Disappearing mouse pointer

J.C said:

Since upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion GM I've found my mouse pointer disappearing about once a day. I'll be browsing in Safari when the pointer disappears. It's still active in some way as roll-over effects are active as I attempt to find the pointer by moving my finger around the trackpad. After 10-20 seconds or so it appears again. Safari is basically all I use on this machine (nothing else running) so the system isn't under much load. But because I only use Safari I couldn't say if the issue specific to that app or not.

Any ideas?

P.S Additionally I've had a flickering affect on the text for a download listed in the current downloads pop-up bubble. Not sure if that's related.

Click to expand...

Which mac and what type of mouse? Bluetooth, usb ?

My mouse pointer doesn't disappear, but it doesn't always change into the right... um...shape?

I mean, if i hover over a link, it doesn't always change into a hand.
If I want to resize a window, it doesn't always change into one of those 2 sided pointers.

But this was happening in Lion too.

this sometimes happens to me when im watching a flash video. like i dont see the actual cursor when i move over the play button but i can see that its over the play button because it highlights the area where my cursor is supposed to be. hard to explain really ...

bushido said:

this sometimes happens to me when im watching a flash video. like i dont see the actual cursor when i move over the play button but i can see that its over the play button because it highlights the area where my cursor is supposed to be. hard to explain really ...

Click to expand...

I have this same exact problem on youtube, but the interesting thing is that I am running Lion and safari 5.

iwan073 said:

My mouse pointer doesn't disappear, but it doesn't always change into the right... um...shape?

I mean, if i hover over a link, it doesn't always change into a hand.
If I want to resize a window, it doesn't always change into one of those 2 sided pointers.

But this was happening in Lion too.

Click to expand...

This is happening to me as well - 2 sided pointers missing for window resizing and I-beam cursor disappearing. Seems like it just likes to do everything with the Arrow. Actually at first I thought it was an "iOS" thing Apple went with, but on my other computer the cursors are working correctly.

In happens like crazy in Photoshop for me since upgrading to Mountain Lion. I can't really work if I can't use the cursor! It only seems to happen over the menus and windows but not the actual canvas.

This happened to me twice tonight with the trackpad. I hope this doesn't get more and more frequent...ugh....

Mine goes away as well. A quick swipe into MC and out again brings it back.

These kinds of things happened when Lion was introduced as well. They'll get tidied up by 8.2

Mouse Woes

I'm getting invisible mouse cursors too and for me it's only started happening since I upgraded to Mountain Lion, I even did a completely fresh install making sure to format my HD first and then install Mountain Lion, I've been running the new OS about 3 days and I've had the mouse pointer disappear on me about 5 times now, the mouse pointer is clearly still there because if I guess lucky I can still click things on screen, its literally just an invisible cursor and to be honest its driving me crazy. I even tried going in and out of Mission Control as suggested above and that only worked for me once, the other times I've had to do full reboots.

How on earth did this bug get through beta testing unnoticed ???. I'm running a 2009 iMac.

I've just noticed this too. It seems to be happening often when Flash is loaded up in the browser, though not sure if this is the cause or not.

It just started doing it for me since I downloaded ML a couple of days ago. At first I thought it was my wireless magic mouse that was the problem, but after awhile it started working again. It did it today so I replaced the magic mouse with the original mouse that came with my iMac, and had the same disappearing pointer, so it couldn't be just the magic mouse. I then plugged in my wired Logitech mouse and it worked. The magic mouse works 85% of the time before it goes ape! 

BlueOcean said:

I've just noticed this too. It seems to be happening often when Flash is loaded up in the browser, though not sure if this is the cause or not.

Click to expand...

Yea.. I believe so. it happened to me in lion.. whenever I enter a fullscreen for a youtube video on one monitor I lose the mouse cursor on the other monitor.

I have had this issue as well on both my iMac and rMBP. It has happened in Safari, Coda 2, and while in Launchpad. The cursor disappears but as you move it around things react as if the cursor was hovering over them. I've found that just wiggling the cursor all around the screen makes it reappear.

Its horrible when playing games especially playing diablo 3...

xgman said:

Which mac and what type of mouse? Bluetooth, usb ?

