Cursor disappears when clicking external URLs

Bug reports
,
1

Steps to reproduce

  1. Click an external URL in a note. (In Editing view with Live Preview.)

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y/N]

Yes.

Expected result

The cursor is displayed at the clicked position within the URL.

Actual result

The cursor disappears. In addition, the arrow keys scroll the note instead of moving the cursor.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: 1.12.4
Installer version: 1.12.4
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 25.3.0: Wed Jan 28 20:53:31 PST 2026; root:xnu-12377.81.4~5/RELEASE_ARM64_T8122 25.3.0
Login status: not logged in
Language: en
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: on
RECOMMENDATIONS:
none

Additional information

I believe this behavior started in the previous version, 1.11.7.

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Summary

This text will be hidden

2

Sorry I don’t understand this.

When you click on the url, it opens it.

3

Sorry for the confusion.

Expected:
When you click an external URL in a note, it opens in the browser, and in Obsidian, the cursor moves to the clicked position within the URL.

Actual:
When you click an external URL in a note, it opens in the browser, and in Obsidian, the cursor disappears.

4

I can reproduce this. I’m also on MacOS, and didn’t test this on Windows.

When clicking an external URL, the focus of the note is lost. The caret disappears, and you can no longer edit the note until you click on the note, or run a command such as “Focus on last note”. Or you can use a hotkey to switch tabs back and forth and when you get back to the tab, the caret focus is back.

(If there is only one tab open, the hotkey to switch tabs also brings the focus back.)

Tested in the Sandbox too.

SYSTEM INFO:
	Obsidian version: 1.12.4
	Installer version: 1.12.4
	Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 23.6.0: Wed Oct 15 21:15:50 PDT 2025; root:xnu-10063.141.1.707.11~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000 23.6.0

By the way, I would also expect the cursor to either jump to the clicked position, OR possibly better, to remain where it was. Because option-click allows you to move the cursor into the link to edit it. So clicking should likely not move the caret, but just trigger the link.

5

I wasn’t aware of the option-click feature. Thank you for letting me know.

However, I would still like the caret to move to the clicked position.

I maintain some notes that collect my favorite web pages, like bookmarks.

When I scan one of the notes and open an interesting URL, returning to Obsidian with the caret positioned at my clicked location would let me easily see where I left off.

6

I can reproduce this, however what you see is the correct behavior, at least partially.

When you click on the link the app loses focus, so there is no cursor.
When you click back on the app, the focus returns to the app. Depending on where you click, the focus may return to a different part of the app.
When you focus the editor, the cursor should be visible and where it was before clicking the link (like rigmarole expressed).

Now, the bug I noticed is that the editor is active but the cursor is not.

7

That’s essentially the problem. You must click.

The caret is gone if you use the keyboard to switch back to the app, or something like a Mission Control switch.

8

Yes, but even if you clicked on the app title bar, it should activate the editor (it does) AND show the cursor (it doesn’t)

1 Like