A cursor seems to be one of the most important parts of a MacBook. It is usually used to point keys on the screen and then indicate the position. If your MacBook’s cursor gets frozen or is jumping randomly, it will absolutely interfere with your work. Here are proven solutions to fix the frozen cursor problem on your Mac.

Force Quit Apps

If the cursor only gets frozen after opening a certain app on your Mac, the problem can be rectified after closing that app. So, how to close it when you are unable to move the cursor at all?

force quit

You can easily do it through the short cut keys. Simply press CommandOptionEsc keys at once. After you see the popup pane, just highlight the app you want to close and then click on “Force Quit”.

Open Activity Monitor

activity monitor

If there are too many apps or tabs on the web browser opening at the same time, they can make your Mac run out of RAM memory. That’s the reason why you are not able to move the cursor on your Mac. All you need is to free up the RAM to get rid of this issue. Simply press CommandSpace keys on the keyboard at once to open Spotlight. After that, type in activity monitor and click on the result from the top. Now, just double click on the unresponsive process that is eating up too much RAM memory and choose Quit.

Restart Your MacBook

Sometimes, the frozen cursor problem on your Mac can be rectified just by a restart. Before powering off your Mac, you should disconnect all accessories connected from it. If the cursor gets frozen totally and you are unable to navigate to the Apple menu to switch off your Mac, just press and hold the Power button for a few seconds.

Clean Up Trackpad

If you only use the trackpad to navigate your MacBook, you should clean it from dust. You should also ensure your fingers are clean and dry. Before you start cleaning the trackpad, first unplug the computer from the adapter and then shut it down. Use a microfiber or lint-free cloth to clean your cursor. Gently spray the cleaner to the cloth and wipe. You should not spray the cleaner directly to your MacBook trackpad.

Reset SMC

If none of the methods above helped you fix the frozen cursor on your MacBook or it just works temporarily, you can try resetting System Management Control (SMC) on your Mac.

  1. Turn off your MacBook first
  2. Press the Shift + Control + Option keys on the left side keyboard
  3. Now, press and hold the Power button for 10 seconds
  4. Release all the keys and then power on your MacBook.

Reset PRAM

If resetting SMC does not help, you can try to reset PRAM on your Mac to fix the cursor issue. To reset PRAM on your Mac:

  • First, restart your Mac (press Control + Eject keys on the keyboard)
  • Hold down the Command+ Option+ P+ R key combination at once. You need to hold them immediately while your Mac is starting.
  • While holding them, you will hear the boot chime again, meaning that the reset has been successful.

Now, simply go of the keys and the reset is complete. Your Mac will now start up as normal. This keyboard combination only works if you hold them down before you see the grey screen.