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iOS 9 zoom bug big problem!

sometimes history repeats itself

when iOS 8 came out i reported almost the same bug regarding one of the accessibility features, zoom in ios


accessibility zoom in iOS 8 problems


now with the release of iOS 9 zoom feature is even worse 😟

the three finger gesture sometimes works sometimes it doesnt

and when it does when you move around in the zoom area with two fingers the screen is almost flickering


the only solution, temporary of course that i have found is to use the control switch menu shortcut so as to have this and manually adjust the zoom and work around a document or whatever i would like to see


this is a huge issue for me and for any other visual impaired user making it almost impossible to use the device under iOS 9


for any user either vision impaired or with normal vision, can you please replicate this and confirm this? Try and enable the zoom and then use the three finger gesture to zoom in an app or on the home screen


I'm very worried and very disappointed since this is the main reason i stick to apple for so many years. accessibility tools have been on iOS devices since day one and they have been the best in comparison with the rest of the mobile OS out there

iPhone 6, iOS 8.4

Posted on Sep 16, 2015 11:20 PM

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Posted on Sep 20, 2015 3:09 AM

Hello ioannisfromaddison,


I created an account here just to reply to your message.


I too am visually impaired and use the three finger double-tap zoom gesture a throusand times a day. Since iOS 8.x I have had the bug where the full-screen zoom function randomly switches to the window zoom function. I have also had a bug where sometimes the zoom function doesnt know which way is up, and you have to slide three fingers right and left instead of up and down to increase/decrease the zoom level. I have just learned to live with those, and no update to iOS 8 has fixed them


To answer you question about iOS 9, I too have the EXACT SAME problems you are describing. I am experiencing;


Sometimes three finger double-tap zoom will work fine, zooming in and out.

Sometimes three finger double-tap zoom will zoom in, but a repeat three finger double-tap zoom will not zoom back out.

Sometimes three finger double-tap zoom will do nothing, even after three finger double-tapping 10 times in a row.


I very often three finger double-tap and hold the second tap to then slide up and down to adjust the zoom level for that particular screen. For instance, I three finger double-tap hold and slide up and down to view faces on Instagram posts, as each photo is different in scale, etc.


Sometimes three finger double-tap hold and slide will zoom in but not immediately adjust the scale as it should when sliding.

Sometimes three finger double-tap hold and slide will zoom in but will bring up the Spotlight Search page out of nowhere!

Sometimes three finger double-tap hold and slide will do nothing, even after three finger double-tap and sliding 10 times over and over again.


As I said, I three finger double-tap zoom in and out thousands of times a day, so if even one zoom attempt goes awry it is jarring. Within 10 minutes of having the iOS over-the-air update, I was exeriencing hundreds of failed zoom attempts, leaving the new iOS update infuriating and mostly unusable.


Restarting the iPad several times did not help.

Restoring the iPad Air with a downloaded iOS 9 .ipsw file and NOT restoring any settings and setting the iPad up as a new iPad, meaning as clean as you can get, did not help and the zoom function bugs were just as present.

Restoring the iPad Air a second time with the above process did not help.


Finally, restoring the iPad Air with a downoaded iOS 8.x.x -- whatever the latest version is -- got me back to where I was before and at least I can live with the occasioanl iOS 8 zoom function bug.


Thank you for posting your issues here, as I figured it was just me and my iPad acting up on iOS 8 and totally screwed on iOS 9 leaving me to consider purchasing a new iPad.


I don't know much about .ipsw restore files, but I know that Apple stops "signing" older versions at some point, making it impossible to restore to a previous version. That is why I quickly went back to iOS 8. I will stay here until iOS 9 is fixed, even though I have no idea how one would be able to tell.


If you can, consider restoring back to iOS 8 on your device. As you've noticed, iOS 9 is not worth it yet for those in our situation.

36 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Sep 20, 2015 3:09 AM in response to ioannisfromaddison

Hello ioannisfromaddison,


I created an account here just to reply to your message.


I too am visually impaired and use the three finger double-tap zoom gesture a throusand times a day. Since iOS 8.x I have had the bug where the full-screen zoom function randomly switches to the window zoom function. I have also had a bug where sometimes the zoom function doesnt know which way is up, and you have to slide three fingers right and left instead of up and down to increase/decrease the zoom level. I have just learned to live with those, and no update to iOS 8 has fixed them


To answer you question about iOS 9, I too have the EXACT SAME problems you are describing. I am experiencing;


Sometimes three finger double-tap zoom will work fine, zooming in and out.

Sometimes three finger double-tap zoom will zoom in, but a repeat three finger double-tap zoom will not zoom back out.

