Erratic Mouse Cursor Behaviour When Opening File or Going to Fullscreen

[Czar Hey]

After updating Affinity Photo from 1.10.1 to 1.10.3, I am getting some bizarre mouse cursor behaviour when doing the following:

• Opening a file
• Going into fullscreen
• Exiting fullscreen
• Closing the last currently open file

When any of the above are done, the mouse cursor will be moved to the bottom-left corner of the screen and be temporarily "stuck" there. The cursor may display the "spinning beach ball" (wait cursor). After a few seconds, the cursor will unstick and can be moved around, but it may not be visible on the screen, and may relocate itself to the bottom-left corner again. After a few more seconds, the cursor will be visible and can be used normally without issue.

Additionally, there is additional lag when going into and exiting fullscreen. It isn't clear if it's related to this issue, but it happens on top of the cursor issues reported above. When going into fullscreen, the dock and menu bar may disappear, but the program will take an additional few seconds before resizing to fill the screen. When exiting fullscreen, the dock and menu bar reappears, but the program again takes an additional few seconds before resizing to fit between the dock and menu bar. Expected behaviour is that the program resizes the window immediately, resulting in a smooth transition into and out of fullscreen. Neither the fullscreen jankiness nor the cursor issue appear when there are no files currently open in the program; the program enters and exits fullscreen smoothly, and the cursor is not relocated or stuck in any way.

Downgrading to 1.10.1 resolves the issue, so the issue is not present in the previous version and was likely introduced with the 1.10.3 update. Affinity Publisher and Affinity Designer do not appear to exhibit similar problems.

My computer's specs are the following:

• Model: MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• Processor: 2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
• Memory: 16 GB 3733 MHz LPDDR4X
• Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 1536 MB
• Operating System: macOS Big Sur 11.6 (20G165)
• Storage: 1 TB SSD

Edited October 26, 2021 by Czar Hey
Update findings for Publisher and Designer

[Dan C]

Hi @Czar Hey,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

I'd like to request a screen recording showing the behaviour you're reporting, as this isn't something I've heard of being reported with the latest update. Can you please attach a screen recording showing the steps you're taking when these issues occur?

If you're unsure how to take a screen recording, please check out our FAQ linked below - 

Can you also please navigate to Affinity Photo > Preferences > Performance and provide a screenshot of your settings here for me?

Many thanks in advance!

[Czar Hey]

Hello,

Here's a screen recording demonstrating the issue: 

Additionally, here's a screenshot of the Performance panel in Preferences.

 

[Dan C]

Many thanks for your screen recording provided - I have been working to replicate this issue here and have thus far been unsuccessful, however we are aware of a Metal Compute issue with the Intel Iris Plus GPU that your machine uses and this may be the cause of this.

If you untick Hardware Acceleration at the bottom of the the Performances dialog, then restart the app as prompted, do you still see this behaviour please?

[Czar Hey]

I can confirm that I do not see the issue with the Hardware Acceleration option de-selected.

Thank you for investigating!

[Czar Hey]

I installed the 1.10.4 update earlier today, which purported to resolve the issues with the Metal compute acceleration. Unfortunately, I am still experiencing the issue when the option is selected.

Additionally (and this is new for today), the issues will still persist if the "Enable Metal compute acceleration" option is de-selected while the "Display" option is set to "Metal". Yesterday, the issues would go away if "Enable Metal compute acceleration" is de-selected even if "Display" was still set to "Metal". This is no longer the case today. I haven't made any changes to my system, aside from shutting down the computer overnight and then booting it back up this morning.

The stop-gap solution is still either one of the following:

• Downgrade to version 1.10.1, which does not exhibit such issues when "Enable Metal compute acceleration" is selected; or
• De-select "Enable Metal compute acceleration", then change "Display" to "OpenGL", which fixes the issue on 1.10.3 and 1.10.4.

 

[Dan C]

Apologies for the delayed response here and many thanks for the further information provided!

We've been trying to replicate this issue here but thus far we've yet been unable - although this has been using the Intel Iris Pro, not the Intel Iris Plus chip - so this may be the 'missing link' to explain the cause of this issue.

