Discussion - Mouse cursor sometimes disappears

[Clay_Martin]

Hey Insiders,

We’re trying to get more information about the mouse cursor disappearing issue, specifically a reproducible case that we can review. To that end we’re starting this discussion to ask for your help in helping us tackle this issue.

Firstly please note that we have some cases in Chromium where we expect the mouse cursor to disappear:

1. When watching video if the mouse cursor is hovering over the video and not moving it will disappear.
2. When using touch input to interact with the browser.

If you are having the mouse cursor disappear, it’s not during one of these scenarios, and it’s reproducible, reply to this thread. We’ll get a discussion going to try to help us understand the issue better so that we can fix it.

[#2]

@Clay_Martin 

I could reproduce this issue on my HP notebook. 

If I put my computer into sleep when Microsoft Edge is on, start my computer and then start scrolling on webpage in Microsoft Edge, the cursor disappears. This happens when I try to scroll on my trackpad.

This causes:

• Cursor to disappear and scroll at a faster speed on webpages.
• In Immersive Reader, the cursor disappears and does not scroll.

If the browser is restarted, the issue gets fixed for that Windows session as I checked that the same problems start appearing when the computer is restarted and the issue is reproduced.

Spoiler

Windows 10 Home Insider Preview Single Language build 19613
Edge version 84.0.495.0
Synaptics SMBus touchpad

[#3]

@TheShaunSaw Something similar happened to me, but I'm not sure if its reproducible. I booted up my hp ProBook (Windows 10 education) and opened edge and the cursor disappeared. I had a 2 tabs already open in edge, a pdf doc and about:blank. I restarted the browser, but it didn't reappear because the cursor had disappeared windows wide. Restarting the computer fixed it, but the funny thing was it  only disappeared after I had opened edge canary.

[#4]

@TheShaunSaw What's the make and model of your device?

[#5]

@Clay_Martin 

[#6]

@Clay_Martin 

The system information is given below:

Manufacturer- HP

Product name- HP Laptop 15-bs0xx

Product number- 3YF43PA#ACJ

This issue does not occur every time when I turn my computer to sleep mode and turn it on keeping Microsoft Edge Canary open and occurs sometimes when I checked again after @cjc2112 's reply.

[#7]

@Clay_Martin I'm so glad you started this discussion as I was about to chalk this disappearing mouse cursor up to either a Windows 10 issue or I just needed to perform a clean install of Windows. I'll do what I can to contribute to this discussion by documenting when I see my mouse pointer disappear. I can tell you that when it does happen more times than not it's when I need to move the cursor from the button left of my screen to the upper right part of my screen.

[#8]

@Clay_Martin

I've been having this issue across multiple computers for a while now. Since it happens frequently, I'll do my best to create a reproduceable scenario for you. I think it generally happens when I switch tabs from watching a video and I know it happens after I watch a video in full screen and switch from full screen back to a windowed view. The cursor disappears and only reappears after I move my mouse around for a few seconds. It is worth noting that even though no pointer is visible, as I move the mouse around, various mouse hover elements on the page will activate as the invisible cursor moves over them. I hope this helps and I will pay closer attention to see if I can come up with more detailed information. Thanks!

[#9]

@Clay_Martin I've not discovered the specific steps that causes it to happen (though it happens quite often), but perhaps this helps: the only way to fix the issue that I've found is to either (1) reboot the laptop or (2) to go to Edge Settings > System and change the "Use hardware acceleration when available" setting to on or off (doesn't matter which) and restarting the browser for that setting change to take effect.

Note that simply restarting the browser on its own never fixes it for me. It is one of the two options above. My Surface Laptop 3 is the only device where I see this issue. I don't see it on my Lenovo ThinkPad.

[#10]

@TIM FALKINS 

i'm sorry if i missed something but my problem is the one where the cursor disappears when hovering over any video. this is a constant for me and nothing I've read anywhere has a fix or even just a discussion about this particular problem. Has anyone found any kind of workaround for this problem? it's totally frustrating since i'm a video editor and have to contend with this problem constantly.

[#11]

@videoguy  over the last few months i had played around with a number of suggestions people have put up here. somewhere along the line something must have worked. While trying to replicate my problem, video disappearing under video,  now the cursor just disappears under video being played only in the VLC player. i had tried many suggestions in the VLC player groups but none ever worked for me. i guess i'm back to looking for answers from VLC users . Thanks so much for your help anyway. it was much appreciated.

