How to scroll in tmux
Enter copy mode to scroll (q to exit), or turn on the mouse wheel:
keysprefix + [ then ↑/PgUp
Why your wheel does nothing
tmux keeps its own scrollback per pane and doesn't use your terminal's — so the terminal scrollbar shows nothing and the wheel is dead until you either enter copy mode (prefix [) or enable mouse mode. With mouse on, the wheel scrolls the pane under the cursor, and scrolling to the bottom drops you back to live output.
Copy-mode scrolling keys
Inside copy mode (with vi keys): C-u/C-d half-page, C-b/C-f full page, g/G top/bottom, / search. q exits. Enable vi keys with setw -g mode-keys vi.
Only 2,000 lines? Raise the buffer
The default scrollback is small, and the setting only affects new panes:
~/.tmux.conf
set -g history-limit 50000Related
Verified against tmux 3.6 · updated July 2026 · back to the full cheat sheet