"The company to which I've always given my money because I trusted them to make good products has started taking advantage of my trust and is producing shitty products. How do I avoid this?"

Stop buying their products the moment they stop making good ones.

I feel your frustration, but I think you already knew the answer. Any workaround or jailbreak or open source firmware update would just be avoiding the problem, not fixing it. Stop buying Logitech products.

Find a mouse and keyboard you like and buy 5-10 of them. Put them in heavy duty ziploc bags with a few dessicant packets and store them in your freezer.

For keyboards I'd highly recommend Filco, Daskey, and Ducky. The former 2 are more 'no frills, all business', the latter has some RGB offerings, but most of the keyboards those guys make are plate-mounted mechanical, plug and play, with really decent build quality. Also fairly common and easy to source (Microcenter usually has some of those brands in stock).

I don't know shit about trackballs but my Dad forgot his when he came up to visit (Minnesota-Arizona snowbirds) so I bought him an ELECOM DEFT PRO from Amazon and he loved it so much he started using it over the one he forgot to bring. Might be worth a look - also a plug and play type device

I've fallen into this trap too a year ago or so. try if the Logitech Onboard Memory Manager is useful for any of your devices, it's a totally offline program. you can get it from the page below, but if it's been taken down check the archive.org, I think I have made an archive of the exe too

https://support.logi.com/hc/de/articles/6449584392215-Onboard-Memory-Manager

I think the mice and keyboard requiring "Chrome" is actually due to WebHID. WebHID is only supported in Chromium browsers. Now here's the fun part, this thread has VIA mentioned a couple times and even though VIA/QMK/ZMK are FOSS, the usevia.app website requires a, you guessed it, WebHID capable browser.

That said, don't use Logitech keyboards. Sell it to a sucker on local and buy any of the above compatible keyboards instead. Drop CSTM, Luminkey, Keychron, Akko, QK NEO, CK Bakaneko, there's probably couple more that are affordable and quality. Just don't fall for GMMK, Ducky and other pseudo-gaming crap. Also visit !mechanicalkeyboards@lemmy.ml and ask questions.

Not sure about your trackball problem.

Just don't use the software lol. If it requires software to function, return it.

Buy open hardware with open source firmware.

I'm typing this from a Corne-ish Zen and you can see my firmware (ZMK) with my keymap at https://github.com/Utopiah/zmk-config-zen-2/blob/main/config/corneish_zen.keymap#L27

Nobody can touch this but me. No update can break it. Yet, it's more feature rich than most keyboards.

There are equivalents for most peripherals. It's not cheap, usually even MORE expensive than already pricey ones like Logitech (I have an MX Vertical, still) but IMHO it's worth it. It's good right now, pragmatically speaking, but also morally speaking.

I advise against swimming upstream, namely NOT buying hardware that have such enshitification practices because if they don't do it today, they might tomorrow when there is more pressure from shareholders. Also by buying alternatives you are economically supporting people whom you believe are providing better solutions for yourself and others.

PS: a gateway to such projects is https://crowdsupply.com which is a kind of KickStarter. I bought a dozen things there, all delivered and working.

The way forward is to stop looking at those as "features of the keyboard and mouse that I purchased" and consider them as "unlockables" where you have to pay again by handing over your personal info. Then stop buying their stuff, because it's absurd to have to pay twice.

I prefer my keyboards and mice as dumb as possible. Preferably with cables, so I never have to worry about charging them.

Probably not the answer you're looking for, but switch to Linux and use Piper, a free & open source replacement for the Logitech software, that was created because they don't offer an official version for Linux

I'm going to assume you need to use Chrome to set up the dongle because Firefox still doesn't support Bluetooth web APIs.

Logitech G devices with the Lightspeed dongle don't require setup (they're all uniquely paired from the factory) and will work without the G Hub software. The software itself, if you do want it, works offline without an account.

This is assuming you don't want to move away from Logitech entirely of course.

I know this might not be the most convenient solution, but learning to resolder mouse switches means you can just replace the faulty components (and maybe the sliders too) and just keep using the hardware that works for you. As long as you don't have a mouse with that awful rubber that de-vulcanizes after about 3 years, and don't mind the visual wear from your hand on the shell over time, you'll easily 10x the life of most products manufactured with planned obsolescence. Logitech almost always cheaps out on the switches for their gaming mice, unfortunately. After replacing the switches on my g pro wireless when they started double-clicking after 2 years (almost exactly), it's been smooth sailing ever since.

ifixit almost always has comprehensive teardown and rebuild instructions for popular peripherals. Bonus points is that whenever you take apart something to do a repair, you can clean out all the hard to reach places that collect random dust and debris. Can be kind of gross but is also pretty satisfying. Additional bonus points for being more sustainable with your consumer habits and minimizing e-waste in landfills!

If you've got a mechanical keyboard, you can do the same but it's generally a lot more tedious since most have the switches soldered on, and LEDs double the amount of joints you have to deal with. I recently did just the WASD and a few other high-traffic keys on my board after one one of them failed, and it was a several hour process

What you want is to go along with the business line of logitechs products and scrap the rest. There is an offline version of Logi Options+ "for air gapped machines" available. https://prosupport.logi.com/hc/en-hk/articles/10991109278871-Logitech-Options-Offline-Installer You may use it in a virtual machine aswell.

I hate this so much.
My hp printer doesn't do shit, if I'm not online and logged in to my hp account. For what if not for collecting datathey have no business collecting.

No advice, just shared frustration.

Disclaimer: I'm a keyboard snob. I can't think of a single good keyboard that even has software.

I actually use Logitech for all my mice and trackballs, but I also haven't installed Logitech's junky software in a long time. Maybe I don't know what I'm missing.

I use a Logitech mouse and do not have the problems you are talking about.

It's unfortunate, really, but there's only 1 good answer: vote with your wallet.

Research before buying and be thorough. There are companies that don't do this yet and you could build your own peripherals, there's some nice DIY kits out there.

Just don't buy this crap. IMO the only way this'll change is if it hurts them where they feel it.