iMac Zooming in and Out on its own

[Deltarat]

My Mac is the Retina 5K 27-inch 2020 3.3 GHz 6-core Intel core i5 running Ventura 13.3.1

My Mac keeps zooming in and out on its own. It's getting worse each day to the point that it can't even be used. It's not the magic mouse. All of the zoom settings for the mouse are disabled. Plus, I disconnected the mouse and it still zooms in and out. It's not the keyboard. I disconnected the keyboard and it still does it, so it's not a key that's stuck.

I can see the "view" tab in the main toolbar flickering as if the cursor is on it and rapidly clicking, but the cursor is no where near it. It just keeps flickering and zooming in and out while making the "boop" sound that a Mac makes when you get an error notification.

It's not Safari or a specific program. It does it no matter what program or folder I have active.

I have no idea what is going on or what to do to fix it. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Slydude]

Do you have a second user account on that Mac? If you do, log out of the account that is giving you the problem and log into the second account and see if the problem continues to occur. Since the Mac seems to be up and running, you should be able to go into the Users and Groups preferences and create a second account.

If I understand you correctly the View menu is blinking like something is being activated. Now we just have to figure out what it is.

What keyboard are you using? Does the problem occur if you disconnect/shut off the keyboard and use a different one does the same problem occur?

 

[Deltarat]

Do you have a second user account on that Mac? If you do, log out of the account that is giving you the problem and log into the second account and see if the problem continues to occur. Since the Mac seems to be up and running, you should be able to go into the Users and Groups preferences and create a second account.

If I understand you correctly the View menu is blinking like something is being activated. Now we just have to figure out what it is.

What keyboard are you using? Does the problem occur if you disconnect/shut off the keyboard and use a different one does the same problem occur?

Thank you for your reply.

I will try to create a second account to see if it still has the problem. I'm also using a third-party mechanical keyboard that connects via USB. Like I mentioned, the computer continuously zooms in and out even with no keyboard connected, so I kind of ruled the keyboard out as being the cause. I will connect the keyboard that came with the Mac to test if the problem still happens.

It may be an hour or so before I can try these things out but I will post the results here as soon as I can.

Thank you.

 

[Slydude]

I mentioned, the computer continuously zooms in and out even with no keyboard connected, so I kind of ruled the keyboard out as being the cause. I will connect the keyboard that came with the Mac to test if the problem still happens.

Thank you.

If the problem occurs with no keyboard attached that probably rules out the keyboard/stuck keys as the cause. It can't hurt to try a different keyboard though.

Something occurred to me after I read your previous post. Is the screen actually zooming in/getting magnified or is the app being used going into a full-screen mode?

Use apps in full screen on Mac

On your Mac, expand an app window to fill the entire screen.

support.apple.com

BTW, have you checked the Accessibility preferences to see if screen zooming is turned on there?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Can you boot into Safe Mode and see if this issue persists? Also, can you make a recording with your phone and share so that we can see what's going on?

 

[Deltarat]

If the problem occurs with no keyboard attached that probably rules out the keyboard/stuck keys as the cause. It can't hurt to try a different keyboard though.

Something occurred to me after I read your previous post. Is the screen actually zooming in/getting magnified or is the app being used going into a full-screen mode?

Use apps in full screen on Mac

On your Mac, expand an app window to fill the entire screen.

support.apple.com

BTW, have you checked the Accessibility preferences to see if screen zooming is turned on there?

I tried a different keyboard and the problem continued.

The screen is being magnified, not going full screen mode. Also, screen zooming is disabled in accessibility preferences.

I have tried with a different user as well. The problem remains.

 

[Deltarat]

I have a recording with my phone and I posted the video to Facebook, but when I try to embed the video here I get an error message saying the URL cannot be used.

 

[Deltarat]

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Could you try starting up in Safe Mode and see if the issue persists? You can also try a PRAM/NVRAM reset just to cover the bases.

It definitely looks like the OS is getting the keystrokes that would zoom in and out and when there isn't an app opened to service that request, you're getting the default beep which tells you that you can't perform that action.

 

[IWT]

@Deltarat

I'm pretty sure you've looked at this before, but just to exclude:

Open System Settings > Accessibility > Zoom and make sure that there are no features ticked which would activate the Zoom.

I suspect not, but worth excluding.

Ian

 

[exncite]

He might try to reinstall the OS. That was always suggested by Apple when I had issues.

 

[Deltarat]

@Deltarat

I'm pretty sure you've looked at this before, but just to exclude:

Open System Settings > Accessibility > Zoom and make sure that there are no features ticked which would activate the Zoom.

I suspect not, but worth excluding.

Ian

Thank you for the suggestion, but you are correct. I have already tried that and it wasn't the issue.

 

[Deltarat]

Could you try starting up in Safe Mode and see if the issue persists? You can also try a PRAM/NVRAM reset just to cover the bases.

It definitely looks like the OS is getting the keystrokes that would zoom in and out and when there isn't an app opened to service that request, you're getting the default beep which tells you that you can't perform that action.

I will try doing that. I will have to look it up. I apologize but I don't know what a PRAM/NVRAM reset is.

 

[Deltarat]

He might try to reinstall the OS. That was always suggested by Apple when I had issues.

It may come to that. I hope not.

 

[MacInWin]

Is your mouse wireless? If so, check the mouse settings for any gestures. There is a "Smart zoom" that should be turned off.

And if the mouse is wireless, try turning it off and using a wired mouse. It may be interference with Bluetooth from some other device nearby.

 

[Deltarat]

Is your mouse wireless? If so, check the mouse settings for any gestures. There is a "Smart zoom" that should be turned off.

And if the mouse is wireless, try turning it off and using a wired mouse. It may be interference with Bluetooth from some other device nearby.

I made sure all the gestures were turned off. I also turned the Bluetooth off and it still had the issue.

 

[Deltarat]

I currently have to Mac in safe mode. So far, the problem has not occurred. Sometimes it would happen immediately and sometimes it would take a while before it would start zooming in and out again. I'm gonna let it sit in safe mode for a while to see if the problem comes back. If it doesn't, at least then we will know that the problem goes away when in safe mode.

 

[Slydude]

It may come to that. I hope not.

Before we do that let us try a few other things that should be less of a pain.
1. I notice that you are running Ventura 13.3.1. Was this problem happening before that update?

2. If you can get Activity Monitor up and running, it might give us a clue which processes are running that might be causing trouble.

How to use Activity Monitor in macOS Ventura | AppleInsider

You can easily keep tabs on what's running on your Mac and get things running smoothly by using Apple's Activity Monitor. Here's how to get started.

appleinsider.com

 

[Deltarat]

Before we do that let us try a few other things that should be less of a pain.
1. I notice that you are running Ventura 13.3.1. Was this problem happening before that update?

2. If you can get Activity Monitor up and running, it might give us a clue which processes are running that might be causing trouble.

How to use Activity Monitor in macOS Ventura | AppleInsider

You can easily keep tabs on what's running on your Mac and get things running smoothly by using Apple's Activity Monitor. Here's how to get started.

appleinsider.com

I honestly can't remember if the problem started before or after the update.

I will look at activity monitor soon. As for now, the computer is in safe mode and the issue hasn't come back so far. I'm waiting to see if it does since sometimes it would take a while before the problem would start back up again.

 

[Slydude]

You seem to have pretty much ruled out keyboard/mouse issues. Since it affects multiple users that suggest there is something loading in software that might be an issue such as something that loads at login.

Have you added any new software recently?