those buttons need remapped with the software (outside of WoW) to act as something else. Otherwise, if they show-up as say mouse button whatever, then you know they’re separate and you can start binding your action bar items to them.
Hey Allryiae,
Thank you for the reply! I went into WoW and did the test you suggested, and the game sees my keyboard and mouse buttons as the same. I play on a 2019 iMac and have a Razer Naga Pro mouse. I’ve never used any outside software to remap my mouse buttons. Any suggestions?
This is definitely where software (usually provided by the vendor) comes in.
It looks like Razer Synapse is the go-to for customizing their keyboards and mice, however, their macOS support looks dicey:
If you can’t get Synapse 2.0 to run and detect your mouse on your version of macOS, there are third-party programs which might be able to detect the mouse and remap the buttons, although I don’t have much experience with those.
As to why it worked before and doesn’t, I’ve seen this sort of behavior before with my other Logitech mice, whereby certain extra buttons were detected in WoW one way (say as Mouse Button 4-5), and now are detected another way (as Mouse Back and Mouse Forward buttons). I suspect this may have to do with WoW codebase unification with Windows, but I can’t speak to that authoritatively. That’s just a guess for why mice buttons have changed behavior in WoW over the last few years.
I’m sorry I couldn’t give you better direction with third-party software. It’s a good bet that some folks hanging around the forums have more information on that, however.
One semi-clunky work-around that you might consider if you simply cannot get those side buttons working differently is to make a slight change to how you map your keybinds. For example, if you really want to use the side-buttons for certain abilities, you might try binding them to shift+number, then you’ll just have to hit shift+mouse button. Not quite what you were looking for, but it’s an option, and it wouldn’t require any additional software.
Thank you again for the info. I’ll get on it and see if I can get to work.