Whilst I'm waiting for an Intel Iris Plus device for testing, can you please confirm for me:

• Are you using any input manager, or shortcut manager to rearrange/resize windows? (such as Spectacle)
• What device are you using for input? (ie mouse, touchpad, etc)
• Do you have a drawing tablet or similar connected?

Many thanks once again

[Czar Hey]

1. I am using BetterTouchTool, which adds functionality to the trackpad and to the Touch Bar. I tested Affinity Photo with BetterTouchTool closed (not running) and the issue persisted.
2. I am using the built-in MacBook's trackpad.
3. I do not have a drawing tablet or iPad connected.

[Dan C]

Thanks for confirming that for me!

I've had a member of our QA team test run this application on their device and we're still unable to reproduce this issue - as well as a member of our development team has tried testing this on a Mac using the same Intel chip and they too were unable to replicate the issue shown in your screen recording.

However, clearly there is something causing this on your machine, whether hardware or software related is very had to determine currently.

Have you yet updated to Monterey? I note in your first post you mention Big Sur, I'd just like to double check you've not updated since?

Do you have any other active running applications that may be using your mouse, or affecting your screen? 

[Czar Hey]

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

Have you yet updated to Monterey? I note in your first post you mention Big Sur, I'd just like to double check you've not updated since?

I have not yet upgraded to Monterey. I'm waiting for a few more months before considering upgrading, to make sure that my other programs have had time to be updated for the new OS.

I did update to macOS Big Sur 11.6.1, which was a routine security update, since starting this thread. The issue still persists without any change in behaviour.

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

Do you have any other active running applications that may be using your mouse, or affecting your screen? 

Aside from BetterTouchTool, none that I know of. I did install Bartender earlier today, but the issues persist exactly as they did before and after installing it, and when Bartender is quit. I tested creating a new user account (so none of my user settings would carry over), and the issue persisted on the new account as well, with no other apps running.

[Dan C]

Apologies for the delayed response here, as we've been continuing tests internally.

Our team would like to know what customisations you have set within BTT, so that we can setup a mac using the same settings here to see if we can replicate this issue internally - could you please provide a screenshot of these for me?

I've seen a few other reports of users experiencing a 'freeze' when entering fullscreen, but thus far this seems to affect Monterey only, hence me double checking.

Another option would be to create a new macOS user account, where BTT is not installed, then install the Affinity application and see if you can replicate this issue here? This would determine once and for all if it's the Affinity app and your hardware causing the issue, or the Affinity app and a third party application.

Many thanks for your continued patience and understanding here

[Czar Hey]

Hi Dan,

When I created the new user account, BetterTouchTool and Bartender were not loaded or running, yet the issue still occurred, so it's probably not BTT that's causing the problem.

Nevertheless, I have attached two screenshots that show the customizations I have set up using BTT. I have also attached a BTT preset preferences file that can be quickly imported.

Enoch.bttpreset

[L3141]

Hi -

I am experiencing the same issue on my 13 inch MacBook Pro (2020) with Intel Iris Plus Graphics running macOS 12.2.1 and Affinity Photo 1.10.5. When loading/saving/closing files or entering/exiting full screen, the cursor becomes temporarily stuck in the bottom left corner of the screen (and the application hangs while moving to full screen). I can also confirm that disabling Metal compute acceleration and changing display from Metal to open GL fixes the issue. I do not have BetterTouchTool or Bartender installed on the machine.

Edited March 27, 2022 by L3141
Didn't mean to quote

[Czar Hey]

I am currently on Affinity Photo 1.10.5, and have upgraded to macOS Monterey 12.3.1, and the issue persists exactly as it did when I first reported it in October.

It definitely doesn't seem to be related to BTT or Bartender, and it may not be related to macOS either. Maybe it's an issue that is specific to the Intel-based 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro?

[Iulian Onofrei]

It happens for me on M1 Pro too.

I think it's related to https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253546872. It happens for me in the Photos app too. But disabling the Zoom a11y setting doesn't fix it.

[eklecticgeek]

Hello there Affinity forum!

I was  getting crazy with this issue since I got Monterey on a M1 max in november, because it made Final Cut kinda unusable, even more because I am used since many years to use hot corners for sleep and display stop. After months getting crazy and dodging the issue using final cut on my other mac, i had to upgrade to monterey after a drive failure and totally freaked out for days about this damn mouse pointer thing. After spending a few days (nights) googling around, i found similar reports about Affinity Photo.. and then, ..a wild reddit user appeared!  ..and brought a solution!

(please see the attached image for details in case it's not straightforward)

On System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Zoom disable "use scroll gesture to modify zoom"

Extra note: I can see @Iulian Onofrei's post right before mine saying it didn't fix for him, but i would advice to everyone to give a chance to this solutions since it worked for me, and it worked both on a iMac late 2015 (iMac17,1, obviously intel) and on M1 Max (MacBookPro18,4) so there are a few things I'm pretty sure about:

–  this is somehow definitely related to the OS version (it didn't happen on Catalina, same mac, same everything, and begun happening constantly after upgrading to Monterey)

and it's definitely not related to: 
– arch
– video cards
– input device (mouse / trackpad)

It's very likely not related to apps and apps versions (for me, it was happening on different versions of Final Cut), so I'd bet that this is not caused by and so can't fixed by app developers (except someone finds the culprit and workaround the issue in the app code)

One more detail for @Iulian Onofrei again: another user reported to have this fixed cleaning chrome from his mac (not a word about zoom/accessibility in that case), so maybe it can happen on various conditions..  I'm linking all the "sources" for this here so maybe others can finally workaround this:
– first, weeks ago, i found this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253818555 this didn't fix for me, but actually (weeird 😮) it happened a lot less than before, and for less time (in short: before cleaning all the google software update keystone crap stuff i definitely had to wait more seconds to "unstuck" the mouse from the left-bottom corner, after cleaning google* apparently the pointer it was not *stuck* anymore on the corner, but just jumping there. Again, weird.. but I dont' have a better explanation for this. 
– earlier today, i found the same post linked by Iulian in his post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253546872
– this is the "original fix" linked in that apple forum thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/oydvbj/comment/hqu4445 and i think it's a good idea to have it around in case something new comes out

for me, removing chrome and unticking the syspref/accessibility option for zoom apparently fixed (and don't dare to enable the zoom keyboard shortcut on that same options panel, it will cause the same problem, and seeing this behaviour it's hard to think it's just a coincidence.. 😃

actually I tested this more on final cut than affinity (actually because in final cut for me this happens kinda always on app open/close, so it was easier to track), after changing the zoom setting, as of now, no more mouse issues here.

Hoping this helps! 👾

 

Edited September 20, 2022 by eklecticgeek
added a few details about os/app versions related to the issue

[Czar Hey]

8 hours ago, eklecticgeek said:

Hello there Affinity forum!

I was  getting crazy with this issue since I got Monterey on a M1 max in november, because it made Final Cut kinda unusable, even more because I am used since many years to use hot corners for sleep and display stop. After months getting crazy and dodging the issue using final cut on my other mac, i had to upgrade to monterey after a drive failure and totally freaked out for days about this damn mouse pointer thing. After spending a few days (nights) googling around, i found similar reports about Affinity Photo.. and then, ..a wild reddit user appeared!  ..and brought a solution!

(please see the attached image for details in case it's not straightforward)

On System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Zoom disable "use scroll gesture to modify zoom"

Extra note: I can see @Iulian Onofrei's post right before mine saying it didn't fix for him, but i would advice to everyone to give a chance to this solutions since it worked for me, and it worked both on a iMac late 2015 (iMac17,1, obviously intel) and on M1 Max (MacBookPro18,4) so there are a few things I'm pretty sure about:

–  this is somehow definitely related to the OS version (it didn't happen on Catalina, same mac, same everything, and begun happening constantly after upgrading to Monterey)

and it's definitely not related to: 
– arch
– video cards
– input device (mouse / trackpad)

