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In the bottom right corner of my Macbook Pro (running MacOS 10.15.3 Catalina with a second screen connected as main), sometimes, there is a region (invisible) where I just can't move the cursor to. I need to restart the MacBook Pro to let me access the region with my mouse cursor.

The cursor just won't pass this region, just as if the screen has ended there. I have added a screenshot below and drawn the region.

I read about applications that might behave weird and cause such an issue, but the problem persists even when all apps are closed.

What could this be?

Are there any known issues? Or yet better, known solutions? ...

Update 1:

  • I have appended a screenshot of my arrangement and drawn a yellow box of the area which is not accessible.

Update 2:

  • The cursor is blocked from reaching the region in the third screenshot (I cannot reach the Files folder for example).

Update 3:

  • Today (2020/05/25, using Mac OS 10.15.4), the problem re-occured, but the non-accessible area has changed to the top-left, with the available height only being as much as the system menu and a width of 90%. (For example, I have a window in full height/width and I can no longer move the mouse cursor to the 'minimize' or 'close' window buttons).

Update 4:

  • 2020/10/30, (using macOS 10.15.7) I returned my 15" MacBook Pro, because I thought the problem only appears on them. I encountered the same problem on a 13" MacBook with completely different apps installed. I suspect more and more that it's a very rare (race) condition / scaling bug in the OSX core that handles multiple display screens. The problem also happens on macOS 11.1 Big Sur.

Screenshot of desktop area where the mouse cursor cannot enter

Screenshot of multiple display arrangement, in System Preferences

Screenshot of another desktop area where the mouse cursor cannot enter

Note: In the linked question, someone has posted a video screenshot of what happens.

Daniel W.
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  • Welcome to Ask Different :) Can you go to System Preferences app -> Displays -> Arrangement tab and check how the displays are arranged relative to each other. Ideally, the cursor should have a clear path to move across relatively from one display to the other. You can also update the question by sharing a screen shot of the preference pane. – Nimesh Neema Feb 19 '20 at 17:58
  • @NimeshNeema my arrangement is perfectly aligned and when I move the cursor from one screen to the other, the cursor does not jump in height. It is only the yellow framed box which I cannot access. I cannot put the cursor in the yellow/orange box. – Daniel W. Feb 19 '20 at 18:01
  • Can you disconnect your second monitor and see if the problem persists? Also, try in Safe Mode (Hold Shift while booting) – Allan Feb 19 '20 at 18:46
  • @Allan disconnecting the screen makes it even worse (see 3rd screenshot). When I reboot, the problem is gone until at some random point the blocking is there. – Daniel W. Feb 19 '20 at 19:03
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    That's an interesting development. I would have predicted that the problem go away once you no longer have an extended desktop, but getting worse? Did you try in Safe Mode? I'm wondering if there's something being loaded that's causing this. – Allan Feb 19 '20 at 19:05
  • @Allan Indeed, it's so weird. I can't tell the effects of safe mode because it takes some time until the bug appears. I am going to try to find out what triggers this unpassable box. I have not that much fancy apps running anyways, only basic development tools. – Daniel W. Feb 19 '20 at 19:09
  • Stick with Safe Mode just for a little while. If the bug shows up within 30 mins..take it to 45 in Safe Mode just for testing. If it doesn't show up, at least you know its a 3rd party app or kext and not a native Apple thing. – Allan Feb 19 '20 at 19:11
  • A few other things you could test, send a screenshot of your processes, so we know what 3rd party apps there are. You could also delete some of your plist files and hope that that refreshes stuff. – Talos Potential May 30 '20 at 22:46
  • Have you tried running Mac in safe mode and see if it happens there as well. I would also create another user and also try with guest user if this happens if no then it's some app that's causing this. Have look at Security Preference see what apps have access to control your computer. – user14492 May 31 '20 at 15:39
  • Is there any reason your displays are wildly-offset in the Arrangement CP? – Tetsujin May 31 '20 at 16:50
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    The problem is too rare to try any mode any period. @Tetsujin my macbook is at desk height while my monitor is on a stand. It's not unusual at all. This is simple offset calculationi and should really have nothing to to with the problem :/ – Daniel W. May 31 '20 at 17:34
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    I've just experienced the same issue. Using 15' macbook with extra display, although aligned differently from op: top(external) to bottom(15'). The invisible blocking region is on bottom left on the external, and when I disconnected the external, the invisible blocking region persists and got bigger on my 15' display. Change res and alignment didn't help. Rebooted, the problem gone,... Let's wait and see. – Vincent Nov 06 '20 at 02:03
  • For anyone asking about why displays are offset, that literally should not matter. If it does, it's a BUG that Apple needs to fix (and not by removing the ability to adjust display alignment to fit our individual setups). No one should have to limit the resolutions they use on good, hi-res monitors due to some Apple bug. And we should be able to use monitors with different resolutions and position them as we have them arranged on our desk. – LocalPCGuy Feb 23 '21 at 16:36

3 Answers3

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I had this same problem and it has been driving me crazy. While I still don’t fully understand the cause of the bug I finally found a way to fix it.

First a note, I think this problem only happens when the zoom accessibility mode is enabled, though it occurs even when not zoomed in. And further, it might be related exclusively to full screen zoom.

