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Participant
September 22, 2022
Question

Photoshop Animated Zoom

  • September 22, 2022
  • 7 replies
  • 822 views

Hi guys

I have a new macbook pro with Monterey on it, I've unchecked the box that says 'animated zoom' but it still stays on. I know a lot of people love it but myself and others in the company don't, how do I rid my photoshop of the A.Zoom?

 

TIA

Dan

7 replies

Inspiring
September 20, 2025

Dan - did you ever solve this issue?

Derke
Anshul_Saini
Community Manager
Community Manager
September 26, 2025

Hi @No thank you.,


Thanks for following up. To help us see exactly what’s happening on your system, could you please create a short screen recording showing the behavior? Specifically:
 • Go into Preferences > Tools and confirm that Animated Zoom is unchecked.
 • Select the Zoom Tool and click once on your canvas. With Animated Zoom disabled, the zoom should jump instantly (for example, from 100% to 200%) with no smooth animation.
 • Also check the Scrubby Zoom option in the top Control Bar. If that’s turned on, it allows click-and-drag zooming regardless of the Animated Zoom preference, so toggling it off may help clarify what you’re seeing.


This recording will help us determine whether Photoshop is misbehaving or if another setting, like Scrubby Zoom or system input preferences, is affecting zoom behavior.

Also, copy & paste your system info from the Photoshop Help menu > System Info.


Looking forward to your update so we can narrow this down.


Best,

Anshul Saini

Inspiring
September 26, 2025

Sorry. What?

Derke
Legend
September 23, 2022

I can't reproduce. Unchecking animated zoom seems to disable it. See attached video.

Jeff Arola
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 23, 2022

Does it have anything to do with your Trackpad settings under Apple>System Preferences>Trackpad>Scroll & Zoom?

Participant
September 23, 2022

That's right Jeff, can't turn it off. Don't know why, just not a fan of the animated zoom

Participant
September 23, 2022

Thanks Cory. I've tried all suggestions on the link and still no luck. Might try an older version of ps and see what happens.

Jeff Arola
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 22, 2022

Just so we're on the same page, Animated Zoom allows a user to click and hold the Zoom Tool to zoom in and in combination with the Alt/Option key zoom out. Normally without animated zoom checked one has to do multiple clicks to zoom in/out of an document.

 

So your saying even after unchecking Animated zoom in Preferences>Tools, the behaviour persists?

 

The old behaviour of the Zoom Tool before photoshop cs4 was to either do multiple clicks to zoom/in/out or drag a marquee around an area then after releasing the mouse the area would be zoomed into. If with the Zoom Tool selected and Scrubby Zoom checked one can still zoom with the Zoom Tool by click holding and dragging left or right instead of multiple clicks or dragging out a marquee.

 

 

CShubert
Community Manager
Community Manager
September 22, 2022

Hi @danielwells 

 

Let's make sure we're in a default state and there are no stale settings somewhere: 

Restore your preferences using this manual method:  

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually 

Does it work correctly? 

If that doesn't solve it, you can quit Photoshop and put the Settings folder back. 

 

Thank you,