Are you editing a Google Doc, and your cursor has mysteriously disappeared? It can be really annoying when this happens, because you can’t see where you’re going to type or paste new text, and you might select the wrong paragraph. Luckily, you can fix this easily.
You’re probably using Google Docs on Google Chrome, so we’ll explain how to fix the problem with Chrome. But the solutions work for any other browser that supports the Drive suite.
1. Restart Chrome
Whenever you face any issue regarding your browser, the first thing you should do is restart it. Most of the time, this quick fix is enough to fix temporary glitches.
Close Google Chrome and press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to bring up Task Manager. There, right-click Google Chrome and choose End Task.
Restart your browser and check whether the cursor is now visible in Drive Docs.
2. Update Google Chrome
If you notice that Chrome is behaving strangely, besides the cursor not showing in Google Docs, you might be running an older Chrome version. In this case, updating to the latest version should fix the problem.
To update your browser, click on the three-dot icon from the top-right corner and go to Help > About Google Chrome. If available, click on the Update button.
Once Chrome completes the process, restart your browser.
3. Turn off hardware acceleration
The Hardware Acceleration feature is designed to reassign processing tasks from your computer’s CPU to the GPU or sound card. As a result, Chrome can complete some tasks faster. However, hardware acceleration is known to cause problems with Google Chrome, especially if you use a computer with limited resources.
In this case you should turn it off. Navigate to chrome://settings and from the left pane, select System. Next, turn off the toggle next to Use hardware acceleration when available.
4. Turn off tablet mode
On convertible computers, Google Chrome may switch to touch-friendly mode, and the cursor will disappear from Google Drive. To fix this, there are a few flags you need to turn off.
Additionally, you can use other flags to speed up Chrome.
make chrome cursor more visible
If you’ve fixed the missing cursor but still feel like you’re having a hard time finding it, you can change the Chrome cursor. This way, your cursor will still appear as normal while you use other programs on your computer.
Bring back cursor in Google Docs
If your cursor is missing in Google Drive, your productivity may grind to a halt. Of course, you can get your work done offline, but you may need Google Drive’s sharing capabilities. We hope that one or more of the above solutions helped you to fix the problem.
Now that you are back to using Google Drive efficiently, you should make your files more secure.