It's very likely not related to apps and apps versions (for me, it was happening on different versions of Final Cut), so I'd bet that this is not caused by and so can't fixed by app developers (except someone finds the culprit and workaround the issue in the app code)

One more detail for @Iulian Onofrei again: another user reported to have this fixed cleaning chrome from his mac (not a word about zoom/accessibility in that case), so maybe it can happen on various conditions..  I'm linking all the "sources" for this here so maybe others can finally workaround this:
– first, weeks ago, i found this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253818555 this didn't fix for me, but actually (weeird 😮) it happened a lot less than before, and for less time (in short: before cleaning all the google software update keystone crap stuff i definitely had to wait more seconds to "unstuck" the mouse from the left-bottom corner, after cleaning google* apparently the pointer it was not *stuck* anymore on the corner, but just jumping there. Again, weird.. but I dont' have a better explanation for this. 
– earlier today, i found the same post linked by Iulian in his post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253546872
– this is the "original fix" linked in that apple forum thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/oydvbj/comment/hqu4445 and i think it's a good idea to have it around in case something new comes out

for me, removing chrome and unticking the syspref/accessibility option for zoom apparently fixed (and don't dare to enable the zoom keyboard shortcut on that same options panel, it will cause the same problem, and seeing this behaviour it's hard to think it's just a coincidence.. 😃

actually I tested this more on final cut than affinity (actually because in final cut for me this happens kinda always on app open/close, so it was easier to track), after changing the zoom setting, as of now, no more mouse issues here.

Hoping this helps! 👾

 

Thank you for troubleshooting, ekleticgeek!

Turning off "Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom" did not work for me. However, turning off the Zoom accessibility feature entirely via Control Center resolved the cursor jankiness issue:

1. Go to System Preferences, then select Dock & Menu Bar.

2. Select Accessibility Shortcuts, then select Show in Control Center.

3. Select Control Center from the menu bar, then select the Accessibility Icon.

4. Deselect Zoom.

When Affinity Photo is restarted with Metal GPU enabled, the cursor no longer relocates to the bottom-left corner or gets stuck. However, the app still hangs and beachballs when entering and exiting full screen, and the dock and menu bar still take a while to appear/disappear.

[eklecticgeek]

Hey @Czar Hey (pun not intended)

I can confirm this behaviour (even the spinning beachball), actually playing a bit more with settings after my previous post, I realized I can't select any option to have zoom (doesn't matter if it's a shortcut, a mouse gesture or whatever) or the bug comes out again, so shortly speaking ..  yes, I have to keep zoom disabled .. well, still a smaller issue than the relocating mouse pointer!  I'll just enable zoom it when I need it, hoping we don't need it while using those apps 😬 

Funny enough, I was talking with another long-time mac user and it came to our mind that there was a similar bug in mac os x 10.2.8 (2007) with users complaining about the mouse pointer suddenly stuck in the upper-left corner.. it looks like they worked on it for 15 years but finally they took down the problem (literally)

@Iulian Onofrei, let us know!

Edited September 20, 2022 by eklecticgeek
tagged Iulian to get his attention on this new detail ;)

[Czar Hey]

Just wanted to share some updates.

The cursor jankiness issue (where the cursor would spontaneously relocate to the bottom-left corner of the screen) appears in the latest release of Adobe Photoshop, version 24.0, and in Affinity Photo version 2. Disabling the Zoom accessibility function resolves the issue. The issue is therefore not limited to Affinity, and I'm not sure if it will be resolved in macOS Ventura (I am still on Monterey).

As for the other issue—the delay between the menu bar and Dock disappearing and the application resizing to full screen—it is still present in v2, with the same fix of switching the Performance > Display setting to OpenGL instead of Metal.

[Wuy]

I have had the exact same "jumping cursor" bug for at least a year. It's still there with V2 (with less beachballing), and only when closing the last window, whereas in V1 it occurs also when opening a file. I am using an Intel MacBook with macOS 12.6.1.

The problem goes away if I turn off both zoom accessibility checkboxes, keyboard and scrollpad, in the System Preferences.

I haven't seen this in other apps. I don't have Photoshop.