Macbook not recognizing cursor placement/hovering

Anna.l.hicks wrote:

I asked this question a few weeks ago and got no responses unfortunately. Is no one else having this issue somehow? I'm not sure how this could be a problem only for me, and it's bugging the ever-living crap out of me on a daily basis.

For the past several months I have been having issues with my Macbook Pro (Big Sur/fully updated) not recognizing when the cursor is hovering over something.

For example, in both Chrome and Safari, when I hover over a YouTube video, the toolbar at the bottom where you can pause/play/maximize the screen/etc. doesn't show up. When I'm in a Zoom meeting, I'm not able to mute/unmute myself at the bottom or any of the other toolbar actions because it doesn't recognize that my cursor is hovering over Zoom.

Those are the most problematic examples, but it doesn't seem to recognize that I'm hovering over anything else either. Like if I hover over buttons that used to turn a different color when you hover over them, now they don't turn that color. When I hover over app icons in the dock, the name of the app doesn't show up anymore. Nothing happens unless I click — my computer just does not recognize that I'm hovering over anything at any time.

This is so incredibly frustrating and I have no idea how to even begin troubleshooting it. Help!!

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/Anti-Virus/VPN

these are all known to cause issue on the macOS

To trouble shoot further you can:

—Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a reboot will put it back to normal mode.

This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-up-other-users-on-your-mac-mtusr001/mac

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

Anna.l.hicks wrote:

Thank you!! Rebooting in safe mode and then restarting again normally worked! Shows how little I know about computers that I never tried that!

Good computing Anna.l.hicks ! Glad to hear this solved your problem.