Microsoft Confirms Odd Outlook Glitch Is Making Mouse Cursors Vanish

Is your mouse pointer inexplicably pulling a disappearing act whenever you hover over Outlook? Don't bother troubleshooting your PC as it turns out that this quirky phenomenon is a known issue. According to Microsoft, it only affects the classic version of Outlook and now the newer release, which even though it has been replaced, will still be supported for a few more years (through 2029). Frustrating? Sure, but at least it's not another data leak like the recent one that exposed over 50 million Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud credentials. 

Microsoft also notes that a disappearing mouse cursor may also be observed in OneNote and other Microsoft 365 applications, but that classic Outlook is affected the most.

"When using classic Outlook, you may find that the mouse pointer or mouse cursor disappears as you move the pointer over the Outlook interface. Although the mouse pointer is not there, the email in the message list will change color as you hover over it. This issue has also been reported with OneNote and other Microsoft 365 apps to a lesser degree," Microsoft states in a support document.

The newer version of Outlook (shown above) is not affected by the disappearing mouse point glitch.

Microsoft's Outlook team has been investigating the glitch for at least the past several days, though so far it has not discovered the root cause or issued a fix. However, Microsoft has provided a few workarounds to get you by for the time being.

The first one is to select an email after you hover an Outlook message and the see the color shade to a different color. Doing this can cause the mouse point to suddenly reappear.

Another workaround is to open PowerPoint and click into an editable window in the program, then click back to Outlook. Apparently this can also make the mouse point return.

And of course there is the old standby solution of restarting your computer, a sort of cure-all for frustrating issues that don't resolve no matter what you try.

Lastly, Microsoft advises that anyone having this issue should ask their Microsoft 365 Tenant Admin to open a support case.