Whether you use an Apple Magic Mouse, a third-party device, or a trackpad, the cursor may freeze or disappear randomly on the Mac.
While there isn’t a single clear reason for losing your mouse on a Mac, there are plenty of places you can go to get it back.
Why did my mouse disappear from my Mac? Sometimes finding a lost mouse is as easy as looking around on an external monitor. It’s not always possible to trace a missing mouse from a Mac to a specific cause, but some of the reasons a mouse disappears include:
The mouse battery is low. Lost Bluetooth connection. Firmware upgrade. Open too many applications at once. A problematic application. A software error. How do I defrost a cursor on a Mac? If you see the mouse cursor, but it freezes, there may be a problem with the application. Quit and restart the application that you think might be the culprit and look for the same behavior. If you’re not sure which program is causing the problem, narrow down the list by forcing you to exit one application at a time from the menu bar.
If the frozen cursor appears to be unrelated to the application, and you have updated the firmware for the mouse, try plugging the mouse into the Mac (if possible) to see if any problems can be resolved.
Another method that works well is to reboot your Mac. If you encounter a situation where the cursor gets stuck after rebooting the device or closing the cover, you may need to reset the Mac’s SMC and NVRAM, as described below.
How do I retrieve my cursor? To resolve lost or frozen cursors on your Mac, check out this list of possible fixes.
Move the mouse. While this is a simple suggestion, sometimes a little movement can “wake up” your mouse and help you find it. Shake the mouse back and forth to make the cursor temporarily larger. You can do the same on the trackpad.
Check all monitors. If you have a dual monitor on your Mac, moving the mouse around can also help you find the cursor on the external monitor. Check out the corners and edges it may be hiding in sight.
Make sure your mouse is connected. Check System Preferences > Bluetooth or click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar to double check that Bluetooth is turned on and your mouse is still connected. Fix Apple Magic Mouse connection problems or third-party connection problems by turning off the accessory’s power and disconnecting and reconnecting. Or, forget about the device and reconnect the wireless mouse to the Mac. If you are using a wired mouse, unplug and re-insert it.
Check the battery. If your mouse needs physical batteries, remove them and re-insert them or replace them when they run out of power. If your mouse is rechargeable, use a wired connection until the battery is fully charged.
Resize the cursor. If you have multiple monitors and many applications running, your cursor may be lost during randomplay. To permanently resize the Cursor, resize the slider from System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Cursor > Cursor Size. You can also ask Siri to zoom in on the cursor, which might cause it to reappear on your monitor.
Slide three or four fingers up the trackpad to open Mission Control. This action brings the cursor back to the view.
Force an exit from the problematic application. If the mouse seems to disappear while you are using a particular program, exit it. If you’re not sure which one it is, you can use the menu bar to close applications on your Mac and force some applications to exit if necessary.
Use the mouse keys. If you have not already enabled this feature, use the Option+Command+F5 keyboard combination to bring up the Accessibility Shortcuts panel. Select the box next to the enable mouse key and use the numeric keypad to move the mouse pointer and find it.
Restart your Mac. This step usually resolves freezes and other unresponsive issues on the Mac. You may also need to remove all dongles and cables connected to external displays and other accessories before restarting.
Reset NVRAM. If reboot does not change anything and you have exhausted all options, reset NVRAM on your Mac. This step can be effective, especially if you recently upgraded MacOS and NVRAM became corrupted in the process. If the mouse is still lost or frozen after a restart, you may also want to try resetting the SMC on your Mac to see if you can fix any hardware blockage.
Change the mouse. At this point, make sure the problem is not on your mouse. If it doesn’t work on another Mac or laptop, you may need to replace it or try these tricks to fix a broken mouse.
Contact Apple Support. If nothing happens, the problem could be a larger Mac hardware issue. Make an appointment with a support person so someone can see it.