Scroll to Zoom not working in After Effects 25.3 on macOS

If it helps, I never realised you could pan with the scroll wheel until I started using (I think) After Effects 25. Before that my mouse wheel would only zoom in large increments (the same as using ‘<’ and ‘>’ shortcuts), and it wouldn’t zoom in to the position of the mouse; only to the centre of the Comp window.

Version 25 brought with it the ‘new’ zoom which zooms in smaller increments to where the mouse is on the screen, but it’s only version 25.5 or 25.6 which swapped the controls so the mouse wheel would control the pan, hence why I found this post to swap the setting back (which is the first time I’ve seen it in preferences).

The version numbers may not be exact but I think it lines up with other people’s version changes here.

I’ve always just held the space bar to temporarily activate the Hand Tool in order to pan, which has been super handy

This does not solve the problem. Having the ability to Zoom and Pan is necessary. Zoom in tight, then pan left or right or up or down to edit a different point. Choosing one or the other makes no sense. 

I reverted back to version 25.2.2. No way I´ll miss out on being able to pan AND zoom with my mouse. Hopefully this issue will be resolved in a later version...otherwise I´m stuck here 🙂

@Bas | Peakfort, @Badams7, @user3462704, and others,
Thank you for bringing it this up. We are currently investigating what the right behavior might be to restore, but we haven't been able to reproduce the behavior with a Magic Mouse that is being described.

In previous versions of After Effects, scrolling would always zoom and holding Option would toggle between zooming to view center or zoom to the mouse cursor—panning using scrolling gestures was not supported as it is now. Would you be able to share a screen recording of the panning behavior in prior versions of AE and which model of Magic Mouse you are using? That would be a helpful reference to us as try to improve the zoom behavior to a more familiar state.

Thanks again,
- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

This still seems like an issue? How has this not be corrected yet?! 

"Correct" answer does not solve the original function of pan and zoom via mouse. 

The "solved" answer does not solve the problem. I want to be able to pan AND zoom, like I did before with using the command key. Macbook User with Magic Mouse here. Please give us that feature back. I can't see the reason why you removed it, you did not replace it with something different, it's just... gone. 😞

Hasn't this been made worse now? What was wrong with how it worked before?

I thought either my AE or mouse was broken but turns out its a new "feature". I almost lost trying to figure out whats wrong.

[abuse removed by moderator]

I tried reinstalling the application, cleared the preference but the option + Mouse scroll doesn't zoom in and out in the comp which is very frustrating as it works in Photoshop & Illustrator. but not in After Effects.
I am using the iMac M3 with the latest After Effect version.

Yes, this solves the issue (the issue being some muppet decided that this update should f@ck around with our work processes). Please STOP damaging this product, Adobe. I have already changed to Resolve for editing and I am at my witts end with you after 26 years!