My recent test shows this also happens when you modify overlay in the buffer frequently. Also, a timer is not needed, it happens when it's frequent enough. Recipe: 1. emacs -Q 2. Eval this: (require 'paren) (add-hook 'post-command-hook (lambda () (let ((show-paren-mode t)) (show-paren-function)))) It's a setup to run show-paren-function in post-command-hook. Directly using show-paren-mode also cause the bug, but the chance is way lower, as it delays the refreshing using a timer. It happens to me occasionally when I'm coding with show-paren-mode on. 3. M-x find-library RET paren 4. M-x split-window-horizontally 5. Move to a position in the left window where there's a bunch of closing parens. You should see show-paren-function is highting them for you. 6. Scroll the right window to a position where you can see the matching opening parens. Now show-paren-function should highlight opening parens in the right window, and closing parens in the left window. 7. Go back to the left window. Hold Ctrl and press f/b/g at the same time several times (so you are sending C-f, C-b and C-g frequently) 8. The cursor in the left window will jump to the position of the right window cursor. I've attached a gif so you could see it clealy. At this time, I think the bug occurs when you frequently write text to header-line, mode-line, minibuffer (see https://github.com/kiennq/emacs-mini-modeline/issues/45), or operate on overlays. Using a timer or not doesn't matter. This has been bugging me for years since company-mode (uses overlay + timer) also causes this problem. I haven't seen similar bug reports, though. Am I the only unlucky company user? Could someone save me from the pain? Emacs version: GNU Emacs 28.0.50 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.30, cairo version 1.17.4) of 2021-08-11