mac turned into an iphone screen

I have an iPhone, iPad and we have a MAC that is partitioned for two users, my hubs and I. this has been going on for awhile but we've reached a tipping point. apple has turned my side of the computer into a huge, huge, huge phone screen because apple doesn't want people to share devices including macs. I can barely work on it. The zoom in/out feature is completely gone. restarting doesn't work...at the same time...my husband's side of the computer is just perfectly fine. This just happened last night after an apple forced restart.

Posted on Aug 28, 2023 4:53 AM

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Aug 28, 2023 5:21 AM in response to idsummitgirl

"my husband's side of the computer is just perfectly fine". If by this you mean his user, then you need to consider your user profile is corrupt and you need create another for your work and remove your old user. When this is done, you can choose to keep the old user's Home folder and the data in it.


A user becoming corrupt is not all that uncommon. The fact that only you are affected is a strong clue there's nothing wrong with the computer per se, just your user.

Aug 28, 2023 5:53 AM in response to ku4hx

that's helpful. we didn't set this computer up...apple did.

so i don't know how i, as user, was set up. I am concerned about my data, corrupt or not. Most of the "work" is on my side. Most of our photos are on his side, but i have a lot of photos too. I do backup to an external drive.

If you have any key phrases that might help me to figure out fixing this, i'd appreciate it. thanks for the prompt response.

Question marked as Helpful

Aug 28, 2023 6:27 AM in response to idsummitgirl

By "your side of the computer" do you mean your User Account, and if so are you using Launchpad?


Use Launchpad to view and open apps on Mac - Apple Support


The Launchpad screen resembles an iPhone's screen.


... because apple doesn't want people to share devices including macs.


That's not correct. It seems you two are already sharing a Mac, and are sharing it correctly. Each one of you can have your own viewing preferences. Changing yours won't affect your husband's.

Aug 28, 2023 7:40 AM in response to John Galt

No i am not using launchpad, never heard of it before. That's never been set up. that "phone" view seems to show up with updates or apple forced restarts...only on my side of the computer, but i have never changed any views unless you consider zooming in/out is a change of view. Yes we are sharing and sharing correctly. It's a 2015 mac and on the current operating system.

Aug 28, 2023 7:46 AM in response to idsummitgirl

When you say "the zoom in/out feature is completely gone", what do you mean, precisely?


If you open System Preferences – which Ventura calls System Settings – one of the things you'll find in there is an Accessibility panel that can make all sorts of big changes to the user interface. If something flipped one of those settings on or off, a big change that made your account barely usable might be very easily reversible.


For instance, one of the Accessibility features is some sort of system-wide Zoom feature. (This is separate from application-specific zoom features commonly found in Web browsers, word processors, and photo editors.)


"On your Mac, use Zoom settings for accessibility to make the entire screen larger or to enlarge just the area where the pointer is located."


If that is what you were using and it went away, maybe you just need to turn it on again.

Aug 28, 2023 8:06 AM in response to idsummitgirl

idsummitgirl wrote:

No i am not using launchpad, never heard of it before.


Launchpad displays full-screen grids of icons – very similar to the screens on iPhones – allowing you to launch applications with a single mouse click.


Its icon looks like a 3x3 grid of colored squares. I can run it from the Dock, from the Applications folder, or by pressing the F4 key (the one marked with two rows of boxes).


It's also possible to set up Mission Control to run Launchpad when you drag the mouse pointer into a corner of your screen.


https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/06/05/how-to-set-up-and-use-launchpad-on-macos


In Ventura, I think the controls are in System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Hot Corners…. While that doesn't seem to be set up to run Launchpad by default, I discovered that the lower right hand corner of the screen has been set up to run something called Quick Note. (Click on the little square, and the Mac opens Notes and puts you into a new, blank note.)

Aug 28, 2023 8:15 AM in response to Servant of Cats

yes, the screen is not using launchpad. I will look at the accessibility panel and see if i can get anywhere. the zoom in/out feature i'm speaking off is off of safari main menu. there are no options there anymore. I think this needs an apple visit. I don't touch anything and this interface changes as a result of forced reboots/updates. Not a user issue. thank you

Aug 28, 2023 8:21 AM in response to John Galt

Thank you. We're taking it into apple at our destination. I don't have anymore time for this here and we'll have few connection opportunities for me to troubleshoot it more than I have via the community. At least i have the right terms from all the responses to help describe it and they'll see the screen. thank you for your time/responses.

mac turned into an iphone screen

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