Cursor or Mouse Pointer Disappear in Chrome Browser (RESOLVED)

Are you facing this issue with your Chrome browser, especially with the mouse cursor disappearing when using the touchscreen mode? Then you have landed on the correct page.

My friend had a similar problem with his Surface tablet running on Windows OS. Every time he switched to touchscreen mode from routine, a few minutes later, the mouse pointer disappeared. Initially, the cursor was disabled occasionally, but now the problem is quite frequent. He would always shout — My mouse is gone!!!

He got frustrated with the mouse cursor not showing in Chrome and contacted Microsoft for a solution but ultimately found the issue was with the Chrome browser. The cursor only disappeared when using the Chrome browser; for other apps and software, the problem with the cursor did not exist.

After multiple trials, we found a few solutions that were pretty similar for most surface tablet owners.

The Chrome cursor disappears from the screen while reading or browsing; however, the cursor reappears when we scroll through the web page. It wasn’t like the cursor or mouse pointer was inactive, but it was hidden in plain sight only on Chrome. While using other programs or accessing files in Windows Explorer, one didn’t face any problems.

This cursor disappearance only happens when using the touchscreen (tablet) mode; however, when connected with a mouse and keyboard, the mouse pointer was not disabled.

After trying a few tweaks in the Chrome browser, we settled down with settings that fixed the problem (temporarily). It is just a workaround, but Google needs to fix this issue, or maybe they have designed it that way, and it’s working as intended.

Quit Chrome and Relaunch

Restarting the program will solve the issue if the cursor disappears in the Chrome browser. You can kill the browser process and relaunch the browser.

Here are the steps to quit the Chrome browser from the task manager: 

1. Open the Task Manager on Windows.
2. Select the Google Chrome processes from the program list.
3. Hit on End task button.
   

It will kill all the existing Chrome processes running in the background.

After verifying that no Chrome threads are running in the task manager and completely exiting all the processes, reopen the browser and start using the Chrome browser with the cursor on the screen.

It should temporarily make the cursor reappear in the Chrome browser. I know killing every running thread is pretty tedious; however, it will help resolve the Chrome cursor disappearance issue.

Restart using chrome://restart command

I know it’s pretty tedious to relaunch Chrome after killing from task manager at every instance.

Alternatively, you can use Chrome’s restart function to relaunch the browser without ultimately killing the task manager.

Try running the chrome://restart in the browser URL whenever the cursor or mouse pointer is hidden. It will automatically restart the browser and make the job less painful.

Make sure that you do not have any unsaved edits in the browser. Restarting the browser will temporarily close all the existing tabs and running extensions and make the mouse cursor reappear.

Enable/Disable Hardware Acceleration

Hardware acceleration is a pre-built Chrome browser feature that helps smooth functioning. It typically helps in improving display performance when using a Chrome browser.

Hardware acceleration also influences the keyboard, trackpad, touchscreen display, etc. Hence, disabling or enabling the hardware acceleration will fix the cursor issue.

I juggled between enabling and disabling this option. For some system users, disabling the hardware acceleration fixes the issue. While for others, keeping the hardware acceleration option ON has resolved the auto-hiding problem.

Here are the steps to enable or disable the hardware acceleration usage in the Chrome browser:

1. Launch the Chrome browser on the computer.
2. Select Chrome Settings from More options.
3. Open Advanced Settings from the left sidebar.
   
4. Under the System section, toggle the ‘Use hardware acceleration when available.’
   

As I mentioned, keep this toggle enabled or disabled based on how it’s resolving the mouse cursor auto-hide in the Chrome browser.

Switch to Chrome Canary

You may also switch to Chrome Canary, which can resolve the issue with the mouse pointer disappearance. The Canary is built over the Chromium project and has the same features as the Chrome browser. However, this browser is volatile and used by developers.

I do not recommend using this version of the browser. However, you can download chrome canary for free on Windows and macOS.

Please note that Canary is not a stable Chrome, and you may still watch the Chrome cursor disappear intermittently.

Alternative to Chrome

Alternatively, you can also consider using Microsoft’s Edge browser. The new Edge browser is built with the Chromium project, which also powers Google Chrome. The Windows OS has started loading the Edge browser in the latest Windows Upgrade.

Technically, you won’t find any significant difference between Chrome and Edge browsers. However, the Edge browser does not support the Google account sync but relies on the Microsoft account.

The Edge is just a clone of the Chrome browser with all the features you need. Perhaps, the Edge is getting even better than Chrome.

Bottom Line

I hope this helps in resolving the issue with the Chrome cursor disappearance. While I know and want to share that this is a temporary workaround for the issue, it may reappear, and you need to try the above workaround to fix it frequently.

I explained all these methods to my friend, who faced the same issue with his cursor. It worked well for him, and he did not face any issues.

If this is a significant flaw, Chrome developers must permanently address and fix the issue. Let me know which workaround could fix your problem with the mouse pointer disappearing in Chrome, whether it was relaunching the browser or disabling the hardware acceleration.

Also, please drop any other method we missed mentioning but worked on your end to resolve the issue with the browser cursor.

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