Macbook Trackpad Pinch-To-Zoom not reliable (Hypothesis)

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strange96 Author

Level 1

4 points

Macbook Trackpad Pinch-To-Zoom not reliable (Hypothesis)

On my 13" M4 Air, the two finger zoom (pinch to zoom) gesture has been unreliable.

I read similar complaints on the community:

Trackpad pinch to zoom gesture fails occa… - Apple Community

Pinch zoom on MacBook Pro unreliable with… - Apple Community

Some proposed solutions were:

Toggle pinch to zoom in Trackpad settings
Close the laptop lid and reopen
`killall Dock` command

None of these have solved my problem and I have been experimenting.

I couldn't find an official answer from Apple on this.

So maybe my observations can contribute to the discussion.

The Problem: Trackpad zoom gesture does not work every so often.

TLDR Hypothesis: MacOS is not a mobile OS. Supporting Zoom AND Rotation gestures is not straightforward.

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Below are my observations and more.

Observation 1: For zoom to work, both fingers have to move initially.

You need to move two fingers away, to start the zoom gesture.

If you keep one finger stationary, and only move the other, no zoom.

Observation 2: Once the zoom is initiated, one of the fingers can be stationary.

While we needed two fingers in motion to begin zooming,

once it is detected, you can continue the gesture just by moving the other finger away.

(This is helpful since one of those fingers tend to be the thumb,

without much room to move at the bottom of the trackpad.)

Observation 3: Zoom = Displacement Alongside an axis.

Once the zoom gesture is initiated, (I think) they create a line passing through both fingers.

As you move your fingers away, only the parallel component of the displacement is counted for zoom input.

A similar logic could also play a part in the gesture initiation.

This is not the most intuitive behavior from a user perspective. However...

Observation 4: They have to account for the rotation gesture, and it is similar to the zoom detection.

The rotation also has the "move both fingers" rule for the gesture to initiate.

Once the rotation is initiated, one of the fingers can stay stationary, while the other rotates around.

(Important) Observation 5: Rotation and Zoom are mutually exclusive gestures. (Pan as well)

I was surprised to see that even in Preview, you cannot Zoom-and-Rotate an image like you would do on a tablet or a smartphone.

Mobile devices have the nicest implementation where you can zoom, rotate and pan all in the same gesture.

MacOS, even Tahoe, does not support it.

Yet it needs to "decide" whether the current gesture should be interpreted as rotation or zoom or pan.

Observation 6: Older Windows laptops are better at the zoom gesture.

My trusty 8-year-old Lenovo had no issues with the pinch-to-zoom on Windows and on Fedora Linux.

Some of the older comments on this community says that their old HP laptop had no pinch issue as well.

THE HYPOTHESIS:

Older Windows laptops never had to deal with the "rotation" feature.

So while they did not have the agility or flexibility of a modern mobile device, they could get away with a very simple "distance" based pinch-to-zoom gesture.

MacOS, despite its many "it just works" features, is still a desktop os.

Rotation and Zoom being mutually exclusive is the core problem.

Then they need to decide the type of gesture at the beginning.

This also explains many user complaints about "the zoom gesture lagging".

The reason why many of us have trouble with this gesture (and the core of my hypothesis) is:

we do not initiate the gesture.

And we are unable to do that because:

one of the fingers is not moving enough in the beginning

(or)

our movement confuses MacOS to think of "rotation" or "pan"

and it falls back to "palm rejection + single finger moving cursor"

At least, that is my current best guess.

So...

I wrote these down because I care.

I love my new laptop in many aspects and it is a bummer that zooming is "broken".

Disabling "rotate with two fingers" does not help with the zoom gesture detection. (There is still "panning/scrolling" to be distinguished anyway)

If you find an error in my observations and hypothesis, please do comment!

We need as much data on this as possible.

Even if apple keeps neglecting us, maybe a brave developer can tackle this issue in the future.

So the more we can learn about this the better.

Good luck everyone.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Oct 21, 2025 1:23 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 21, 2025 6:03 PM in response to strange96

Good points. In fact, until seeing your diagram and trying it, I had no idea pinching/expanding in anything other than a straight line (doesn't have to be on the diagonal, any orientation works) would not continue the zoom...mainly because I just always move my thumb and finger in a straight line.

You also have a good point on the rotate vs. zoom gesture. Apple provides a help page on multitouch gestures:

Use Multi-Touch gestures on your Mac - Apple Support

...and they use the same picture for both! You'd think they could make the arrows different, at least (granted, illustrating a motion with a static image is sometimes challenging, as anyone who has tried to learn ASL before YouTube knows).

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

135,899 points

Oct 21, 2025 2:52 PM in response to strange96

Two finger zoom seems to work fine for me on my M1 MBA. That being said I normally just zoom the entire screen if need be by holding the Command key and scrolling.

In any case feel free to send Apple feedback.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

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Answer 3

Oct 21, 2025 5:29 PM in response to strange96

The notable difference is that underneath the glass surface of the iPhone and iPad there is a display with which the user is directly interacting via multitouch gestures, whereas under the glass surface of the trackpad there’s not.

If there is an ‘intermittent failure’ because one is not performing the gesture correctly, I don’t think that qualifies as a failure any more than it is a failure when my keyboard to intermittently produces an N when I type an M. The failure is my fat finger, not nacOS. See what I did there. 😜

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Answer 4

Oct 21, 2025 3:34 PM in response to strange96

Your diagram illustrates the expected behavior, as shown by the moving dots (representing your fingers on the trackpad) in System Settings > Trackpad & Scroll & Zoom. Thanks for confirming what Apple clearly demonstrates is the expected behavior.

I don't understand how a function that performs as designed and clearly illustrated is 'broken', nor do I understand why 'we need as much data on this as possible'. It works as designed and as it has since the first Apple trackpad offered this feature.

Ok, I get that you mean that you want it to function differently than Apple designed it. Tell Apple that using the feedback link provided by my colleague, and I will echo your 'good luck' with that.

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Answer 5

dialabrain

Level 10

135,899 points

Oct 21, 2025 4:43 PM in response to strange96

strange96 wrote:

I should rephrase the "broken" better: The trackpad behavior of the macbook is not as forgiving as the multi-touch gestures on an iPad/iPhone (or android for that matter).

Possibly because an iPad/iPhone (or android for that matter) don't use a trackpad.

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Answer 6

strange96 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 21, 2025 5:45 PM in response to neuroanatomist

neuroanatomist wrote:

whereas under the glass surface of the trackpad there’s not.

Yes!

That is partly the reason why I find it difficult.

The trackpad is something you use without looking down.

On a screen, the UI can dictate where and how to interact.

With the trackpad, I just naturally move my fingers to perform a gesture.

Unfortunately for some of us, the trackpad does not behave as smoothly as desired: Pinch to zoom gesture on trackpad stops w… - Apple Community

I value your interest

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Update:

If there is an ‘intermittent failure’ because one is not performing the gesture correctly

Fair point. And yes "nacOS" was funny :)

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Answer 7

strange96 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 21, 2025 6:30 PM in response to neuroanatomist

(Oh you know sign language - that is very cool! I always wanted to learn but never persisted)

Thank you for trying out the gesture and bringing apple docs to the discussion.

I'll be signing off for tonight.

Wish you a good day mr. neuroanatomist 💀

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Answer 8

strange96 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 21, 2025 4:41 PM in response to neuroanatomist

I appreciate your time.

I should rephrase the "broken" better: The trackpad behavior of the macbook is not as forgiving as the multi-touch gestures on an iPad/iPhone (or android for that matter).

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