Jittery macOS mouse cursor when hovering over links

Question

I'm experiencing a jittery/buggy/flickering mouse cursor when moving my mouse over hyperlinks.

This occurs in both Safari and Chrome. It also occurs in other non-hyperlink instances of the mouse cursor changing, such as hovering over the drag handle when resizing Finder columns.

Every time the mouse transitions from the hyperlink pointer to the arrow pointer, the arrow pointer briefly visibly flashes in the wrong position before correcting itself.

This is in macOS 10.15 Catalina on my new 16" MacBook Pro with AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB GPU, provided by work and with a variety of software installed.

I now notice I'm also experiencing it on a Mid 2015 15" MacBook Pro running Catalina with the AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2 GB. I don't believe this computer used to have this problem, prior to upgrading to Catalina.

This occurs 100% of the time when the discrete GPU is active. Namely:

• Any time an external display is connected.
• If "Automatic graphics switching" is toggled off, it will reproduce on the MacBook's display.

The issue has been tested and occurs using the onboard laptop Trackpad, external Magic Trackpad, and an IBM TrackPoint. It is unrelated to input device or tracking speed.

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Reproduction steps:

1. Hover mouse above a hyperlink. (Shows "Mickey Mouse glove" pointer.)
2. Move mouse pointer off the hyperlink so that cursor changes to the arrow pointer.
3. Arrow pointer initially flashes at the "top left" position of the mouse bounding box for 1 frame.
4. Arrow pointer then flashes back to its true position, pointing at the same pixels that the hyperlink glove was originally pointing.

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When I create a screen recording via QuickTime, the mouse glitch is not visible in the recording.

Here is an iPhone video of my Mac's screen demonstrating the issue:

Relevant section in slo-mo:

This is driving me nuts. On link-heavy pages, moving the mouse across the screen results in a dizzying blur of pointer motion. Middle-clicking a link also produces a similar jitter.

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I've reported this to Apple via their Feedback Reporter:

FB8452310 - GPU causes mouse cursor glitch on 16" MacBook Pro

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This bug is also mentioned here:

• Mouse cursor flickers when changing states using the Discrete GPU - YouTube
• When the cursor transitions from link mode to normal, it moves to the left for an instant before being displayed in the correct location.
• Cursor shaking when changing from default arrow to pointer
• If your mouse flickers on rollover, it's an OS problem.
• Mouse cursor flicker (over links)
• Mouse cursor flickering between arrow and hand on web links
• OS X mouse cursor flicker (video)
• Cursor Rollover 'Jerking'

Answer 1

So happy to hear I'm not the only one with this issue. Bought a new MacBook Pro 16 inch earlier this year in May, having that issue since.

• After I bought it, I noticed the issue. Contacted Apple, told me to send it in for repair or exchange it for a new one at the retailer. So I replaced it. Brand new MacBook, same issue (however only after logging in with my Apple ID).
• We're now deep into August and I've been in contact with several people at Apple since May. To no avail. We're now trying to escalate the issue to other departments, but not sure how long this will all take. The general comment they've made is "that the resolution might come in the form of an update, so keep an eye out on that"..

Some things I've noticed that might be helpful for others to know:

• At first I thought the issue was with external displays. But after further debugging it seems the issue has to do with my GPU (AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB). The reason it seems the issue has to do with an external display is that the MacBook will switch from the embedded Intel UHD Graphics card to the better GPU when plugging in certain displays.
• You can try the above by opening something like Final Cut Pro without an external display plugged in. The issue will then appear since the MacBook switches to the other GPU. You can also verify this by disabling "Automatic graphics switching" in the "Energy Saver" settings.
• A clean install doesn't fix the issue. It also doesn't seem to be a hardware issue since the problem appeared on two separate MacBook Pro's.

I'll update the answer when I hear back from Apple. If anyone else has more info, glad to know.

Answer 2

thank you very much for the thorough documentation of the issue. I have got the same issue with my MacBook Pro 16'' 2019 and it has been driving me nuts!

