I can't type it's so frustrating! Every 10 or so letters I type I have to reclick on the area I'm typing to be able to continue. It stops and then makes some stupid sound. To type this I had to reset the cursor 12 times.
HELP!!!!!
That happens to me if I accidentally rest my hand on my laptop's touchpad. It has the effect of accidentally clicking on something else. I know you're using a laptop, but is it possible something is resting against your mouse? If you leave your mouse cursor over the text that you're typing, do you still have the same problem?
No it does it all by itself. It's hard to explain. The cursor blinks 6 times then it disappears all by itself.
What about my other question: if you leave your mouse cursor over the text that you're typing, do you still have the same problem?
I'm at the point I can no longer stand the aggravation this is causing me by trying to type on my new MacBook pro. I'm using my iPad to type this because as I have been trying to communicate that the cursor disappears after it blinks six times Leaving the cursor in on spot is not the problem. You dont even need to be with in ten feet of it it just happens, no interaction required. It's like you have another program running behind another. For example let's say I have mail and safari running in the same window. Then the current program lets say is mail dims and the cursor is now behind mail on safari so I have to get it back to mail by clicking anywhere on mail to reactivate the flashing cursor. Part of the problem is I am not enough of a techy type to explain the problem. the above example of two programs running was just an example, I do not have to have two programs running to lose the cursor. It seems to based on a time value. The last time I had this I did a software update and that seemed to fix the problem but now it's back and nothing I have tried has corrected it. By the way I'm running Lion and I'm sorry I upgraded.
Since this is a MacBook Pro, you might ask your question in that forum; this forum is for iMac users.
You might check to see if the problem still happens when you Safe Boot Mac OS X. If the problem isn't there when you Safe Boot, then it's probably related to a third-party program or startup item.
When something is handling keyboard input, we say it has "focus". When you're typing into a text field, then that field has focus. If you click somewhere else, then focus moves to where you clicked. What you're describing sounds like focus is moving somewhere unexpectedly. It might help to figure out where.
While it won't solve your problem, VoiceOver can help is figure out where focus is going. VoiceOver is a program that's part of Mac OS X that is designed to let blind users use the computer, but it also may help shed some light on your situation.
Open System Preferences, and select Universal Access. Under the "Seeing" tab, click "Open VoiceOver UtilityâŠ". In the "Navigation" section, make sure that "Initial position of VoiceOver cursor" is set to "Keyboard focused item". Also, make sure that "VoiceOver cursor follows keyboard focus" is checked. Close VoiceOver Utility and go back to System Preferences. Still in the "Seeing" tab of Universal Access, turn on VoiceOver. At this point, the computer will start talking, so use headphones if the baby's asleep!
VoiceOver will show an introductory note, and read it to you. You can just click "Ok". Now, VoiceOver will tell you whenever the focus moves. VoiceOver can be tricky in a web browser if you're not used to it, so ignore Safari for this test. Instead, start a new Mail message, or open Spotlight, or do anything else that will give you a text cursor. Wait six blinks, and listen to what VoiceOver says when the cursor disappears. It should briefly describe where the focus has moved to. For example, if focus moves to the Finder, then it may say something like "Finder, Desktop" and the name of the currently selected file. If you want more information, you can press Control-Option-F4 (you probably need to hold down Fn as well, since you're on a laptop). That will make VoiceOver describe what has keyboard focus. (Control-Option-F3 will give you a little bit different information too.)
You may want to repeat this test a few times with different programs and different windows to see if there's a pattern. For instance, if focus always moves to the same program regardless of what's open, then that program may be stealing focus. Once you've got an idea of where focus is going, you can turn off VoiceOver in System Preferences.
While this won't fix your problem, it may provide more information to make it easier to figure out what's going on.
Okay at laest I have a starting point. Thank you.
You're welcome, and good luck!
By the way: under some rare circumstances, certain types of electromagnetic interference can make the trackpad think that it's been clicked. Determing clicks is done by a combination of the physical hardware and the driver, which is why you might have seen changes during upgrades. It's also why I asked if the problem happens if you keep your mouse cursor over the text field: if it was reading phantom clicks, then the keyboard cursor would stay in the text field. So while my suggestions about Safe Boot and VoiceOver mostly were looking for a software program that's stealing focus, don't discount that the computer might just think that there's a mouse click. Along those lines, you might look in the Trackpad section of System Preferences: I don't know what the newer models have there, so there might be a "tap sensitivity" setting that needs to be lowered to avoid interference.
Again, good luck!
I ran voice over and the focus seems to shift to the red button on the upper left of the screen with a block open box around the red button. What is this telling me? Sorry to be so short but I typing on the MacBook Pro again. Same issues.
Okay, I'm not really sure what happened but I will try to explain how I solved this problem since you spent a lot of time trying to help me and I truly appreciate your efforts.
I remember reading some where that if your mac is not doing what it should go to the console and read what's happening with your system. Before I upgraded to Lion I was running a virus program that is not compatable with Lion. I unfortunately did not know that until I upgraded to Lion. So in console I noticed a lot of messages reffering to unresolved crashes and the anti virus was or seemed to be the problem. So I have a program called App Zapper and so I deleted the anti virus program, followed by a permissions repair. I then using another program called Clean sweep I did a cache clean up which requires you to reboot. Once I rebooted the problem I was having has disappeared. So I don't know what I did I just know that the problem is gone.
Again thanks for the time you took to help me.
Ed
Okay now I have really solved this problem. All the above had that I tried did not actually fix the problem. What I did was went to Console and read what was going on and I was still seeing the Intego unresolved crashes. I bought a program called Cleanmymac. This neat programs allows you to target files to delete. Once I located all references of Intego and deleted them from my system. I am now happy to say my mac is running perfectly now. By the way Intego was an anti virus program that was not compatible with Lion. So when I deleted it I created the problem since all the files were not deleted.
LOL, I was going to say "replace the batteries" then I realized that you have a notebook. So, uh... No clue, sorry. Good luck.
Nice way to bump an 8 month old thread for no reason đ
I have tied this problem to "application switching" (at least in my case). As long as I stay in Mail the text cursor seems to remain visible but if I switch applications in the middle of an email, when I come back to the Mail App the text cursor is gone. (note this is the "text cursor" not the mouse cursor) The only way I have figured out to get the text cursor back is to attach a photo or file. As soon as the attachment comes into the email, the text cursor returns. I then delete the attachment. Long winded way but it is what I have found that works so far. I have no idea how to fix the application switching and loss of text cursor issue. It is a royal P.I.T.A. but at least I have a workaround.
OSX 10.8.2
Mac Pro 2 x 2.26 GHz QC Intel Xeon
Thanks Beacher3, I now keep a small jpg (even an ico will work) on my desktop. When I leave mail and come back, cursor invisible. I simply drag the small graphics file to the email being worked on and my cursor reappears. Deleting the graphic doesn't harm the visbility of the cursor. Yes, a pita, but it's a work-around.
It is Thursday 09 May 2013 and I hate to bump an 'old' post but this is the first one that came up when searching on this problem via Yahoo. I am using Mac OS 10.8.3 on a MacBook Pro with Firefox 20 and this cursor disappearing problem (actually it's the pointer that is randomly disappearing) started yesterday.
Since the OS and software info in this thread are not what I'm using (or in the case of virus software are not installed), and since I am unfamiliar with using the mac console, the only way I was even able to ask for help here was to force my computer to restart (you know, the did you try turning it off and back on again solution).
SoooOOOOooo, is there a known new issue between Mac OS 10.8.3 and Firefox 20 ??
Thanks in advance,
Christine
Gilroy, CA
Why does my cursor keep disappearing?