Sometimes three finger double-tap zoom will do nothing, even after three finger double-tapping 10 times in a row.


I very often three finger double-tap and hold the second tap to then slide up and down to adjust the zoom level for that particular screen. For instance, I three finger double-tap hold and slide up and down to view faces on Instagram posts, as each photo is different in scale, etc.


Sometimes three finger double-tap hold and slide will zoom in but not immediately adjust the scale as it should when sliding.

Sometimes three finger double-tap hold and slide will zoom in but will bring up the Spotlight Search page out of nowhere!

Sometimes three finger double-tap hold and slide will do nothing, even after three finger double-tap and sliding 10 times over and over again.


As I said, I three finger double-tap zoom in and out thousands of times a day, so if even one zoom attempt goes awry it is jarring. Within 10 minutes of having the iOS over-the-air update, I was exeriencing hundreds of failed zoom attempts, leaving the new iOS update infuriating and mostly unusable.


Restarting the iPad several times did not help.

Restoring the iPad Air with a downloaded iOS 9 .ipsw file and NOT restoring any settings and setting the iPad up as a new iPad, meaning as clean as you can get, did not help and the zoom function bugs were just as present.

Restoring the iPad Air a second time with the above process did not help.


Finally, restoring the iPad Air with a downoaded iOS 8.x.x -- whatever the latest version is -- got me back to where I was before and at least I can live with the occasioanl iOS 8 zoom function bug.


Thank you for posting your issues here, as I figured it was just me and my iPad acting up on iOS 8 and totally screwed on iOS 9 leaving me to consider purchasing a new iPad.


I don't know much about .ipsw restore files, but I know that Apple stops "signing" older versions at some point, making it impossible to restore to a previous version. That is why I quickly went back to iOS 8. I will stay here until iOS 9 is fixed, even though I have no idea how one would be able to tell.


If you can, consider restoring back to iOS 8 on your device. As you've noticed, iOS 9 is not worth it yet for those in our situation.

Sep 20, 2015 5:21 PM in response to ioannisfromaddison

I Have the same problems as both of you, except my device does know which way is up. I though have more issues too. When I zoom in then scroll with one finger, sometimes the app switcher comes up. Sometimes when using three fingers to scroll it thinks I'm using 5, therefor tries to switch apps that way (5 finger scroll left to right or right to left) it definitely is annoying, but glad that the iOS 8 zoom freeze bug is fixed along with some others. 🙂

Sep 20, 2015 10:22 PM in response to Texxas

thank you very much for signing up and letting us know about the issue that most of us with visual impairment are facing

thank you for the detail description of the problem that i was actually trying to desfibe(its not easy!)


also regarding the store you are absolutely right. we don't know for how long apple will sign the latest version of iOS 8.x.x for anyone that is thinking to downgrade his device


i believe that if we keep this thread alive people from apple will see it and fix this annoying issue that takes our lives with iOS devices quite difficult


my personal opinion is that apple will keep signing the iOS 8.x.x for quite some time since there are a few other bugs apart from accessibility related bugs and there are people not satisfied so fingers crossed if we can get a iOS 9.0.1 fixing these issues


i still have iOS 8.4.1 on my iPhone 6 and won't upgrade since my phone is not a toy is a top that helps me on my daily tasks

Sep 28, 2015 6:07 AM in response to ioannisfromaddison

Hi guys,


I too have the same problem on my iPhone 6 and iPad air 2 have tried rebooting several times but to no avail, I have also had the intermittent return of Full Screen Zoom switching to Window Zoom on my iPad. I've sent feedback to Apple and intend to keep doing so and maybe this will be sorted as this makes my iPhone virtually unusable unless I use it in conjunction wit a hi powered magnifier which is ridiculous.I remember a couple of years ago a video of Tim Cook pledging support for minority groups which is only to be praised but I did note that the disabled weren't mentioned and it seems as though that those of of us that are visually impaired are being overlooked again (pun not intended) with the release iOS 9.


Come on Apple your better than this.

Oct 1, 2015 2:14 AM in response to ioannisfromaddison

hello friends

I also have the same problem! Thats why I returened to ios 8.4..1(after upgrade to 9)

I'm very disappointed and I waitting for bug fixes update. until then I will stay in ios 8.4.1.


IOS for me is the only way to use smartphone, Im a Impaired vision, I dont want to move to an android phone, but if this problems continues with nexts ios updates, I will considering moving to android, and it will be a big shame!!