[#12]

@videoguy Note that what you're describing is a feature inherent in most products that play video where when hovering the cursor over playing video it hides after a few seconds of no movement. That isn't the issue we're trying to debug here as that's effectly by design for Chromium/Firefox and legacy Edge. I'm curious, do you prefer the cursor to be shown at all times even if it's overlapping the video you're watching?

[#13]

@TIM FALKINS When you hit the issue it remains hidden until you restart the entire machine? Does it appear when you use other applications?

[#14]

@Clay_Martin 

Please fix this quickly.

[#15]

My second reply to #2 (cursor disappearing when using touch input). I have observed consistently that whenever I *CLOSE* the browser using touch, the next time I open it, the cursor is gone. I can't get it back unless I go into Settings > System > and toggle the hardware acceleration option (with required restart) to get it working again.

It doesn't matter if I launch the browser with touch or via mouse click...that doesn't appear to be a determining factor. It is when I close the browser using my finger on the close button (top right) that the next launch always occurs with the cursor missing. Hope this helps.

[#16]

@TIM FALKINS 

Actually, the title of this discussion should be "Mouse cursor Always disappears"

[#17]

@TIM FALKINS Thanks for the reply, could you give us some more info, you can DM message me it if you don't want to post. Would like to know the version of Windows you're running on the device (can run winver to find that) along with the version and channel of Edge you're hitting the issue on. Also whether or not you're using tablet mode and the display scale factor found in Settings > System > Display. Lastly are you able to repro the issue in Chrome?

[#18]

@Clay_Martin , I'm hesitant to say it is fixed, but I can't reproduce as of just a minute ago after having installed Google Chrome to test what you asked about. I installed Chrome, and Chrome didn't have any issues with the cursor disappearing. I closed Chrome and switched over to Edge (Dev channel), and closed the browser by touch, and the cursor disappeared as soon as I opened it again. Re-opened Google Chrome and still no problem there. I went into the About settings page in Edge and noticed an updated was available. (It frequently auto updates, so I don't think I've ever too far behind the latest version.) I clicked the update button in Edge, bringing me to version Version 84.0.522.9 (Official build) dev (64-bit). Since that point, the touch issue is gone. I can repeatedly close/open with touch without problems. So....not sure if the latest Edge build just fixed it, or if it had something to do with Google Chrome being installed, or both actions combined ???

As to your other questions:

- Running Win 1909 build 18363.836

- Not in tablet mode

- Running on a Surface Laptop 3 at default res (2256x1504) at recommended scale (150%)

If the problem comes back, I'll reply here. Hoping it's fixed.

[#19]

@Clay_Martin  well, no sooner did I just post my last reply than I closed Edge (by touch) and re-opened. The problem came back. And now is consistently appearing again if I close via touch. I have no idea why it stopped temporarily immediately after installing Google Chrome and doing an Edge update. Regardless, the problem is back with me:

• close by touch and the cursor disappears until changing the hardware acceleration setting
• close by mouse click and it's fine

[#20]

@Clay_Martinat this very moment I'm "tabbing" through the browser because my mouse is unavailable. It was perfectly fine until about 4AM today when I've turned off my computer. This morning it came up with no cursor at all. I've tried to re-seat the mouse, connect another mouse and although they show up in Device Manager (I've tried to uninstall and re-detect) no signal of the cursor. It's not invisible as I can't click on objects, not present at all.

I'm on a custom built computer and on Windows 10 Insider 2004 since 05/25.

From Event-viewer I've idenfied the following KBs installed yesterday:
03/06/2020 09:45:01 - Microsoft Defender Antivirus - KB2267602 (Versão 1.317.535.0)
03/06/2020 10:40:10 - Microsoft Defender Antivirus - KB2267602 (Versão 1.317.535.0) [yess, twice]

03/06/2020 17:20:59 - 9WZDNCRFHVN5-MICROSOFT.WINDOWSCALCULATOR

03/06/2020 17:21:12 - 9NMPJ99VJBWV-Microsoft.YourPhone

03/06/2020 17:21:15 - 9NZKPSTSNW4P-Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay. (Failed with error 0x80073D02)

03/06/2020 17:21:18 - 9WZDNCRFHVQM-MICROSOFT.WINDOWSCOMMUNICATIONSAPPS

03/06/2020 17:21:22 - 9PKDZBMV1H3T-Microsoft.GetHelp

Thanks for your help!