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waydabber
Mouse cursor showing up with some delay after typing when dummy mirroring is applied in macOS 12.5 or Ventura beta4/5 (macOS bug)
Hi! I'm currently using BetterDisplay with a Dell S3220DGF, and had this curious problem where the mouse cursor doesn't show up immediately after mouse movement after it normally disappears during typing.
Illustration here: https://youtu.be/-mJYMJAfsEo. I immediately started moving the mouse after typing a few letters but the cursor only shows up after a small delay, meaning I couldn't find the cursor for a brief moment.
However, when I try to do screen recording using shift+command+5, the recording did not pick up this issue and the cursor appeared immediately, despite the fact that I'm seeing the delay on the screen.
Comparing to directly connecting without using BetterDisplay, the mouse cursor appears immediately when I move the mouse: https://youtu.be/pnAjhbmxhF0
This is interesting. Are you using dummy mirroring?
Yes I am, setting the monitor to mirror the dummy
Also I don't know if it's because of me updating to macOS 12.5 late last week. Before that update I was running BetterDummy v1.2.2 and it was fine
FYI this is a 2021 14-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip
Seems like it's not just during text editing, the cursor would sometimes disappear on its own: https://youtu.be/wARDNJSep6A
Appreciate you looking into this :)
There was no change in this regard from 1.2.2 to 1.2.7 I think. The issue might be with macOS 12.5, but I am on Ventura beta 3 and I am not sure I can reproduce the issue the issue (sometimes it feels like I can pinpoint occasions when the mouse seems to appear a bit late if I move it super slowly but other times not, I would not have noticed any issue if I was not super aware that there might be an effect like this). I'll see if the issue is present in Ventura beta 4 or not.
I did some investigation. I am afraid I can't fix this issue as this is not something BetterDummy does but seems to be an issue related to virtual screens being mirrored.
If you have an iPad, you could try if you connect it to the Mac as a Sidecar display and mirror the iPad to your main screen (not the other way around!), the same behavior should occur, even without BetterDummy running.
If this is not the case, please let me know!
Seems like it's not just during text editing, the cursor would sometimes disappear on its own: https://youtu.be/wARDNJSep6A
Appreciate you looking into this :)
Hello I have exactly same issue. After update to 12.5, my externals (mirrored to dummy) displays (one via usb-c, other via hdmi) started to have a problem with a mouse cursor. In short when i move my mouse from retina display to external source - it's not visible until i click on something, sometimes it just disappears.
Could you have a look please? Thanks!
Yes, the issue seems to be present in Ventura beta4 as well (was not in beta3). The mouse cursor tends to disappear when entering text and takes its time to reappear. A probably related issue is that mouse shake or an increased cursor size makes the cursor icon cut into half.
This seems to be a macOS bug, I am not sure if it is fixable on BetterDisplay's end. Probably the best we can do is to report it to Apple, hoping for a fix.
Hello, I'm facing the same issue when mirroring two monitors. It started to happen after upgrading to 12.5. Any news on any potential fix for this? It's a shame because until this doesn't come I need to disable BetterDisplay. Thanks!
Hi @pabloibanezcom - I am still investigating this. However the issue happens only with dummy mirroring. For most users native smooth scaling is a much better option (or creating specific custom HiDPI resolutions for those who do not want to purchase Pro as that functionality is available for free).
Hi, I just bought the Pro version and I'm looking for a bit of support on this issue. I'm using dummies for Xiaomi Mi Monitor (Ultra wide 34) and Asus MX279 but I'm getting the issue about the cursor disappearing. Mac OS 12.5. You mention native smooth scaling. Could you please help me properly set up this?
Yes, of course. You should follow these instructions to set up native smooth scaling on you Apple Silicon mac: https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay#how-to-unlock-scaling-and-hidpi-for-my-display
Let me know if you have any issues!
I meant the section under How to unlock scaling and HiDPI for my display? - this deals specifically with enabling native smooth scaling (as opposed to the dummy mirroring method).
Yes, I did that and now everything is perfectly working. This is even better than before as it has higher quality. Thank you! :)
Thank you @waydabber. I was in the same situation as @megasoft1978 and by enabling native smooth scaling everything looks better and without the mirroring issues.
Yes, I confirm that the solution with native smooth scaling works like a charm! Thank you!