Click to expand...

For me, 2011 Mac mini, BT Magic Mouse and small BT alu keyboard, and of course Mountain Lion.

This happens to me a lot. I just move the mouse (or trackpad) to the top left corner where the apple is, or aim for any menu item in the menu bar and then click and it usually comes back for me

With the update of ML 10.8.1 out now and installed, I was hoping they fixed that missing cursor for the mouse issue. But sadly, no it is still messing up. I guess we have to wait for 10.8.2 and hope they address this issue.

Wonder if Apple is even aware of this problem? Has anyone complained to Apple Support? If so what was the feedback you got from Apple?

Same for me guys, Mid-2011 Mini w/ Magic Mouse and a fresh new copy of ML on the recently installed SSD. Cursor vanishes and always when the screen has been hibernating and I wake it up again and log on.

Nothing but a reboot fixes it and I am really fed up with this now

Can the users who are experiencing this problem tell me exactly what you are doing when your mouse cursor disappears? Like if you are surfing Youtube videos and whether you are viewing original size or full screen or whatever you are doing. I contacted Apple about this problem and they are not aware of it, therefore there will be no fix for this until Apple has more information on what could be the cause.


If you have Apple Care that is still valid, please contact them and go through the troubleshooting techniques and give us on MacRumors some good feedback on what could be causing this. I would do it but my Apple Care has ran out and I will be getting a new iMac probably when they ever release them. Also tell me if you are using any kind of 3rd party mouse app or program on your iMac or MBP or whatever you are using.

Any and all feedback would be helpful to get this resolved or we may be stuck with this problem until it becomes a much bigger problem.

What it does on my setup, I have 2 monitors and for example if I am surfing a youtube video and move my cursor over to the other monitor it does not show up until I click on that 2nd monitor's desktop. Other times I am surfing any site, and it just disappears. But I will now be more detailed in my response on here in order to help figure out this bug with ML, if it is in fact a bug.

Thanks everyone who leaves feedback on here.

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bushido said:

this sometimes happens to me when im watching a flash video. like i dont see the actual cursor when i move over the play button but i can see that its over the play button because it highlights the area where my cursor is supposed to be. hard to explain really ...

Click to expand...

Mine has done that as well. Very frustrating to say the least.

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concernedone said:

Yea.. I believe so. it happened to me in lion.. whenever I enter a fullscreen for a youtube video on one monitor I lose the mouse cursor on the other monitor.

Click to expand...

Mine does that as well.

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BlueOcean said:

I've just noticed this too. It seems to be happening often when Flash is loaded up in the browser, though not sure if this is the cause or not.

Click to expand...

wondering if the cause is in flash and not in ML. Just a thought.

This has happened to me since Lion. It usually occurs when im working in After Effects if i wait it eventually comes back or if I show desktop and click it comes back.

This has been happening to me since upgrading from lion to mountain lion.
It happens when I wake the computer from sleep - mouse point has vanished but I can still see mouse over activity where the mouse is supposed to be.

It happens on average 1 in every 5 wakes.

I also loose mission control access.

I decided to do a complete format and reinstall of ML and the problem is still present. All I currently have installed on the mac apart from stock apps is VLC.

Sleep set for one hour, screen saver 20 mins and no auto logout.

I'm running a mac mini 2011, magic mouse and aluminium BT keyboard.

Happy to supply any more info if it helps clear this issue up and open to suggestions.

J.C said:

Since upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion GM I've found my mouse pointer disappearing about once a day. I'll be browsing in Safari when the pointer disappears. It's still active in some way as roll-over effects are active as I attempt to find the pointer by moving my finger around the trackpad. After 10-20 seconds or so it appears again. Safari is basically all I use on this machine (nothing else running) so the system isn't under much load. But because I only use Safari I couldn't say if the issue specific to that app or not.

Any ideas?

P.S Additionally I've had a flickering affect on the text for a download listed in the current downloads pop-up bubble. Not sure if that's related.

Click to expand...

Exactly the same thing happening with my late 2011 MBP 17" after going from Lion to Mountain Lion.

At least I learn't here not to bother trying to re-install.