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Pinch to zoom in Safari not working consistently on IOS 15

Ever since updating to IOS 15 I have noticed that pinch to zoom does not always work in Safari on my iPhone XS. I've never seen this issue prior to IOS 15. Here is what I see:


  • Load a page on Safari
  • Attempt pinch to zoom - sometimes it works immediately, other times it does not work.
  • Scroll the page up/down, then try pinch to zoom again - sometimes it works, sometimes it does not
  • Sometimes when pinch in to zoom works to zoom in, it will immediately break again and I cannot unzoom with 'pinch out' after numerous attempts. Eventually pinch out works again.


I have not seen this reported anywhere else, except for a short thread on reddit. In that thread (Anyone has issues with Pinch to Zoom using Safari on iOS 15 ?) users all had iPhones X, XS, XR, or the max versions running IOS 15.


I've tried killing Safari and restarting it, closing all tabs and reopening, and rebooting the phone. Nothing has resolved the issue.


Is anyone else seeing this issue with IOS 15?

iPhone XS, iOS 15

Posted on Sep 30, 2021 9:07 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 18, 2021 1:11 AM

In addition to the OP’s excellently concise description, it’s also possible sometimes to double-tap the screen and it will zoom in a bit, however, it then refuses to zoom back out again.


i have an iPhone X, totally up to date iOS-wise.


Really glad I found this posted somewhere. It’s been driving me absolutely nuts and I haven’t been able to find anything anywhere that would tell me whether or not this was a new intended ‘feature’ in iOS 15 or a bug.


Seems that it is a bug, and a really really really annoying one.


Please please please Apple will you look into this and get it fixed a.s.a.p.?

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 18, 2021 1:11 AM in response to runningman7900

In addition to the OP’s excellently concise description, it’s also possible sometimes to double-tap the screen and it will zoom in a bit, however, it then refuses to zoom back out again.


i have an iPhone X, totally up to date iOS-wise.


Really glad I found this posted somewhere. It’s been driving me absolutely nuts and I haven’t been able to find anything anywhere that would tell me whether or not this was a new intended ‘feature’ in iOS 15 or a bug.


Seems that it is a bug, and a really really really annoying one.


Please please please Apple will you look into this and get it fixed a.s.a.p.?

Dec 13, 2021 11:56 AM in response to runningman7900

Same issue here, iPhone XS Max.

This is only one of many new bugs and strange things happening to iPhone X(xx)’s since the new iOS 15 was released.

  • alarm sound not ringing through headphones anymore (extremely frustrating)
  • Touch ID now marks the words more often when all I want is to move the marker
  • my phone is super fresh and battery life is good, but out of nowhere apps have started to freeze in suspicious ways


either you fix this or we all go buy old nokias on ebay

Jan 16, 2022 2:38 AM in response to runningman7900

I updated my iphone X to 15.2.1 and pinch to zoom still does not work sometimes. I called the apple support. The man said

  • threads like this or macroumors or reddit are not relevant to apple
  • restore the iphone via dfu
  • if the problem then still occurs, it is a hardware problem, because this problem is not listed at apple.
  • he refused to register my problem and and did not report it to apple

in other words apple does not accept software problem reports from users.



Oct 11, 2021 11:31 PM in response to runningman7900

15.0.2 - Pinch to zoom is still broken in the way described by OP after updating an hour ago. I am on an iPhone XS. 15.0.2 was a Security update, so not entirely surprising that this issue has not been addressed. However, I’m worried that because this only seems to be affecting the “X” line of iPhones that this may not be a priority for Apple to fix. Fingers crossed for a patch to resolve it ASAP because it sure is irritating!

Nov 6, 2021 7:13 PM in response to Gunnshell

Another workaround I've found is to touch the screen *extremely* lightly while pinching. That also seems to work pretty much every time, but is even more annoying than pinching while scrolling. Because of this light-touch workaround, and the devices that are affected, I suspect this bug has something to do with the 3D touch feature of these phones.

Nov 10, 2021 3:41 AM in response to runningman7900

Seeing the exact same issue precisely as described in the OP.


I thought this was an issue with Brave browser but having recently switched back to Safari I've noticed that this is where the issue is. I'm using an XS Max.


I disabled 3D touch long ago when they announced they would not be supporting for future iPhone models.


Can't believe something like this has to even be reported! Hasn't this yet been noticed by anyone at Apple?

Pinch to zoom in Safari not working consistently on IOS 15

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