Flickering cursor in InDesign

[Eleonora5FCB]

Hi.

I am using InDesign 16.0 on macOS Catalina 10.15.7.

When I use InDesign, my cursor flickers. It doesn't happen with Photoshop or Illustrator.

I already tried resetting the preferences, but nothing changed.

Thank you for you help.

Eleonora

[Steve Werner]

I have exactly the same setup as you and don't experience that. Can you be more specific about when your cursor flickers.

[nightgolfer]

Please see the other comments, maybe you can re-create the issue while having documents open in Photoshop, which is definitely the cause for at least 3 of us.

[moellerart]

I habe the same problem:

If there is one document open in psd, the cursor flickers in different other programs – it changes its form from the tool to the normal MAC cursor very quickly. This problem occurs ind indd, illustrator, safari, mail eg. when i close all doks in psd the problem is gone. BUT: I´m workin parallel with all programs, interactive, so i cant always close documents to erase this problem.

Please Adobe fix this problem – in my opinion the problem is bases partially to the tool settings in PSD!

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020) 3,6 GHz 10-Core Intel Core i9, Catalina, Adobe CC latest, AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB

[kottbussertor]

Thanks @moellerart  I have been suffering from that flickering cursor forever – I think you have figured it out: Closing all PS documents 'solves' it — not a real solution though. Your post is a already a year old but unfortunatly Adobe still has not fixed the issue. Maybe next year. 

[nightgolfer]

Confirmed! Cursor flickers horribly in InDesign when moving, especially when moving over objects that make the cursor change to something else. Closing all open documents in Photoshop (but with Photoshop still running) completely fixes the issue.

Definitely not a proper fix, but nice to have the issue narrowed down this much! @wrensauer could you please get this to the relevant team for a fix?

Desktop Mac, CPU i7700K, GPU Radeon RX 6600 XT, macOS Monterey 12.6.3, 64 GB RAM.

[LisaAnnW]

Mine is especially prevalent when I am in an indesign table and trying to adjust the column size. Drives me crazy!

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi,

Sorry to hear about the trouble. Can you confirm the version of InDesign & OS and if this is happening on a specific file or multiple files?

Thanks

Rishabh

[Thunder-Lightning]

I have the exact same problem. I'm using InDesign 19.5 on a Mac Studio with Apple M1 Max chip, macOS Sonoma 14.5.

[leo.r]

I have the exact same problem. I'm using InDesign 19.5 on a Mac Studio with Apple M1 Max chip, macOS Sonoma 14.5.

By @Thunder-Lightning

A user above mentioned (albeit more than a year ago) that closing all open documents in Photoshop solves the issue. I wonder if this helps in your case?

I've also seen reports that Safari can cause cursor flickering (although I'm not sure it affects other apps). If you're running Safari, try to close it and see if it makes a difference.

[Thunder-Lightning]

Thanks for your reply. I don't have Photoshop or Safari running at the moment but the cursor is still flickering.

[Anubhav M · Accepted solution]

Hello @Thunder-Lightning,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind trying to run InDesign under Safe Mode (Windows / macOS) and checking if it helps? Also, try running InDesign under a different administrator account (Windows / macOS) and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[Thunder-Lightning]

Hi Anubhav,

thanks for your reply. The cursor was flickering before I restarted my Mac in the Safe Mode. It didn't do it under Safe Mode and after I restarted the machine again.

I hope it stays this way 🙂 I will let you know if it does it again.

Thanks again.

[Silviu33025234wkfa]

This fixes the issue for me. I closed Photoshop and everything is smooth now.

[default265116118qwclp]

I'm using INDD 2024 v19.5 on MacOS Sonoma 14.6.1 and keep having the same problem. Good call whoever mentioned it only happens when something is open in PhotoShop. I hadn't noticed that!

I quit PhotoShop and the cursor goes back to normal. I was having the same issue with Illustrator so I guess it will fix that too.

Definitely an issue with PhotoShop rather than the other apps.