What to Do If Your Mouse Cursor Freezes or Stops Working in OS X

The mouse cursor on your OS X system is literally the most important way to control your system, whether you do that with a mouse or a trackpad. On some older/slower computers, you may find yourself struggling to find the mouse cursor on your screen, or at some times you may find it completely unresponsive.
What to Do If Your Mouse Cursor Freezes or Stops Working in OS X
Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi speaks during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at the Moscone West center on June 2, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
11/10/2014
Updated:
11/10/2014

The mouse cursor on your OS X system is literally the most important way to control your system, whether you do that with a mouse or a trackpad. On some older/slower computers, you may find yourself struggling to find the mouse cursor on your screen, or at some times you may find it completely unresponsive.

Now, at moments like this, you may try to move your mouse cursor all around the screen in large circles, etc., which if it doesn’t work, just leads to more frustration.

If you’re one of those who encounters such problems frequently, we have a few tips on how to manage your mouse cursor, which should allow you to easily locate your cursor and reveal its location. Here are a few steps you can take to increase your OS X experience by dealing with your mouse cursor:

1. Increase Your Cursor Size

For some people, the mouse cursor size in OS X is quite small and is troublesome to find at times. To handle this, you may be using a lower display resolution on your screen to make everything else seem bigger, but that’s not quite the optimal approach to such an issue, now is it?

Instead, you can take advantage of Apple’s Accessibility options to increase the mouse cursor size on your system. To do this:

1. Open System Preferences on your OS X system.

(Courtesy of maketecheasier.com)
(Courtesy of maketecheasier.com)

2. Click on Accessibility.

(Courtesy of maketecheasier.com)
(Courtesy of maketecheasier.com)

3. In the “Display” tab, use the Cursor size slider to increase the mouse cursor size. Even if you don’t want a huge mouse cursor, edging the slider only slightly results in a far more visible mouse cursor.

(Courtesy of maketecheasier.com)
(Courtesy of maketecheasier.com)

Switch To Another Program

If you try to move your mouse or trackpad and it results in no movement at all on the mouse cursor at all, it’s mostly because of a bug or two in the program you’re using, or it might be an issue with OS X itself. Either way, first try moving your mouse/trackpad cursor around, either in large circles or whatever direction you prefer. Also try repeatedly clicking on your input, as this sometimes triggers the cursor to reappear. But be careful while doing this, as you may accidentally click on something you don’t want, triggering a function on your Mac which you did not intend to do.

Another fix you can try is to switch your program by pressing “Command + Tab” and then opening your original program again by pressing “Command + Tab” again. This also usually results in a hidden mouse cursor to reveal itself again.

Try A Different Mouse/Trackpad

If you encounter an issue in which your cursor does not work at all, regardless of the fact that you may be moving your mouse or trackpad around, then try switching to another mouse/trackpad. Make sure that this input device can be connected via USB, as we'd imagine what a hassle it would be to set up a new wireless device when your mouse cursor isn’t working properly.

Restart Your Mac

Lastly, you can try restarting your Mac by using the built-in power button. Keep it pressed for about five to ten seconds which will force your Mac to shut down. Power it on again and check whether the mouse cursor is working or not.

If your Mac features a built-in trackpad that isn’t working, you could take it to a nearly Apple Store and get it checked, which should do the trick.

Be sure to let us know in the comments below whether these fixes worked for you and whether you have any other tips on dealing with a stuck mouse cursor in OS X.

Republished with permission from MakeTechEasier. Read the original.