Mouse cursor disappears.

Apple has been trying all sorts of random things with mice in recent years and while interesting and useful at first glance, actual usefulness is a bit lacking. I had a Magic Mouse and stopped using it because it just wasn't comfortable. I also had the Magic Mouse with the round ball on top which while a little bit better wasn't really very good either. Couple that with Bluetooth's technological limitations which hinder accuracy and responsiveness which are rather important in a mouse and I'll stick to the trackpads for most work and wired mice if I'm in the mood to design something.

But I digress, this has little to do with the actual topic of the thread which is the mouse cursor disappearing issue which unfortunately even after deleting my preference files seems to have reemerged.

SteveKir wrote:

Yes, and the wired mouse does not go AWOL, nor do the contents of windows scroll wildly, nor do desktops change randomly. I have ditched the magic mouse for my old wired mouse, fresaking Apple's ever-so-elegant rodent which is incontinent. What a relief!

Correction to my post. The wired mouse, like the dopey Magic Mouse, sometimes diverts characters as I type them, to Spotlight's search window!! How crazy is that? However, the other crazy behaviours seem to have gone. It is such a relief to regain control of my mouse (well, almost, in view of the Spotlight aberration).

here we are, after months the same problem never solved.

I just want to write few words to a simple analyzing made in last days.

As I said, I use Photoshop and Wacom tablet and this problem was solved by java updating then after the last apple updates the problem come back again.

If i hide the dock I don't know why but the problem is less visible.

How to make going crazy the cursor, when I need to paint a big area with a big brush (did the same with a simple default photoshop brush) and I move the cursor over the interface the cursors start to blinking speedy and then it will vanish.

I did this test many times, as a user said , there is a OS problem about some service that "refresh" the mouse pointer that sure going crazy and crash.

During painting, I can do that for hours whitout any problem, the problem is somewhere in the OS when the stupid MONTAIN LION had to change the cursors from a brush to the standard cursor.

This is my analyzing, I don't hope that some one reads this a find a solution, but as I said many times I have no problem before mountain lion,this is the worst os never used.

Work with this problem is ... mmm there aren't many words to explain it.

I want to explain to all user that talk about battery, wireless etc that it's sounds like a software problem rather then a hardware problems.

thanks everybody

Well, I need to add my voice, because my mouse pointer started disappearing just the other day. However, unlike many people with the problem:

1. I am using Snow Leopard, not Mountain Lion

2. I have Photoshop Elements installed, but have not used it since before the problems started.

3. I don't use Accessability features

The pointer re-appears when I hover over the dock. Also, it re-appears when I do a Command-Tab. My workaround is to keep pressing the Command button, let go of the Tab button, position the pointer, let go of the Command button, repeat the Command-Tab to get back to the application, then click on the Trackpad, trying to make sure not to move the invisible pointer.

A reboot will bring back the mouse pointer, but then it will eventually disappear, but I haven't been able to discern what is the cause. Since I use the computer all day for my job, it's very frustrating!

I also have the same problem

i have a mackbook retina 15" , OS X 10.8.3

it happens to me often when i am surfing internet, or else i notice it when i am surffing on internet

it takes a few seconds for the cursur to appear again, i noticed that actually cursur is working but i can not see where is it pointing!

its terible and makes me mad

I am experiencing this annoying issue on three different machines (iMac, MBP, MBA) all with 10.8.4. This issue appears to have come up within the last 6 months or so for me though I see from posts from others it's a problem that's been around for a while. I'm surprised that this issue has been unresolved for so liong.

"Third party software conflict" is not an adequate response. If the "Third party software conflict" is one which Apple should reasonably contemplate and address, then Apple is negligent if not recklessly irresponsible as appears to be the case with this chronic, festering problem. And, this is not a free pass for the 3rd party; I have an unrelated issue with a conflict between my OS, Word 2011, and my Samsung printer.

Anyway, it appears that my cursor problem is vastly different from that of others. Mine goes off two sides of the screen, not the other two, and can be retrieved. I can live with mine (likely having some Ph.D. fix) but the majority of problems here should be viewed as if they occurred with new automobiles and Apple and 3rd parties no longer given a feudalistic free pass as they deserve none.

RobertBurnsOB wrote:

"Third party software conflict" is not an adequate response. If the "Third party software conflict" is one which Apple should reasonably contemplate and address, then Apple is negligent if not recklessly irresponsible as appears to be the case with this chronic, festering problem.

I agree. Apple could do something, even if it just acknowledged the fault with a "so what"

I think I posted earlier that one of my two cursor problems disappeared after I ditched the Magic Mouse and returned to my 5-year-old optical tethered mouse. The disappeared fault is (was) the one where the pointer or cursor (depending on the type of application I was running) often disappeared and I had to pair the mouse again in System Prefs. (taking several seconds of interruption each time). (My Trackpad was essential.) The other, remainig, problem occurs when I am typing away (looking at the keyboard) and find a line of type has not appeared but is in Spotlight's field !! I have to dismiss Spotlight and type again. However, that fault seems to occur less frequently now.

My iMac is like a car where the wipers stick in mid-position and I have to press the airconditioning and heated rear window buttons on and off to get it working again. Why should I have to tolerate the same on my computer (the one "that just works" to quite Jobs)?

I find it unacceptable how Apple won't even really acknowledge this problem that has been affecting so many professional users for such a long time. In my opinion, something like this should take priority over making something like a cool new feature for Mavericks.