Same problem here on two M1 MBPs after upgrading to macOS 12.5. I can’t use a workaround because “Allow smooth resolution scale“ is disabled in BetterDisplay settings.
Here is what I observe:
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The cursor works fine within the MBP display
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Moving the cursor from the MBP display to the HiDPI+dummy display often hides it till I accidentally hover over some clickable element
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Moving the cursor from the HiDPI+dummy display to MBP display occasionally creates a ‘stuck’ copy of the cursor on the HiDPI+dummy display, but it disappears shortly.
-
When I start typing text, the cursor disappears on both displays as expected. It should reappear as soon as I move it, but this no longer happens on the HiDPI+dummy display. I have to move the invisible cursor a lot till it bumps into some clickable element for it to appear. Alternatively, I can click or right-click, but this is a new habit which I need to get used to.
The latter is the most annoying 🤔
Hi @kachkaev - yes, native smooth scaling is a Pro feature so it will be disabled if the Trial expires and you don't purchase Pro.
If you don't want to purchase Pro but you are using some specific resolutions and don't need too much flexibility, you can create custom resolutions for completely free by enabling Manually add custom resolutions. Simply enter the desired resolution and click on the (+) icon, then hit Apply, enter credentials and reboot. The resolution should be available as HiDPI afterwards without a dummy.
Please note that the custom resolutions should have the same aspect ratio as the display and should be lower than the native resolution.
Ah right, how could I miss that part of the text? 🤦 😅
I followed your suggestion and it did the job – big thanks for your reply and support!
Looks like I don’t need a pro license but I should probably still buy one. BetterDisplay is a top-quality software, I love your attention to detail! ✨
UPD: license bought 🤩 💸
I did some investigation. I am afraid I can't fix this issue as this is not something BetterDummy does but seems to be an issue related to virtual screens being mirrored.
Oh you mean this issue is caused by the updated version of macOS, not by BetterDisplay. Should we report this to apple?
Yes, by all means, you can report it. But don't keep your hopes high - so far Apple did not exactly rush fixing any of the issues reported by the community regarding virtual screens/dummies. :)
I had the mouse cursor issue as described here but I bought the BetterDummy Pro version and I used the smooth scaling option and it's the best thing ever! it resolved the issue and it actually works better than ever. Thank you for this amazing app!
@waydabber
Yes, by all means, you can report it. But don't keep your hopes high - so far Apple did not exactly rush fixing any of the issues reported by the community regarding virtual screens/dummies. :)
I see :) Have you also reported this issue?
Not yet, I want to investigate this a bit more beforehand to see if there is any workaround.
Ok, I did investigate it a bit more and there seems to be no way around the problem.
It also happens without BetterDummy with simply a Sidecar display being mirrored (tested with an iPad Mini 6 running iOS 16 beta + 14" MB Pro with Ventura beta), so this is one of those other generic virtual display issues that are simply macOS bugs (I suppose mirroring from Sidecar is probably not a use-case Apple is testing when they do something, but the other way around).
The issue only affects HiDPI however (LoDPI seems to work fine).
If you post a report to Apple about this, it is best to note the Sidecar mirroring scenario and not mention BetterDisplay as if the issue is happening with a third party app, it might get automatically downgraded while if it involves only Apple stuff, it might get more attention.
Just for a quick recap, here are the current most annoying problems that tend to arise when mirroring from Sidecar on Apple Silicon (all of these affect dummy mirroring as well):
- Display (usually) freezes instead of going to sleep upon system sleep.
- Colors might flicker upon screen activity on the mirror target screen (some kind of colorsync problem).
- Mouse tends to disappear for a while when moving across displays.
- Mouse reappears too slowly after entering a text.
- Mouse icon is cropped when magnified (either via accessibility or by shaking the mouse).
Also why close the issue when it's still an active problem? How are we supposed to track resolution?
There is link to Known issues pinned to the top of the Issues page from where all known issues can be listed.
The fact that these issues are closed do not make them untrackable, as commenting ant subscirbing to notifications is enabled. I only close known issues that are things I cannot do anything about since they are macOS bugs or some other problems.
I think the best option to avoid the issue on the newer macOS versions that have this bug is to use native smooth scaling instead (but I understand that there are certain use cases when that does not work).