I came across this forum post and was able to fix the problem with the suggested changes to the system files: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/weird-cursor-behavior.2230749/post-28968427

I have also submitted a bug report to Apple (twice). Moreover, I have been in touch with their customer support but they won't acknowledge that it is a software issue. I had to send it in twice but they could not find any hardware issues (obviously). The third time I sent it in they told me everything was fine and the cursor jitter is expected behaviour. What a joke...

Don't expect this to be fixed anytime fast by Apple but thank god somebody very smart at MacRumors was able to fix it manually. I am happy now.

I hope I could help. Please let this forum post circulate so that other users can apply the fix and one day this issue might be raised to Apple in a way that they fix it. The user base with the AMD graphics cards seems to be too small for them to really care...

Answer 3

This answer is an attempt to simplify and summarize the solution provided in other answers and websites: 1, 2, 3.

MacOS cursor files are located in frameworks in the Systems directory:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/cursors/

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To edit these files you will need to disable System Integrity Protection and allow write access to the System Volume:

• How do I disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA "rootless" on macOs [OS X]
• Catalina not allowing to change read/write permissions despite having SIP disabled

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The cursors directory has a subfolder for each cursor type, such as pointinghand. Each cursor will have a cursor.pdf and info.plist.

You should back-up the system's version of these cursor files and copy modified files in their place.

Opening pointinghand/info.plist on macOS Catalina 10.15.7 (where I am experiencing this problem) shows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>blur</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>hotx</key>
    <string>13</string>
    <key>hotx-scaled</key>
    <string>13</string>
    <key>hoty</key>
    <string>8</string>
    <key>hoty-scaled</key>
    <string>8</string>
    <key>shadowcolor</key>
    <array>
        <string>0</string>
        <string>0</string>
        <string>0</string>
        <string>0</string>
    </array>
    <key>shadowoffsetx</key>
    <string>0</string>
    <key>shadowoffsety</key>
    <string>-1</string>
    <key>vectoronly</key>
    <string>:true</string>
</dict>
</plist>

The relevant keys are hotx + hoty, and hotx-scaled + hoty-scaled:

    <key>hotx</key>
    <string>13</string>
    <key>hotx-scaled</key>
    <string>13</string>
    <key>hoty</key>
    <string>8</string>
    <key>hoty-scaled</key>
    <string>8</string>

Changing the hotx and hoty values is said to fix the problem. (Save the modified files, with any needed permissions, and reboot.)

Values of 4 and 4 have been suggested. This may require testing to find the correct values.

It's unclear when the -scaled values are used and if those should be changed.

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Please leave a comment on this answer if this solution worked for you, and which values you used.

Answer 4

This is probably a bug that you can report via radar to Apple.

The issue is that the location for the hit test for the two icons is in a different place. For the pointer, the hit test is in the top left of the arrow. For the mouse glove, it’s on the index finger.

When changing icons, the image is simply swapped over using the same x,y coordinates. However the hit point effectively moves, so the pointer image jumps to the left to compensate and so the hit point is in the same place on screen as before.

Ideally the changed icon image shouldn’t be shown until the hit point is recalculated and both steps are done at the same time, but that’s why you’re seeing the jump. The reverse occurs and the jump is to the opposite direction when going in reverse.

Apple used to care about quality and fixing these sorts of issues but my guess is they won’t fix it for their current shipping os now that big sur has been revealed. Of course if it still shows up there then you might have a shot. You can use the feedback assistant to file a bug with Apple.

Answer 5

You'll need to try some logical steps to identify if the problem is hardware or not. Setup macOS to boot on an external drive and test booting it from the external drive. If the problem re-occurs try an earlier macOS version. If it still re-occurs it might be hardware.

If the problem disappears with a macOS version the same as the employers then they must have installed something that's causing the issue. It may be a security tool. At that point bring it up with your IT department see if any other Macs they built are doing it.