Disappearing cursor in Safari, Classic (#3)

A few days ago we reported on an issue where the mouse cursor disappears when browsing some Web pages in Safari. We've since received dozens of notes confirming the issue, as well as some possible triggers for the issue and suggested workarounds.

Flash elements MacFixIt reader Chris Callac has some evidence for the notion that certain "Flash" multimedia content is triggering the cursor disappearance in Safari:

"I had one really bizarre thing happen that led me to believe that it is the Flash elements on a page causing the problem. I was checking the weather at weather.com, and I went to close the window, when the cursor disappeared AND the page started playing some music. Whenever I would move the cursor away from the red close button on the title bar, the music would stop and the cursor would reappear, but when I would go back to close it again, it would disappear again and start playing music. Somehow, I also ended up noticing that the music would play when a certain X10 camera ad was moused over. So after doing some testing, the cursor would only disappear and the music play in the title bar only when that certain X10 ad was scrolled off of the screen. So I am guessing that certain flash elements cause this (and not just the X10 ad, but that's the only one I've seen play music)."

JavaScript One MacFixIt reader notes that the problem occurs most frequently when he is perusing sites that make use of JavaScript -- particularly those include graphic rollovers:

"I think the problem is related to how Safari parses JavaScript, which has changed a wee bit with every little update for some time. (and also, on the javascript itself).

"The most common JavaScript in anyone's web site, is usually a rollover. When the disappearing cursor usually manifests itself to me, it is also taking the rollover graphic with it. That is, the second graphic to highlight a link or drop-down as clickable, never appears, while the original GIF for that button, does disappear, and the cursor disappears with it."

Many text fields For David Barret, the problem occurs most frequently when visiting a site that contains more than the average number of text fields:

"Just a quick note to let you know that I've been experiencing the problems mentioned in your piece on the disappearing Safari cursor in version 1.2.3. It's most pronounced for me in sites where there are multiple text boxes, such as forum websites. For example, it is an ongoing problem when I'm posting at http://www.4osx.com/forum, but wasn't a problem with previous versions of Safari."

Navigating "blind" There are some methods you can use to navigate Safari's interface without a visible cursor. For instance, as Ron Robertson notes, you can move the invisible cursor around until various objects in the toolbar are highlighted:

"Periodically in using the updated Safari browser and OS X 10.3.5 on my G3 ibook, the cursor (arrow) disappears when moved into the upper menu area (back, home, etc). I can still guess where the cursor is positioned (over the home icon for example) and then click and Safari responds properly. Restarting Safari always clears the problem for a few days."

Clicking in another application Sometimes, simply guessing where the cursor lies and successfully clicking the area of another application, thereby switching it to the foremost running application, allows the cursor to automatically re-appear in Safari.

Joseph Simkins writes "I also have the cursor disappear while browsing. The way I recover it is to navigate to the desktop, click there activating the finder, then move the cursor to the originally desired spot and clicking,"

Cursor correctly disappears when using space bar to scroll Note that when using the space bar to scroll down pages in Safari, the cursor will disappear. This is intended and expected behavior. The cursor will appear again as soon as the mouse is moved.

Disappearing cursor in Classic MacFixIt reader Roy reports what appears to be a separate issue where the cursor disappears frequently in Classic applications:

"I've experienced the disappearing cursor at least back as far as OSX 10.2 on a G4 tower, but only in Classic apps, and it only happens once every couple of months. I don't notice any common pattern of activity that precedes the disappearances except that I always have the same two Classic apps running, (Excel 98 and ProTA), which are the last two OS-9 apps left on my machine.

"The fault appears just as others have described, i.e. the invisible cursor is still functional if you can guess where it is, but as soon as I click in any non-Classic window it becomes visible again. The cursor then works normally until I click in any Classic window, where it disappears again.

"Quitting and restarting the offending Classic apps doesn't help. Logging out and back in doesn't help. Restarting Classic always solves the problem."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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