Mouse Disappears While Hovering Over Buttons

[RyanGuy]

This issue has only happened to me recently. I don't think it began until around the last 2 weeks. I've been using the latest version of After Effects. My mouse button disappears from my screen when I hover over buttons in After Effects. It's only the buttons that change what the mouse cursor looks like (for example, the ones that change it from a triangle to a pointer finger, or the ones that change it into the double-sided arrow for expanding panels). I tried recording it in OBS, but the mouse is visible in the recordings. It's just not visible from my perspective, which makes it impossible to use certain features in After Effects. I need to see my mouse cursor. I use a Windows 11 desktop computer. I tried all the obvious troubleshooting. I got all my drivers uninstalled, reinstalled, and updated. I reverted to an old version of After Effects, and my mouse button is disappearing there too. It's only in After Effects, not other apps. I unplugged my mouse, plugged it back in. I uninstalled Razer Synapse and reinstalled it. (I use a Razer mouse) I also tried messing with all my mouse settings. Nothing changed the fact that my mouse disappears when hovering over buttons in AE. I also reset my computer, and I did everything I could. It still disappears. It's not a known issue in AE, because I looked it up and searched everywhere, but I couldn't find anything on it. What is the potential solution to this problem? I've also tried disabling hardware acceleration in After Effects, starting in safe mode, and disabling 3rd party plugins. It didn't fix anything. It may not even be an issue with After Effects. I just have no clue what the issue may be. What could cause a mouse button to disappear like that, only when I'm hovering over buttons? And when it disappears, I'm able to click stuff too. But it makes it super hard to make masks and shapes, because when I use the shape tool, as soon as I hover over the preview to start drawing my shape, the cursor disappears. It's visible in my OBS recordings though. The only reason I'm asking in AE support is because I don't have this issue with a single other app. It's just in AE. I really hope you can find an answer for me. Please help! I want to edit my videos again! 🙂

[nishu_kush]

Hi Ryan,

Sorry to hear about the issue. What are your system specifications (CPU, GPU, RAM)? There is an ongoing issue between the latest Nvidia GPU driver and After Effects. Can you try downgrading the GPU driver if you're using an Nvidia GPU?

Let us know if that helps.

Note: Moving this thread from Bugs to Discussions for troubleshooting.

Thanks,

Nishu
 

[RyanGuy]

Hi Nishu,

I tried downgrading the driver not just one, but two versions. My mouse is still bugged in After Effects. Just for an example, you can see what's happening in this screenshot. My mouse is hovering over the text "MrBean Plays Minecraft," but you can't see the mouse.
My system specs are:
- Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700F CPU @ 3GHz

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

- 16 GB RAM

Thanks,

Ryan

[RyanGuy]

Edit: I realized that you can't see the mouse in screenshots anyway, so this isn't proof of anything, but you'll have to take my word for it that that's exactly what it looks like even when I don't take a screenshot.

[nishu_kush]

Does it happen only in After Effects? Can you try running After Effects as admin (right-click its icon and select Run as administrator)? If that doesn't help, can you go a step further and create a new admin account on your computer and test After Effects in it? It'll help us to understand if it's related to user account permissions.

I'd also suggest you completely uninstall Razer Synapse and remove its remaining files for testing.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Nishu

[RyanGuy]

It happens in After Effects and Adobe Media Encoder. I tried running AE as admin, but it didn't work. I did create a new admin account on my computer, and that did work. The glitch was no longer there. Is there a way to replicate this on my main account?

[nishu_kush]

Thanks for trying. Can't say for sure if it can be replicated in your main user account. Make your main user account an admin account if it's not already. If that doesn't work, try changing the permission settings as suggested in the following article: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/x-productkb/multi/preferences-folder-read-only-error.html

Hope it helps.

Thanks,

Nishu

[RyanGuy · Accepted solution]

Hi, so I'm not sure entirely what fixed it, but it's working again! My user account has already been an admin account, so I tried changing the permission settings like you suggested. Now it's working. I don't know what setting it was that fixed it, though. I really appreciate the help. Thank you!

[nishu_kush]

Glad to hear that. Feel free to reach out if it happens again.

Thanks,

Nishu