I have a keyboard shortcut that turns full screen zoom on and off (⌘⌥8 by default), configured in accessibility settings. Whenever a region of one of my displays becomes inaccessible, I just zoom in and right back out and the inaccessible regions are gone.

I hope this helps.

Tom Occhino
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    This actually worked for me too. – Peter Schorn Nov 16 '20 at 20:26
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    100% this fixed it for me. I use the zoom setting constantly, would recommend to anyone. – doublejosh Nov 18 '20 at 00:11
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    I was so sure this wouldn't help but … oh wow, it works! This saves me so many reboots! Thank you!! – philippbosch Nov 19 '20 at 07:48
  • This works! This happens to me after unplugging a second display from my Catalina MacBook Pro. After unplugging, there are no other displays attached, and the right 10% of the screen becomes inaccessible. Hitting the Zoom hotkey twice restores everything nicely. – pixbug Nov 30 '20 at 20:03
  • It would be nice if someone from Apple sees this and fixes the bug. I don't know how to report a bug to Apple and I don't report bugs outside of Github anymore... – Daniel W. Dec 08 '20 at 13:08
  • @Daniel W. It would be kind to Tom to mark this answer as correct (even though somewhat bizarre) – Gilby Jan 03 '21 at 03:31
  • The default key you talking about is OPTION + COMMAND + 8 (after enabled in Accessibility settings) right? – Daniel W. Jan 05 '21 at 08:49
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    Thank you for tracking this down. I have CTRL-Scroll setup for zoom. I was able to clear out the unavailable region by simply zooming in a bit and back out. – pauln Jan 25 '21 at 17:45
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    @DanielW yes, ⌥⌘8 is right. Additionally, if you go to "Advanced..." → "Controls" in that dialog you can also enable the "Hold ⌃⌥ to temporarily toggle zoom" option. Whenever a region of my screen becomes inaccessible, I tap those two keys very quickly and it's fixed. – Tom Occhino Feb 12 '21 at 21:21
  • I always use accessibility zoom because I run the screens at very high resolution and zoom in when I can't see something. Glad to have found this fix, thank you! – Brian Topping Feb 20 '21 at 18:29
  • Thanks for sharing this fix. It has been driving me nuts and I generally end up rebooting once I can't take it any longer. Sad that Apple won't fix what is obviously a bug, but also not too surprised. – LocalPCGuy Feb 23 '21 at 16:37
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    Same problem here. And as I have configured CTRL-Scroll (⌃+scroll) key to zoom. I was able to clear out the unavailable region by simply zooming in a bit and back out. Thanks – alexventuraio Jun 09 '21 at 19:28
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    Minor detail: I had to zoom in on the inaccessible region (not just any region) before I was able to clear the block there. – ijoseph Jun 24 '21 at 17:19
  • @ijoseph This is very important advice! Otherwise it was just moving the inaccessible region somewhere else. – Feuermurmel Jul 12 '21 at 10:09
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    Simply brilliant! Solved! – Duck Aug 02 '21 at 20:37
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    Oh my god, thank you for this. Before I had to restart my system to fix it. – Beau Sep 04 '21 at 01:09
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    Just zooming in and out fixed it for me. Thanks. – EricS Oct 04 '21 at 19:31
  • This worked for me too. Very strange. – Patrick Oct 06 '21 at 08:40
  • You are a lifesaver! – KARASZI István Mar 07 '22 at 23:12
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Move the white bar at the top of the smaller display to the larger display. I had the exact same issue (27" monitor and 24" monitor). I was able to move the "box" up and down the right side of my "primary" monitor, by sliding one display up and down on the arrangement tab.

Then I Googled how to select your primary display on macOS:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202351

The invisible box is gone now. I think the issue is when you set a smaller display as the primary monitor, there is some gap created near one corner that basically equals the number of mixing pixels between the two monitors. But only at one particular corner, not all of the mixing pixels. I would have had a nice long invisible rectangle + an invisible box if that were the case (2560x1440 > 1920x1080).

AW Dragon
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    Unfortunately this answer did not help me, when I had the same issue. Switching the primary display moved the invisible box, but it never went fully away. – Christoph Oct 20 '20 at 15:02
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    Same as @Christoph, I have the same issue and changing the primary display didn't help. Nor did re-dragging my screens, disconnecting some (I have a MB pro and two monitors, one of which is vertically rotated - for code editing :) ). Nothing helps but a restart of the Mac – Boaz Rymland Nov 03 '20 at 09:06
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    Thanks for sharing, interesting approach and worth trying but didn't help me either. – Daniel W. Nov 03 '20 at 10:46
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    Just by way of contrast, on MacOS 10.15.7 I was having exactly the problem described, and moving the menu bar has appeared to leave me with no "dead spots". This was a three-monitor setup with the laptop screen positioned underneath the two others side-by-side. Changing Arrangement settings had not appeared to remove the problem. – holdenweb Jan 25 '21 at 08:53
  • This fixed it for me! Really simple – Kabir Sarin May 27 '21 at 15:56
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I was having this same issue. It turned out to be an invisible iTerm2 window. Closing iTerm2 solved it. I only figured it out when I copied multiple lines and clicking in the invisible area generated the iTerm2 warning for pasting multiple lines.

Nilpo
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