Mouse pointer disappears on second monitor.

I am experiencing this invisible pointer when moving between MPB and Thunderbolt display - not great for productivity. I whole heartedly regret updating to LIon (had no choice as it was alreday on my new MBP. Just one of many bugs that is making me less productive.

Nothing much to add other than that I am having the same problem ever since the Lion install.

Macbook Pro with LED cinema display. Running 10.7.2.

I do have a Wacom wireless, but the cursor disappearing problem happens whether or not the tablet is on. Not that that necessarily matters since the driver is obviously running anyway. And I have updated the Wacom driver via the Wacom site with no effect on this particular problem. I'm not sure that anyone has established conclusively that the Wacom tablet is the source anyway.

For me, at least, the problem is quickly, albeit temporarily, resolved by CTRL-arrow'ing to another space and then back again.

Would be nice to see this fixed even though it is only an annoyance. And thanks to everyone for keeping this issue alive on the boards.

Updated to 10.7.3 hoping the mouse would work on the multimonitor setup.

Nope. The BIG FAT BUG is still there. And it's not linked with any apps.. it happens everywhere. For example I have XCode on one monitor and Calibre on 2nd. Moving mouse between the screens make it disappear in 15-20% of the time, making me click everywhere like a drunk moron for it to appear again.

This NEVER EVER happened in Snow Leopard and the only reason I can't go back to that is that XCode 4.2.1 / iOS 5 SDK works only on Lion.

MacPro

Signed up just to say it.

DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED...

This behavior is often connected to the way the monitor communicates with the system and/or if other apps/utils interact with the system. Try to uncheck/remove all apps/utilitites which start up at login. Or you may create a new user, log into it, without adding anything else than test monitor and cursor. If it works, then there is an interference with your main, admin account, e.g. apps starting up at login, various 3rd party apps etc. This is a simple test, which may clarify where you are and what you should to.

Thanks for the advice but, if I may say, your argument is invalid from my possition, given that a while ago I've completely reinstalled Lion twice (first by installing Snow Leopard & upgrading and 2nd from a bootable Lion image). It does it even from the very first boot without any customization what-so-ever.

😟

Pur si simplu dispare! (cand ti-e lumea mai draga)

I'm not sure if this have been said but I've noticed a solid behavior of the disappearing act. Whenever the mouse pointer is gone, if you move it to the dock it ALWAYS reappears.

Hopefully that helps with debugging ... (if anyone is watching.... or if anyone cares... )

On another note, I remember vividly the times (2006) when I build a hackintosh ( yes, that's how it started for me.. and then I bought 5 Macs and a lot of other Apple devices). It was tiger I believe, and the mouse would be corrupted/ even invisible if by some voodoo kext magic (don't remember the details) I would turn on QE/CI. I know it's not the same thing but I do remember there was a solution with some software level mouse drawing of some sorts. I would be happy with any solution at this point. I move my mouse between the monitors quite a lot ( maybe 5-10 times a minute ) and this is beyond-words-can-describe-annoying .

I am currently using a Mighty Mouse (wired) but have tried a wireless Logitech. The behavior is the same.

I've also tried enlarging the mouse pointer.

What I find somewhat interesting is that with MouseLocator, whenever the mouse disappears, the green rings are still there... Sadly the mouselocator app doesn't have a mouse shaped locator sprite 🙂

I think we may surmise with fair certainty there is a (small?) bug with Lion. The only test you may do is with another monitor/projector, I guess this bug affects only some configurations, not all. My config is, for example, OK (I have a humble, old 17 in monitor attached to my 2009 MB, and all is OK, but was not, initially).

I believe this is the most painful bug ever encountered in Mac OS X. It sure should be small, even Apple can't find it 😉

Anyway, I have found a workaround to this.

This method has it's perks such as if the pointer changes the shape, you will also still have the standard shaped mouse.... but if this doesn't bother you, or if, like me, bothers you to a much lesser extent then _suddenly_not_having_a_mouse_pointer_at_all here it goes.

1. Go ahead and download the mouse pointer I've created http://i.imgur.com/2y0ga.png and save it as MouseLocator.png in your Pictures folder (root) (Of course you can create your own png but be sure it overlapses correctly over the original one otherwise it would look weird)

2. Download MouseLocator 1.1 from here : http://www.2point5fish.com/download.html

3. Activate Mouse Locator from System Pref -> Mouse Locator and check "Always On"

4. Be free until Apple aknowledges this "very tiny" bug and fix it.

Cheers!

To those calling this a "small" bug, I think not! Especially by Apple standards, this should be considered a MAJOR bug. For a company that wrote the book on user interfaces, the cursore vanishing a not a minor issue and users should not be expected to deal with this. This problem has plagued me ever since moving to Lion and happens 2 - 4 times every hour. This is a major problem (not a minor annoyance) since my workday is spent on my computer constantly neededing to moving between 2 monitors. I'm very suprised that Apple still has no fix for this.

I agree, mai be labelled a ‘major bug’. What mouse do you use? wired or wl? if wl, is it BT or dongle wl connection? have you tested another mouse, just for the sake of comparison? what monitor do you use? etc.

Hello Cattus,

I'm using a Wacom Intous 3 tablet with the mouse in "pen mode". I think have seen this problem with a wired Apple mouse, but I'm not certain. I only use a regular mouse in an emergency (where the tablet stops working). I cannot bear using them otherwise. My hardware specs:

Early 2009 MacPro 2 x 2.26 Quad Core

ATI Radeon HD 5770 HD w/ 1024 VRAM

2 - 24" Samsung Syncmaster dusplays w/ 1920 x 1200 resolution

I'd love to find a fix for this as it constantly disrupts my workflow decreasing productivity.

I think it is a compatibility issue between your hardware components, therefore you should report to Apple Bug Reporter. I have been currently using an external monitor associated with my Macbook over the last years, and have NEVER seen this problem, so—

Of course, it is unpleasant for those who use this, therefore useful to report.

This is not a mouse problem, it is a graphical glitch. Check out my temporary fix until Apple gets off their ***** and fixes this (as they should have done so BEFORE the 10.7.0 release in my opinion)

I agree with you dlbogdan. I heard from several other users with completely different hardware having the same problem. It NEVER happend before Lion.

Thank you for your clever MouseLocator fix - it's a great idea. Unfortunately, I rely heavily on cursor cues in my CAD software for snapping. I cannot give those up so I'll have to deal with this problem and pray that Apple does something about this soon.