All the new stuff being developed is, for the most part, great, but any bug like this that affects productivity for the people who make a living off the Mac OS should take absolute priority over any enhancements. I remember a time when Apple wouldn't let something like this persist through the following update. A professional user's OS should be totally reliable—first and foremost. Apple is showing us where its priorities are—and it's not the people who have been loyal to their OS from the beginning and rely on it for their profession. If the professionals are not being supported, what is going to keep us with Apple when there are increasingly more and more cheaper alternatives available? I'm seeing fewer reasons as time goes on. One of the biggest problems people have with hackintosh is the lack of support. Well, we aren't getting much support with genuine Apple products, either. So, whats the problem?

I've seen (fairly new) hardware fail more frequently than ever before and operating systems being released hastily. 1) My mother's laptop screen (much wasted time on the phone with Apple and finally decided to just return the whole laptop after being completely frustrated with the whole thing). 2) My optical drive (bought laptop December of 2011). 3) My friend's laptop screen. Hardware reliability has taken a hit, it seems. I have a G4 tower that still runs with no issues (when I turn it on to get an old psd or something). Much of my old hardware still runs with no issue, but with the new stuff, I've seen pieces failing left and right. It seems Apple is becoming more concerned with quantity over quality. There's another reason I chose Apple that will now be removed from my list.

TL;DR

<Edited by Host>

Apple has already shown its colours by censoring your post. Take a look for yourself: "<Edited by Host>"

I have often vented with the same frustration partly because I am a lawyer and partly because I was long (and at heart still am) an activist. But, that avenue (see how I am trying to please the unAmerican censor) is fraught with expense and the secret society of computer professionals. That secret society feudalistically feels good about taking a 50 cent piece of merchandise and sell it hundreds of dollars as an iPhone [an aired N.P.R. program is my source], putting out M$ monopoly software that is riddled with bugs and security defects and beta prematurity, or bondaging users with endless contracts with carcinogenic exculpatory-clauses. Worse, the secret society doesn't have enough independent, honest experts to go to bat against the industry. As with feudalism, we might need to await advancements in spirituality or society that create enough guilt or obsolescence to bring us real change.

So, did you see what I intended to be posted in an email notification? Is that how you knew it was changed? (Besides the "<Edited by Host>")

Thanks for the heads up. Funny how Apple doesn't notify the person by email or something that they edited their post. I feel they should, since it could change important aspects and the meaning of what you wrote.

Apple is turning to the dark side. You can even see it with the design of the new Mac Pro 😀.

<Edited by Host>

CT wrote:

Third party software conflict.

I have also seen this when just using Safari—though not as often. It seems to be affected by the resource hunger of the program being used - especially graphics - makes sense with the 2 monitor/graphics card interconnection.

Apple certainly doesn't deserve being defended in this case, but I did want to throw in my two cents as a former quality software engineer and long time sufferer of this disappearing mouse problem.

First as I look at this thread there are 280 replies which probably means there are two or three dozens commenters. Apple undoubtedly has metrics that allow them to see how long a thread is or how many users comment on an issue and can predict how widespread the problem is and how many people it affects. With two dozen commenters it's likely we haven't met their threshhold for raising alarms.

Second as a QA guy I feel for these troublesome bugs. Testing is a lot like the scientific method. They make a hypothesis, establish a control, alter a single variable, test and monitor, rinse and repeat. These complex bugs that only happen on occassion and are caused by 3rd party software conflicts, but only for some people are extremely tough to sort out. It's possible the QA team hasn't been able to reproduce this issue, or they can't reliably reproduce it. Then if the QA team is finally able to reliable reproduce it, it may stump the developer and they may not be able to pinpoint where in the code things are going awry.

So I know it's all been a frustrating issue that's been a pain in my side for a good long time and I can understand your frustrations as well, but consider the scale that Apple operates at today and the complexity of what they are doing and it's a miracle any of it works at all. Apparently nobody lived through the days where Microsoft was king and Windows 98 was endemic and getting a printer to actually print often took days of troubleshooting.

So annoying. Happens EVERY DAY. Seems to be somethign with Firefox and Flash maybe? Can always fix it by going off Firefox page, clicking anywhere else, then going back.

Seems to have started with Mountain Lion.

I wish it would get fixed...terrible, terrible, productivity waster.

It has NOTHING to do with any specifc application.

I get stuck and disappearing cursors at least once an hour while working in any number of applications. (Mac OS 10.7.5) The only fix seems to be move the cursor around a lot and click click click click until it comes back.

This issue was NOT present in 10.6.8. And if I booot to 10.6 the issue goes away. 10.7.5 safe boot does not remove the issue eliminating the "third party conflict" idea entriely. Oh how I wish I could stick to 10.6.8. None of the more recent OS versions have been solid. NONE of them.

This is a HORRIBLE issue in terms of productivity. It's like fighting with the system. Come on Apple, what are you folks doing there?

FIX IT PLEASE.

And while I'm at it.. why is the Copy/Trash popup treated like a full window? It grabs window fucus away from what you may be working on. HORRIBLE OS issue. Seriously Apple, take a step back and build a solid OS, you haven't since 10.6. Do you REALLY think people need Maps on a Mac? Seriously? You're wasting time on pointless "features" and forgertting about the stability which built your customer base.