Many of us make use of our computer’s mouse more than the keyboard and its shortcuts. This is understandable since we can go anywhere on our screen with our mouse cursor. On rare occasions, we might observe that our mouse keeps disappearing on our Mac, which is a cause for concern.
In these annoying situations, technically, our mouse hasn’t gone because if you try clicking or dragging and dropping, it seems to work, but then our cursor stays invisible, causing the “my cursor disappeared” syndrome, which is not a good thing.
Why does my mouse disappear?
Before we discuss solutions to solve this menace, let’s find out why your mouse cursor is not showing. A ton of reasons could be responsible for this. Most times, we have little or no contribution to our cursor disappearing; other times, we’ve contributed to it, as you will see below.
- Mac is running low on memory: This is often the most common issue. Like almost every program running on your system, your mouse cursor is considered a process by your Mac. So, suppose you are running low on system resources or memory due to too many browser tabs or software tabs being open. In that case, chances are this may make your Mac cursor disappear. At this juncture, your system cannot identify which processes are more important than which.
- A long video is playing: This is a common thing; it isn’t an issue per se. Whenever you are watching a long video, the video app tends to hide everything that will obstruct you temporarily. Your cursor happens to be one of them. YouTube and VLC are perfect examples of apps or video services that hide your cursor. All you have to do is move your mouse or run your finger through your trackpad to see your cursor.
- You use multiple monitors: Gamers, Programmers, Video producers, and others often need multiple monitors to work seamlessly. This may also make your mouse keep disappearing on Mac. No, using multiple monitors isn’t the problem; the number of monitors doesn’t consume your Mac’s memory. It’s the GPU that’s responsible for the monitors. What happens here is, either your monitors aren’t correctly arranged, or your cursor might be on another screen.
- A third-party app is responsible: if your mouse cursor is not showing when you use a particular app only, that app has some software conflicts. In this case, you might consider checking if the app is compatible with your system, reach out to the app developer or consider its alternative.
How to fix the “mouse cursor not showing” error?
In this section, we have possible ways to fix your Mac cursor disappearing.
1. Contact Siri
Siri is indeed a personal assistance, it will help you wherever possible, and in this case, it can come in handy. All you have to do is say, “Hey Siri, increase the size of the cursor,” and allow Siri to increase your cursor’s size. Under the cursor, Siri adds a surface slider, which you can use to make the cursor larger or smaller.
You can launch Siri by doing any of the following
- Keyboard shortcut: This is preferable if you can’t access the mouse cursor. Simple press and hold down the Command + Space button. Siri then pings you to indicate it is ready to take your command. The other ways below might need a little maneuver with your keyboard to activate Siri, especially if you can’t access the Mac cursor.
- From the Dock: Go to your Mac dock and click Siri’s icon.
- From your Touch Bar: Locate and press the Siri icon on your Touch Bar; it is often on the far right side of the Touch Bar.
- From your Menu bar: You can get Siri up from the menu bar. Click to show the voice assistant.
2. Go to the Dock or Menu
Whenever we discover that our cursor has disappeared on our Mac, our first impulse is always to run our fingers through our trackpad or wiggle our mouse to see if we can find the mouse; this is normal.
However, the best thing you should do is try moving your invisible cursor to the Dock of your system, which is often the bottom of your screen. Usually, the cursor should appear. If it doesn’t, try moving it to the Menu bar; when you are sure you are there, click anywhere there.
3. Try a 4-finger swipe
If you operate your cursor with a Mac trackpad or an external trackpad, swipe from the top to your trackpad’s bottom using four fingers. Your cursor should appear if it doesn’t proceed. Also, you can try double-clicking your trackpad or touchpad with two fingers.
Another option under this method is this. Try opening the Widgets menu by swiping across your trackpad from left to right with three fingers. Wait for about ten to twenty seconds, then swipe to your left to go back to the Finder window. Your cursor should show after this.
4. Maneuvering with Mission Control
One smart way to get your cursor to show is with Mission Control. Whenever you discover that your mouse keeps disappearing on Mac, try maneuvering with Mission Control, as you will see here. Go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences next open Mission Control, and pick a new hotkey to launch Mission Control quickly.
Now, when you tap this newly assigned hotkey once, Mission Control comes up; when you tap it twice, it comes up then disappears but leaves your mouse pointer visible.
5. Restart your Mac
This is one of the surest ways to fix a considerable amount of Mac problems. All you have to do is navigate to the Apple menu and Restart your Macbook; you can do this with your keyboard or invisible Mac cursor. If possible, try saving all progress and closing every app.
When Mac completely shuts down, restart and confirm if the problem persists. If yes, go to the next solution.
6. Check for connection issues
If you use a wireless trackpad or mouse, you should check if your connection isn’t the cause of this issue. If your mouse uses a battery, consider replacing it or charging it if it is a rechargeable device.
If you work with a mousepad, try using a solid color in place of patterned colors or multicolor. Your color or pattern differences can confuse your mouse.
If you had enabled hot corners in Mission Control (interactive corners) before this, try moving the invisible cursor to an interactive corner of your screen; if there’s no sign at all, then there’s something wrong. But usually, your cursor should become visible.
If you are connected to the internet, ensure the connection is strong. Although Mac will indicate if you are connected to the internet, it won’t show the connection strength or how reliable it is. Install an app like NetSpot or check this site to know your connection strength.
7. Configure size from System Preferences
We will try playing with the size of our mouse to see if it works. You can do this from the System Preferences.
- Go to System Preferences, then select Accessibility next Display, finally go to Cursor Size and customize the cursor. You should increase its size and check if it shows.
- Alternatively, you can try the zoom feature by going to System Preferences next Accessibility, followed by Zoom. Finally, click on More Options and check the Enable temporary zoom box. Now, hit Ctrl + Option and check if the issue has been tackled.
- We could also turn on Shake to Find. Go to System Preferences next Accessibility, click on Display and turn on Shake Mouse Pointer to Locate option.
8. Reset your NVRAM
- Completely Shut down your Mac.
- Turn on your Mac by pressing the Power button immediately after the startup sound, simultaneously press and hold down Command + Option + R + P keys till your computer completely restarts and check if the problem persists.
9. Force Quit all apps
Like I pointed out, most third-party apps might cause your mouse to keep disappearing on your Mac. We can try force-quitting these apps. Simultaneously press and hold the Command + Option + Escape key, select the apps to Force Quit, and then confirm the selection.
Most times, merely bringing up the Force Quit menu will make the cursor to show. You can also try switching between open apps; most times, this will work. Use the Command + Tab keys to show the application switcher window. Hold down Cmd and press Tab to switch between apps, watch closely if your cursor shows.
10. Force Restart
This is somewhat similar to the method above. Press the Command + Control + Power Button simultaneously to force restart your Mac.
What causes the mouse pointer to disappear?
So many reasons could cause your mac cursor to disappear. Often it could be temporary, but factors like some video applications or maybe your pointer may be hidden in one of your monitors. Other causes could be, when your Mac runs low on resources, your cursor may go invisible; some other third-party apps could be responsible for this too.
Conclusion
In this article, we pointed out reasons your cursor must have disappeared on Mac. We also gave you ten different ways to solve this, and we believe you succeeded in rectifying this issue. Some times, your cursor being invisible is not your fault; a simple system restart might solve it.
However, suppose you’ve tried every solution here, and you still can’t get your cursor to show. In that case, you should visit a verified Apple repair shop, but for the time being, you could learn how to work with your keyboard. Again, giving your Mac a little time could rectify this issue too. Thank you for using our site, have a great day.
