Vanishing pointer after update
After updating to macOS Mojave 10.14.6 the mouse pointer keeps disappearing, but it continues
to track properly. Only moving it fast and shaking it makes it reappear. How can I bring it back?
USB “STICK” OR SSD
FOR A BOOTABLE
INSTALLER?
Use an SSD if you can.
USB memory “sticks”
are convenient and
cheap, but far slower
than an SSD, and less
versatile. Not all sticks
can be formatted in
APFS, and some don’t
work properly with
Catalina installers.WHY DOESN’T
MACOS DETECT MY
USB SPEAKERS?
There are known
problems with USB
audio fed through
USB–C adapters.
It’s worth trying
a different cable
instead, perhaps with
mini USB–B to C.
macOS 10.15.1 is
thought to have fixed
some of these long–
standing issues.There’s nothing in that update which should
have affected the visibility of your pointer, but
there are several controls and settings which
could’ve changed its behavior and had this effect.
Go to System Preferences > Accessibility and
select the Display item on the left. Adjust your
Cursor Size there, and check the item to “Shake
mouse pointer to locate”. Then if the pointer is
ever hard to find, you can wiggle your mouse or
your finger on the trackpad, and the pointer will
grow in size.
Now shut your Mac down, wait for at least
20 seconds, and start it up with the Shift key
held down using a wired keyboard — this will
put it into safe mode and clear its caches. Once
it’s been running for a minute or two, restart
it in normal mode and your pointer should
now behave itself.Occasional disconnect–reconnect cycles
can occur with Bluetooth keyboards,
trackpads and mice, but should be very
infrequent. If they’re common,
remove the file com.apple.
Bluetooth.plist from the
Preferences folder in your top–
level Library folder and restart.
After that, suspect radio
interference problems. If you
have Wi–Fi, connect using its
5GHz channels, rather than
2.4GHz which overlaps with the
frequencies used by Bluetooth.
Give the two networks different names,
so you can select connections over 5GHz
in their Wi–Fi settings, which usually
offers faster
speeds anyway.
Some USB
devices emit
interference
which affects
both Wi–Fi and
Bluetooth
frequencies.
Identify those by
testing with theperipherals turned off, and see whether
that improves wireless reliability.
Sometimes moving a device or changing
its cable can fix this.
Another trick is to ensure there are no
solid or dense objects such as piles of
paper between the Bluetooth peripheral
and Mac, which can reduce signal
strength markedly. Finally, Handoff
features, such as AirDrop, can trigger
intensive exchanges on both Wi–Fi and
Bluetooth. If you have another Mac close
by, try moving it away so such exchanges
won’t overload your Mac’s radio systems.
Wireless keyboard and trackpad drop out
My MacBook Pro doesn’t get on with my Bluetooth Matias keyboard or Apple Magic Trackpad, which keep disconnecting and
reconnecting. Is there something wrong with it?
If your pointer becomes hard to see, in the Accessibility pane increase its size and set shaking to help locate it.
Bluetooth issue? Remove its
preferences file and restart, plus
tell Wi–Fi to use 5GHz not 2.4GHz.Image rights: Apple.
Tech Support & Techsplanations
maclife.com APR 2020 77