Illustrator zooming extremely far in or out on touchpad

[Hannah33043369k2bd]

Hi, I haven't had this issue previously in the 2 or 3 years I've been using Illustrator. I work on a laptop mainly as I am a student.

I use the touch pad to zoom in and out, which has worked fine for me up until now. It will still zoom in like it has been, but about 50% of the time it will zoom extremely far in or extremely far out. Almost like my mouse sensitivity went up for a moment.

I've looked through a bunch of forums and tried messing with every zoom preference option possible, but nothing seems to be working. Any solutions or tips would be appreciated because this is starting to become really frustrating.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @Hannah33043369k2bd,

I'm sorry to hear about the frustration you're experiencing with Illustrator zooming in and out unexpectedly. This issue sounds quite frustrating, especially when you're in the middle of your work.

To start troubleshooting, it might be helpful to determine if this issue started happening recently after updating Illustrator to the latest version. If possible, you could try reverting to a previous version of Illustrator to see if the problem persists. Additionally, it's worth checking if there have been any recent system updates on your laptop that could be affecting the touchpad behavior.

Another thing you could try is experimenting with different document sizes in Illustrator to see if the zoom speed varies across them. Sometimes, certain document characteristics can impact how the zoom function behaves.

If none of these steps resolve the issue, please don't hesitate to reach out for further assistance. We're here to help you get back to your workflow smoothly.

Best,

Anshul

[dmadrid689]

Unfortunately, this issue persists in version 28.5, macOS 14.5 (23F79)

[JessCampbell]

Hi there! I sometimes experience similar problems on my computer. I use an accessability feature on my Mac so I can zoom in my entire screen view by pressing a modifier key and scrolling my mousewheel in/out. Sometimes Illustrator decides to start scrolling my document indeifnitely instead of allowing my screen itself to zoom. I haven't found a way to stop it from doing this, but I do find that pressing Cmd + 0 stops the wild scrolling in its tracks and returns me to the default view of my artboard. So at least that's a quick way to get out of it when it does happen.

Another quesiton, are you using any external monitors?  And do you have the same behavior when using an external mouse instead of a touchpad?

[Hannah33043369k2bd]

Hi, I don’t use any external monitor or mouse. I’m strictly on my laptop
using the touchpad. I found that the intense zooming also happens when
moving my document using 2 fingers across the touch pad.

[JessCampbell]

It looks like you've already messed with all the settings that are relevant to this issue. It's probably related to either a system update or software update on your machine. I personally find trackpad/mouse zooming to be too finicky in general and generally use Cmd/Ctrl + and - to zoom instead, and spacebar to pan around the doc. I know it's frustrating to change your workflow, but you might find this works better for you overall?

[dmadrid689]

I can confirm this issue happens when moving documents with two fingers on the trackpad. 

[Anubhav M]

Hello @dmadrid689,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind reverting the Trackpad settings on macOS to the defaults (https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mchlp1226/mac) and then relaunching Illustrator to check if it helps?

Also, try running Illustrator under Safe Mode (Windows / macOS) and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[Destinee27110064dn99 · Accepted solution]

I *maybe* found a fix to this!

I've been experiencing the same issue and noticed that turning off "Zoom with Mouse Wheel" in Illustrator Preferences seems to resolve the issue.

I have it turned on because when I do use my mouse, I like to use this feature. However it seems to glitch out when still checked and only using the trackpad on Mac.

[h._j._3460]

Thank you.
This solved the issue for me.

[Jocelyn_Sperduto Desi3571]

I think this is my problem as well!  Trying this now!

[Brandon334892668l4y]

This fixed it for me, thank you!

[jayr25129400]

Thank you! This was driving me crazy!

[PhemieMichael30267910ibo8]

Thank you!
I'm just realizing that the issue started when I activated the zoom with scroll wheel

[taylor_6727]

Yup, this fixed it! Thank you! (and Adobe, if you're reading this, this is still a bug. The proposed solution that 'works' is a workaround that should not be necessary.)

[webolutionary]

You're a lifesaver. I don't even have a mouse and definitely never turned that feature on myself. If Adobe was going to turn that on automatically, maybe they could find a way to check for a mouse first? LOL

[william_8499]

Didn't work me unfortunately. It was already turned off in my preferences. Tried toggling it on and off and still no luck

[Anubhav M]

Hello @william_8499,

I'm sorry to hear you are having similar trouble with Illustrator. Could you please share more details, such as the exact version of the OS/Illustrator installed, your device's make/model, and a brief screen recording of the settings used and the problem, so we can better assist you?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav