No cursor on Login screen at boot or restart

I have a couple of Macs and this happens on only one of them. Fortunately this is my office iMac that only rarely gets booted, but it did this morning following a security update.

My solution is to hit the Shift-Ctrl-Eject buttons (or Shift-Ctrl-Power) to go into lock or screen saver mode and after the screen saver comes on hit any button, or the trackpad, or the mouse and when the screen comes back I have a cursor.

No other option seems to work, I cannot use the Arrow keys, Tab, Return to select the displayed user but a quick lock screen always works on this older iMac.

When started: hit any of the 4 arrow keys on the keyboard once: the Login account is highlighted, then hit "Enter" key, and type your login password. I always do it like this: faster.

Apple is not here, just users.

You did not read this thread: I repeat:

When you start the mac normally there is a cursor on the left top of the screen, which you then move to the account you want to start, click/Enter, then put in your password.

When there is no cursor for whatever reason (eg you have a Finder "extension app, or a Finder alternative or another reason):

hit one of the four arrow keys on the keyboard, then the normal account is highlighted, click/Enter, then type in your password.

this "procedure" is even easier than the "standard" procedure.

don't know if you problem has been resolved but i'm on an IMAC running 10.12.6 an on occasion there is no cursor on the boot up user screen too. very frustrating as i cannot get response from keyboard arrow or tab keys to log in. i'll have to read the thread to see if there is any explanation coming from Apple...helloooo!

I have lost my curser on my iMac and can't log in

1. Perform a PRAM reset Cmd Option P R on boot -- let chime 3 times and let go
2. Boot to Single User Mode hold Command S immediately after powering on
3. Verify and Mount the Drives - Once in Single user mode, run the following commands
4. /sbin/fsck -fy
5. /sbin/mount -uw /
6. After the disk has mounted in step 5, run the following commands
7. rm -f /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist
8. rm -f /var/db/.AppleUpgrade
9. After deleting the files, restart.

Works.

Hello,

Same issue here on 10.12.3. In fact, it started to appear after the upgrade to macOS Sierra.

I am using an Evoluent mouse and initially thought about a driver issue with macOS Sierra, but today I updated the Evoluent driver to the latest version and the issue is still there.

I'm using a 2015 Mac Pro with a Quato IntelliProof 27-inch monitor. Switching the monitor off and back on makes the cursor appear immediately at a random position on the screen. So it looks indeed as if it recorded all movements but simply does not display.

Regards

Didier

My iMac's login screen occassionally lacks a mouse pointer too.

Workaround:

I've found that opening Accessibility Options via the keyboard shortcut ( cmd + option + F5 ) usually makes the mouse pointer appear. Once the Accessibility Options window pops up you don't need to make any changes: Just select Done to close the window. The mouse pointer should remain visible thereafter.

NB. The Option key maybe labelled Alt on your keyboard.

I respectfully disagree, it's a major annoyance and indicator of programming incompetence. How many grandmothers or school children are going to naturally conclude that they should be using the arrow keys in absence of a cursor??

Steve is turning over in his grave...

Bla-Bla

I'm setting up 4 laptops and one has this issue. I've noticed that when the cursor is invisible, the other 3 show a white cursor with a black outline. Once logged in they all revert back to a black cursor with a white outline.

Why it needs to have an inverted cursor sometimes I don't know, but this is what's making it invisible.

The Accessability Key sequence worked for me. The solution does not stick, so it needs to be re-executed on restart. I have a heavily loaded 2012 Mac Pro, and this just cropped up a week after moving to SPierre (at 10.12.5).

Same issue on a MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012). El Capitan 10.11.3

No solution, however the problem for me is very sparatic and doesn'thappen very often.

Same problem here .... Even plugging USB mouse in did not kick it into working ...

I used your lid trick - Works for me so thanks for that

I too have this - Pressing the Left arrow key highlights the user on the login screen and gives a text input cursor - I can then enter the password and press return to log in.