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macOS 15: The cursor disappears and does not reappear #3433
Description
Is there an existing issue for this?
- I have searched the existing issues
Is your issue described in the documentation?
- I have read the documentation
Is your issue present in the latest beta/pre-release?
None
Describe the Bug
When I enter text using the keyboard, the cursor disappears and the mouse cursor does not reappear. The cursor only reappears when I move the mouse around like crazy or click on the desktop to shrink all windows
Expected Behavior
No response
Additional Context
No response
Host Operating System
macOS
Operating System Version
15.1.1
Architecture
arm64/aarch64
Sunshine commit or version
Package
macOS - Homebrew
GPU Type
Apple Silicon
GPU Model
M4 Mini
GPU Driver/Mesa Version
M4 Mini
Capture Method
None
Config
No response
Apps
No response
Relevant log output
N/A
Activity
achenjiefeng commentedon Dec 10, 2024
I have the same issue as you. I guess this is a bug in the sunshine-beta version. The official version of Sunshine might not have this problem, but currently, the official version can't be installed on macOS 15. So, we’ll just have to wait.
lowprofileusername commentedon Dec 10, 2024
same as you.
ReenigneArcher commentedon Dec 10, 2024
I don't think there were any changes to Sunshine to cause this, but instead to macOS itself.
mingliao1994 commentedon Dec 16, 2024
I'm running into the same issue you described. A temporary solution I've found is to press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C. This shows the local cursor, so you can still use it even when the remote cursor isn't displayed.
DWGIII commentedon Dec 18, 2024
Great, this is indeed a temporary solution
ouzc12358 commentedon Dec 30, 2024
G-Ray commentedon Jan 8, 2025
You can install the beta version with
brew install sunshine-beta. (see #3180)hellooydodo commentedon Jan 15, 2025
To add, the issue can be trigged whenever typing in a textbox( url bar of browser, notepad, even commenting this), and reappears when quickly move mouse around Dock
04041b commentedon Mar 5, 2025
same problem here
loongson-zjl commentedon Mar 14, 2025
sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools
xcode-select --install
brew install --verbose --debug sunshine-beta
you can try this .
DWGIII commentedon Mar 26, 2025
It doesn't work. I directly cloned the latest source code and compiled it.
bobbybean commentedon Apr 3, 2025
i have this issue too.
04041b commentedon Apr 3, 2025
My work around is to just win+tab to switch window twice and the mouse will reappear
marnas commentedon Jun 21, 2025
I'm facing the same problem, running
sunshine-betaon a mac mini M1 and connecting withmoonlight-qt.Does anybody know what could be causing this?
fayeinmay commentedon Aug 18, 2025
Just commenting to say I have the same issue running latest sunshine version on M1 and connecting with moonlight on Bazzite. Also tried both encoding/decoding methods.
ev1502 commentedon Aug 19, 2025
Has anyone tried on the macOS 26 beta?
chrispouliot commentedon Oct 4, 2025
I am on Macos 26 Tahoe with sunshine-beta and connectiong from Linux through Moonlight Flatpak and I also keep having my mosue cursor dissapear. It comes back if I bring the mouse to where the dock is, and when it hovers over an app it reappears.
If I enable
Optomize Mouse For Remote Desktop Instead Of Gamesin the config options, the mouse cursor stays visible.StefanoJK commentedon Dec 17, 2025
This still happening
Unkn0wnCreator commentedon Jan 12, 2026
also have the problem
Asatoshi314 commentedon Jan 28, 2026
I’m also experiencing this issue.
Could it be related to some kind of cursor refresh or visibility mechanism change in recent versions of macOS? It feels like the cursor state isn’t being properly restored after keyboard input.
Interestingly, the cursor disappearing actually solves another problem for me: mouse lag.
Even when I connect my Mac via Ethernet in a local network, I still can’t get the host cursor to properly keep up with the client cursor — but once the macOS cursor is hidden, the lag issue is gone, since i cant see it
nballen-tx commentedon Feb 7, 2026
Looks like it is still an issue with 2026.204.180221+Taheo 26.2.
Does anyone know if there could be a permanent fix on this?
Currently cltr+alt+shift+c to show the local cursor helps, or use win+tab to have it re-appear. But none of them is beautiful.
Thanks,
ragedriver commentedon Mar 16, 2026
Any updates on this? For me the macos cursor disappears when typing on the keyboard. The only way to show the cursor again is to click on the desktop so it minimizes all apps
martona commentedon May 13, 2026
I was able to reproduce this and it appears to be specific to the AVFoundation-based macOS capture path. When an app hides the cursor while typing, AVFoundation capture does not seem to report the cursor becoming visible again until the pointer returns over the Dock.
I opened #5107, which moves macOS display capture to ScreenCaptureKit on macOS 12.3+ while keeping AVFoundation as a fallback for older systems or SCK initialization failures. It’s unfortunate that this takes a few hundred lines, but ScreenCaptureKit reports cursor visibility changes correctly in my testing.
therysin commentedon Jul 29, 2026
Any update on maybe merging? going on for years now.
martona commentedon Jul 30, 2026
Well I converted the PR to in-progress because it had a lot of baggage I did not like (SCK is its own rat's nest of bugs). I settled on a patch that I'm using (locally applied) that's maybe 300 lines, looks janky as f, but I swear to god works. (I sunshine 2-3 macs 24/7.) I'll dust it off, rebase it off the current master, and PR it (the "janky" internals are hidden behind a 3-line interface to sunshine proper, everything else is in a separate new file). Give me a couple of days to get it done.
Optimiza commentedon Aug 7, 2026
Seeing this too on a Mac mini M4 (Apple Silicon), Sunshine installed via Homebrew, currently on macOS 26.5.2 (Tahoe) — so this doesn't look tied to macOS 15 specifically.
Trigger: cursor disappears when I click into a text field and start typing. Recovery for me: switching focus to the Dock (e.g. clicking a Dock icon) reliably brings it back — seems more about forcing a repaint under the cursor's position than mouse movement itself, since just moving the mouse without touching the Dock/desktop doesn't always fix it here.
Happy to grab logs if useful.
minwook1019 commentedon Sep 26, 2026
Same issue here, still reproducible on macOS 27.0 (26A428), Mac mini M4, Sunshine 2026.914 (Homebrew), client Moonlight on iPad Pro M4 over Tailscale. Capturing a BetterDisplay virtual screen.
After typing in any app, the cursor stays hidden while the mouse is moved remotely; it only reappears after a real click or switching apps.
CGCursorIsVisible()stays 0 during this.Things I tried from a helper process (with Accessibility permission) that did not bring it back: posting
mouseMovedviaCGEventPost(null source and.hidSystemStatesource, ±1px nudge with delta fields),IOHIDPostEventrelative move,CGDisplayShowCursorwithSetsCursorInBackground, a zero-delta scroll event, and an unused mouse button (button 10) click.Looking forward to #5511 landing.