mouse cursor disappears

Question

Level 1

90 points

mouse cursor disappears

OS: Mac OS X 10.7.1

Hardware: MacBook Pro (2010), BlueTooth keyboard and mouse (both Apple brand) Magic Mouse

Applications: Any - mostly see this on Safari

Symptoms: I will be navigating with the mouse, clicking on a link if I'm in Safari or perhaps clicking on a word that I want to edit in BBEdit, doesn't really matter what app. The mouse cursor disapears. I have to move the mouse around in large circular motions several times to get the mouse cursor back. Sometimes I have to push the mouse off the edge of the screen for it to show up again. If there is a control on the page that has a mouse hover event (perhaps a flash window or something in HTML???) then the control will respond to that event by high lighting or displaying a tooltip. During all of this the mouse cursor is still invisible.

I'm aware that the mouse cursor will disappear when I start typing (like right now), and it will re-appear if I simply nudge the mouse. The problem that I'm seeing however is when the mouse cursor disappears without touching the keyboard, usually following a mouse click, then it won't re-appear quickly. It can take several seconds - sometimes 5 - 10 seconds of moving the mouse before it re-appears.

Has anybody else seen this, or know what might be causing it?

Thanks,

-Mark

Posted on Sep 14, 2011 7:59 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 13, 2011 1:36 PM in response to Mark Steele2

i have exactly such problem like you. I have now 10.7.2.

No idea what can I do...

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Answer 2

NicoleYM

Level 1

0 points

Oct 20, 2011 8:18 AM in response to topmishka87

My cursor is also disappearing continuously. It happens when I stop moving the mouse. It also happens when I move the mouse close to any of the window controls (red, orange and green circle icons in the upper left). I have to click the mouse button to get it back. Just moving the mouse doesn't always make the cursor reappear. It does not seem entirely application dependent, but the problem is worse when using a web browser. It happens with Firefox as well as Safari.

This started happening after I did the most recent software update yesterday. I'm running Mac OS 10.6.8.

This is a very serious usability problem!

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Answer 3

Dec 6, 2011 7:16 AM in response to NicoleYM

I have the same issue. Since 10.7 (now 10.7.2) my mouse pointer just dissapears in Safari.

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Answer 4

Dec 9, 2011 12:42 PM in response to Mark Steele2

I have this same issue also. Using Firefox. It also happens in other apps, like Mail. Usually it happens when I am posting in a forum.

See also:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3544572

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2655668?answerId=16901645022#16901645022

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Answer 5

3 Point

Level 1

19 points

Dec 9, 2011 1:36 PM in response to Mark Steele2

Perhaps a related issue: Since moving from Snow Leopard to 10.7.2 my Magic Mouse cursor will periodicly freeze and become non-responsive. It does not appear to linked to any specific task.

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Answer 6

Dec 9, 2011 1:59 PM in response to Mark Steele2

I changed options in the Mouse Sysatem Preferences .I think the main one that stopped the "invisibility" behaviour was removing the "Scroll Direction: Natural". Hope it helps you too.

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Answer 7

Dec 9, 2011 7:04 PM in response to Krzysztof Jeske

Krzysztof, I'll give that a try.

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Answer 8

SteveKir

Level 3

565 points

Dec 10, 2011 11:57 AM in response to Krzysztof Jeske

Me too. ANNOYING! Apple Care had no solution.

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Answer 9

Paipuky

Level 1

0 points

Jan 4, 2012 7:23 PM in response to Mark Steele2

I have been noticing this issue in both Snow Leopard (latest) and Lion 10.7.2 on my 15" MBP 2.2 - i7. Very annoying... No time to take it to Apple store, hope fix is released soon please.

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Answer 10

Compukid

Level 2

150 points

Jan 4, 2012 7:25 PM in response to Paipuky

I have seen this problem also. A restart will normally help.

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Answer 11

Paipuky

Level 1

0 points

Jan 4, 2012 7:30 PM in response to Mark Steele2

I don't see the point of restaring a computer everytime I lose the cursor... Not on a $2200 computer...

Hoping for a fix soon.

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Answer 12

Compukid

Level 2

150 points

Jan 4, 2012 7:34 PM in response to Paipuky

The point is that it starts all of the processes (the things that are making the Mac run) all over again. If the cursor disappears a lot, a process might not be working right, and I would recommend contacting Express Lane or the Apple Store.

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Answer 13

Feb 2, 2012 6:01 AM in response to Mark Steele2

I've had this same problem with Safari & Flash and Safari & Silverlight.

I can reliably reproduce the issue with the standard OS X color picker. For example, open Mail.app and create a new rich text message. Under the Format menu click "Show Colors". Click the magnifying glass and click anywhere. The cursor will disappear.

I've been able to reliably get the cursor back by holding down COMMAND-TAB and wiggling the mouse.

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Answer 14

Aug 5, 2012 4:30 AM in response to Mark Steele2

I have come across this discussion because I already had got this problem in Lion (a three-finger swipe on the trackpad brought me into mission control and gave me the cursor back). Now, I just clean-installed Mountain Lion and then restored everything from my Time Machine backup : but the problem still exists...

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Answer 15

Gaoxiong

Level 1

5 points

Aug 8, 2012 12:22 AM in response to Mark Steele2

I am using mountain lion ob my 27"Mac. Have the same problem. Read somewhere that if the cursor disappears tap Command Tab and it will return.

This helped. But it is still an nuisance issue, hope apple can find a solution.

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