I hope you will fix it, otherwise my iphone is not relvent for me. ):


Thanks

Oct 5, 2015 7:07 AM in response to eNovator

Hello all,


Yes, I also have this problem on my iPhone 6 and iPad Air. On top of that the following is also often the case:

- double tap with 3 fingers is now often interpreted as a single tap with one finger. So, I select something in stead of zooming in/out.

- double tap with three fingers is often ignored completely;

- double tap with three fingers and hold on the second time to increase/decrease zoom factor is often ignored or zooming doesn't go smoothly.


A bit of topic, maybe, so I'll post this also on other topics concerning accessibility: VoiceOver has problems too now. Speech speed is increased/decreased with 10% for each step, making it too fast or slightly too slow. The Read function is a complete mess. The reading speed is so fast, it's impossible to hear what is being said. This cannot be solved. Tapping the Slower button doesn't do anything.


I'm on iOS 9.02 Dutch and using a Belgian voice, since the male Dutch voice is pretty bad and has been for quite a while.

Oct 5, 2015 10:49 PM in response to hschippers

@hschippers

thanks for sharing and detailing exactly what is happening with the zoom feature on iOS 9

and yes its exactly how you explained..maybe your explanation is better than mine (since english isn't my mother tongue!)


as i have already said, i have installed iOS 9.1 beta 3 and it seems that the zoom is working..."a bit" better than in the public release of iOS 9.0.2

i hope someone at apple is reading this and an quickly release a fix


i will repeat myself i know but...

Zoom and voice over aren't new characteristics and features

they are built in since day one and are used by people with disabilities so this has to be taken into account and try and correct this ASAP!

Oct 6, 2015 4:05 AM in response to eNovator

I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the way accessibility is becoming a after thought in iOS. I have used Apple since 1986, I have been so impressed how Apple has taken Accessibility very seriously since OS X in 2000. I am a software developer and know when corners are being cut. Basically I too am up-set about the degrading usability in iOS since 8. I expect teething issues in .0 and .1 but the locking is still very frustrating. For vision impared developers it is difficult to be an early adopter of the iOS releases, BETA releases seem almost unusable since iOS 8. My biggest issue now is the sensitivity in 9.0.2, basically when I try and do 3 finger double tap it keeps pressing buttons, making me trigger things I really don't want to, it is terrible using banking apps and the phone keeps making calls when I don't want too. When I make the calls wrongly it takes ages to hang up because the interface is so difficult to use now. I wonder if this is to do with 3D Touch support, I have the iPhone 6+ 128G, so I don't know what it is like on the 6S devices. At this rate if Apple forgets the importance of the 4 quadrants of accessibility and what this mean to usability, function and form, things will get worse and Apple will lose marketshare. Maybe just maybe this is a sign of things to come when my favourite man of all time Steve Jobs isn't around to make sure certain things are done write regardless of market pressure. I am very upset, I have always hosted how Apple are the only company to take Accessibility seriously. I can't use my phone very well anymore, I may need to get my money back and see if Android can work well for me. 29 years of Apple dedication from when I was 6 on the MacSE, I wouldn't say this if I wan't extremely frustrated with Apple direction.


* I reiterate, more than half the time I 3 finger double tap it presses buttons. It makes it hard to do banking and I keep false calling people I really don't want to.

* Making software good doesn't always mean adding new features, there must be a consistent level of standards. Apple may be losing everything that made it successful - great user interfaces (not patchy updates introducing market trending gimmicks).


(iPhone 6+ 128G, Developer and Apples biggest fan every!)

Oct 6, 2015 4:58 AM in response to LowVisionMacGuru

i believe that LowVisionMacGuru says it all

exactly to the point

can i please remind you to send s many feedback as possible?

since you are a developer and you know exactly the mechanism, i think we should do something abut this

i am register on a special group hat all have the same vision impairment and we are all frustrated about his 😟

Oct 6, 2015 5:09 AM in response to ioannisfromaddison

I hope my emotion is not taken wrong, I really want the issue raised in priority.

The biggest issue is that 3 finger double tap is treated as a single click. I noticed appear as an issue on iOS 8 in the BankSA application. I thought this was a poor application design but maybe it is a new API. Yes I am Applle's biggest fan and an Enterprise Programmer and yes this is the first time I have ever needed to complain to Apple in 29 years, I always adapt to new directions. This issue is big and if Apple choose to innovate the 3D Touch feature and don't get the accessibility right we may for the first time in Apples history end up with a disjoint patchy human user interface. Please don't forget the 4 quadrants of accessibility and what that means to good software - and what good software means to Apple. This is truly a big problem.

iOS 9 zoom bug big problem!

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