Pinch zoom on MacBook Pro unreliable with macOS Monterey

Hey muhndo,

I agree that this may be an issue that it looks like they will drag their feet to acknowledge since it wasn't fixed in their latest update. The gasket around the screen issue sounds like a problem specific to your machine since I personally haven't encountered that issue with mine. Also, I haven't cleaned my screen too frequently since I started using the thin paper that was protecting the screen the first time you open the laptop. I basically lay that paper on top of the keyboard before closing the laptop so it prevents it from getting the screen dirty or transferring the oil from my fingers on the keyboard onto the screen.

Hey Stanwik,

Not sure if you have tried this, but I have the same issue and this workaround worked for me:

Open "Activity Monitor" > Look for a process named "Dock" > Select it > Then click on the "Stop" icon at the top > Then "Quit" or "Force Quit" > The dock will then restart itself in a second and the trackpad should register gestures. Also, if the problem is constant, I would add the "Activity Monitor" app as a shortcut to the dock for easy reach.

Hopefully, this helps.

I have had the same issue with my MacBook Pro 14.

The workaround I've found is to disable the zoom function in the trackpad settings and enabling it again. After that it usually works fine for a while.

2022 and I'm still having this problem as well. Disappointing. I have a 2021, 14", M1 Max MacBook Pro, and my OS is up to date. jackIsCracked's workaround did not work for me. What I've found to work is to toggle "Tap to click" under Trackpad in the System Preferences (Lord only knows why). Hope a fix is to come.

I have had the very same issue -- pinch in/out not working consistently on my MacBook Pro trackpad -- that started exactly concurrent with upgrading my MacOS from Catalina to Monterey. It is clearly a software glitch and needs to be fixed. I use the trackpad all the time for graphics applications, but my employer will not allow me to revert to a pre-Monterey OS because of security update issues.

Just made a discovery by happenstance: It appears that the pinch/expand may be working, but just NOT on the active/foreground window.

I had been working in Affinity Photo, and then toggled to different windows/programs. I had opened an image in Finder and was frustrated to find pinch/expand not working, but then noticed in an edge of the Affinity window in the background that *that* program was still responding to my Trackpad pinches, even though it was about 3 windows removed from the active foreground.

Hello,

I read this thread searching for an answer, none of it really worked for me. I use Sketch where pinch to zoom is vital. To dodge the problem I started to zoom in/out and it started to work again. Next time when the problem occurred again, I intetionally zoomed in/out (like 3 times in and 3 times out times three) and pinch to zoom works every time after this. Cant confirm if it works with safari or other apps. It is important that you use the keyboard shortcut to zoom in/out couple of times.

Hope it helps.

I am having the same issue on M1 Max (16"). I just had pinch-to-zoom and twist-to-rotate completely freeze in all windows for about 1 minute. Then it unstuck itself and started working normally. Not exactly what I hoped for after upgrading from a 7 year old laptop to a brand new expensive macbook. Pretty disappointed.

I just started having this problem on both M1 13" 2020 and Intel i5 2019 after some Monterey update. Pinch to zoom in / out stops working.

Solution: System Preferences > Trackpad > Scroll & Zoom > Zoom in or out uncheck and check again.

Seems like I have to do this like 1-2 times an hour when working with documents (e.g. Pixelmator, Preview or Microsoft Word).

I'm having the same problem with pinch to zoom being unreliable on a 2020 M1 MacBook Air since upgrading to OS Monterey in December. The recent upgrade to Monterey 12.1 has not addressed the issue. Trackpad pinch to zoom is unreliable across a range of apps including Safari, Preview, Word.

This is clearly a known issue, given the number of reports online and on this page about the issue, very disappointing Apple hasn't addressed this yet.

Hello, fkadb.

I have the exact same issue. I'm on MBP 14-inch with M1 Pro, running Monterey (12.1).

I just wanted to add that for me, this seems to happen when I have two windows of the same application open.

For example, if I open <file 01>.xlsx and <file 02>.xlsx at the same time in MS Excel, pinch to zoom will work fine on one of these two windows, but it will not work on the other one. Also, when I open some kind of map website on Google Chrome, and open another window of Chrome and go to that exact same website, only one of the two websites will allow me to pinch-zoom the map. But, even this glitch happens like 50% of the time, not always.

I also think that this is a problem of new Mac OS, and I really hope that Apple deals with this issue.

Add me to the list of people having this problem. Brand new 16" Macbook Pro m1 max with Monterey 12.1. Very annoying when using Unity, and even Chrome. Trying to zoom in, it sticks. Also scrolling left/right in the finder seems to lag in the column view.

Just noticed the same issue on my MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) (macOS Monterey, ver. 12.1). Ever since the Monterey update, this has apparently been a common issue/glitch whether I'm on a browser or an app. Why has this issue not been fixed yet?

Have this problem on TWO Macbook Pros M1 Pro 16" !!! Among other gesture issues!!! THIS IS STRAIGHT UP EMBARASSING APPLE. SO MANY MONTHS PASSED AND STILL NO FIX. I LITERALLY CAN NOT DO MY WORK BECAUSE OF THIS TRASH.

I can't believe this issue is still going on. My pinch-to-zoom and other gestures, break basically every 3rd application switch. It's absolutely maddening. The only way to fix it is to power cycle my Magic Trackpad 2. It's f*****g insane this shipped.