Mouse cursor disappears.

The problem has come back for me after installing Yosemite - but, so far, only for Microsoft Word and only intermittently. This time it is different - the mouse pointer is visible but the insertion point character (flashing vertical bar) sometimes disappears.

Grrr

I installed Yosemite, and the cursor still disappeared.

Then I used the accessibility function, and slightly enlarged the cursor and I haven't seen it disappear yet. I also haven't been able to use the iMac to its fullest because of all the other application problems I encountered after the 'upgrade', but so far so good with the cursor at least.

Try enlarging your cursor slightly.

I had this problem return, but it went away again when I went to System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom and unchecked both "Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom" and "Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom". Comes right back if I check either one.

WOW!

I just upgraded an from my old 32bit iMac to a new MBP with 16g ram and an i core 7 processor, only to discover that my brand new $3K laptop can't even provide me with a functional mouse!!!

Worst still, i now read apple has been aware of the problem for over 2yrs and it STILL not fixed.

I upgraded because i finally tired of all the glitchy crash causing bugs that my iMac had developed. I put them down to being due to the iMac being 5yrs old and having worked pretty hard every day since i unpacked it from the box.

Looks like that might have been a $3K mistake.

I read that i can buy a 3rd party app for between $2 and $7 that will give me a work around to Apple's problem. Really, how convenient! So, Apple reviews, approves and lists on their App Store, an app purely designed to mask a fault in Apple's own operating system, that they've not been able to resolve in over 2yrs! Surely i'm not the only one who sees the irony in that?

If you can't fix the problem Apple, then at least show us the respect of providing us all the App for free, until you can!

The 2 x $800 PC's i bought for my kids seem to function perfectly.

If i had experienced this issue before purchasing the new MBP, i would never have purchased it. It's that frustrating! Seriously considering taking this MBP back and exchanging it for one of those, now.

Would never have happened when SJ was alive and in charge. Apple has really lost its way since he left this earth!

Link to app that was mentioned in an article i read this morning. - http://www.macchampion.com/MacChampion/Welcome.html

There are others at the Apple App Store. Stinks to have to pay to work around a problem that Apple has known about for over 4yrs.

Only happened to me when i was trying to work with 500 photos on a SD card plugged into the MBP card reader slot. I read somewhere that it's believed to be a problem only for those with up spec graphics cards. The theory is that when the Mac switches from the standard Intel graphics card to the NVIDIA GeForce, it looses the pointer graphic.

I'm not smart enough to know if that's true and even if it is, it doesn't help us..............

Looking at PinPoint's site, their statement "Never loose your pointer again" seems to refer to their custom pointers which can be quite big and therefore easily found on the screen, not to the pointer disappearing altogether.

Not only does my mouse cursor disappear, but occasionally it will just dart across the screen by itself. Has anyone else ever had this happen? It seems to happen most when I am playing a game or streaming content.

I have had these issues since 2010 or so (it's a mid 2009 Macbook Pro), and I've tried everything (updating Java, changing zoom settings, etc).

I have had these faults since my new iMac in the Summer of 2011, and they continue. I have tried lots of solutions suggested. Three sessions with Apple Gurus. No result. I just grin and bear it as part of the Apple Experience. They have never recognised the faults, let alone fixed them. However, since Yosemite was installed about three weeks ago I have had only three incidents, all involving the mouse pointer or cursor disconnecting, and each time it re-connected automatically after about 5 second. Previously I had about 6 per day requiring manual reconnection, your two and others as well. It's too early to relax. The faults might recur after the OS gets into its usual tangle over time.

Hi, my cursor disappear when I use the color picker, I have used your solution and works for me.

Before, I had created a new user account and problem resolved, but it happen again when I install a new update, maybe was that I have been touching the Zoom preferences and causing the problem again.

Thank You!

Hi CT - I'd like to provide some information that I think might be helpful regarding the idea that it is a third party software conflict.

I owned a mid-2012 MacBook Air that I recently sold to a family friend. I too experienced the disappearing cursor issue during my ownership of that computer. Before I sold it, I reformatted the SSD and fresh-installed Mavericks using the recovery partition.

The new owner just reported that she has experienced the disappearing cursor issue. As I helped walk her through setup, and asked her just now to verify the third-party software in her Applications list, I can confirm she has only the following third-party software installed:

Epson Event Manager (printer software)

Microsoft Office 2011 (Excel and Word only, along with standard files installed with Office 2011)

I had Office 2011 installed during my ownership, but not the Epson software, so this instance of disappearing cursor is almost certainly not caused by the Epson software. Note that the new owner does not have anything from Adobe installed on the machine, not even Flash Player.

Based on this experience I am skeptical that it is a third-party issue, but maybe it would be helpful if new replies in this thread could confirm whether or not they have Office 2011 installed on their machine?

I'm not sure what you mean. Haven't you been suggesting that the disappearing cursor issue is caused by third-party software? If you are correct, in my case the culprit almost has to be Office 2011.

If other commenters could indicate whether they have Office 2011, it might help determine if that software could be the source of the problem. The bigger issue at hand is whether it is a third-party software issue at all. I mentioned that I'm skeptical. Do you have any information to support that notion?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your comments.

Reinfeldx wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean. Haven't you been suggesting that the disappearing cursor issue is caused by third-party software? If you are correct, in my case the culprit almost has to be Office 2011.

If other commenters could indicate whether they have Office 2011, it might help determine if that software could be the source of the problem. The bigger issue at hand is whether it is a third-party software issue at all. I mentioned that I'm skeptical. Do you have any information to support that notion?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your comments.

I have Microsoft Office 2011, and installed it on this iMac when it was new in 2011. Ever since I have had very severe mouse problems (although since Yosemite they have much reduced in range and frequency). I have never had dodgy software (unless you can count Office !.) Therefore, (other) third party software seems not to be the cause.

I have OSX Yosemite on a new mac mini. I didn't have the problem until i installed MS office 2012 (current mac version of MS office 365). Then I removed MS office and installed LibreOffice and OpenOffice to try them as an alternative. Now I frequently experience my mouse cursor disappearing while using multiple google chrome windows (5 windows, 13 tabs this time) while using libreoffice and doing research. When i get a chance I'm going to contact support to see if they can check my system for errors. The removal process of MS Office from a Mac is "extra" and may have caused additional issues on my machine.

above post should say office 2011, you may want to try to repair disk permissions. It is explained in last part of this video that walks you through removing ms office 2011, if you are not trying to get ms office 2011 off your mac, skip to the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciI8Ef7jTEU

another link if your issue is related to ms office and you want office removed

http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2398768

I have not had the problem since repairing disk permissions. Im not sure if it solved the problem, but with the same work flow that frequently reproduced the problem before, the problem has not reoccured. Using LibreOffice.

My culprit appears to be Adobe Bridge.

I am using a Mac Mini with 2 screens and Yosemite. I use bridge for viewing hundreds of photos on a second screen. Mouse kept disappearing so I logged in as guest user. Mouse didn't disappear. Logged back in to my account, mouse disappeared. Then started to close my apps one by one. Mouse kept hiding until i closed Adobe Bridge. After that it worked fine. I have now opened Bridge again and have purged it's cache and all is well. So maybe (for me, at least) it was a memory thing (although I do have 16GB ram so you wouldn't expect it to flake out so easily. Maybe after a few days of building up a large cache it just decides that it's had enough..