‘Command +’ and ‘Command -’ no longer work on docs and web pages

[hooptyuber]

I'm in the habit of using command + or - to enlarge or decrease the font on docs and web pages. Now, when I used those commands, the page snaps back to the original size within a second or two. Very annoying. It's happening on both my M1 mini with Ventura and my elderly 2015 iMac with Monterey.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I'm in the habit of using command + or - to enlarge or decrease the font on docs and web pages. Now, when I used those commands, the page snaps back to the original size within a second or two. Very annoying. It's happening on both my M1 mini with Ventura and my elderly 2015 iMac with Monterey.

In Safari, go to the View menu. What does it list as the keyboard shortcuts for Zoom In and Zoom Out?

 

[hooptyuber]

In Safari, go to the View menu. What does it list as the keyboard shortcuts for Zoom In and Zoom Out?

Thanks for the reply. It lists command key + and command key -. 🤷‍♂️ I don't know why they've gone haywire.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Thanks for the reply. It lists command key + and command key -. 🤷‍♂️ I don't know why they've gone haywire.

I'm doing a little googling and found one possible cause, at least for Safari. Open Safari's settings; switch to the Websites tab on top; then uncheck the box labeled "Share across devices". See if that helps, though quite frankly it shouldn't be necessary and wouldn't explain this happening with documents. It's checked here and I don't have this issue.

Another possibility I'm thinking is something in Accessibility (not sure offhand what it could be) or something like mouse or trackpad software. Do you have anything installed like Logitech's Options software, SteerMouse, USB OverDrive, etc?

 

[hooptyuber]

I'm doing a little googling and found one possible cause, at least for Safari. Open Safari's settings; switch to the Websites tab on top; then uncheck the box labeled "Share across devices". See if that helps, though quite frankly it shouldn't be necessary and wouldn't explain this happening with documents. It's checked here and I don't have this issue.

Another possibility I'm thinking is something in Accessibility (not sure offhand what it could be) or something like mouse or trackpad software. Do you have anything installed like Logitech's Options software, SteerMouse, USB OverDrive, etc?

I unchecked "share across devices" and that seems to have fixed it. Thank you! I never would have thought that would create such an issue.

I don't have any third party mouse or keyboard software installed so no issues there.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I unchecked "share across devices" and that seems to have fixed it. Thank you! I never would have thought that would create such an issue.

Cool beans, but this really shouldn't have been a problem. You mentioned you have the same issue with documents... any change in that regard?

Unchecking that option is a bandaid for whatever the real problem is. The way this should work is that when you zoom in, THAT zoom levels becomes the new value shared back to other Macs. Since the zoom level resets only when sharing, that tells me your local preference for that zoom level is getting overridden by the preference set previously or elsewhere. Unchecking that does the trick, but if you have other options there that you would prefer to share across devices, then it may be worth troubleshooting further. My best guess is a possible corrupt preference file for Safari, but there are a couple different ones. Go to your user Library, then Preferences, and find com.apple.Safari.plist. Try trashing that, then restart Safari; check that this Share setting is on; and see what happens. If no change, you can just restore the original version. Now, I don't think this is the actual one because I just toggled that preference off and on, and the modified date of that file here didn't change. So here's another that may be the correct one. This is found in ~/Library/Containers/Safari/Data/Library/Preferences.

There are other Safari preference files for SafeBrowsing and other dedicated preferences, but I would avoid deleting these others for now. If the above doesn't help, I would try using Onyx to clear out your caches. Maybe you simply have a bug in the internet cache.

 

[pixpixpix]

I have the same problem on a just-acqiured M2 MacBook Pro. There are also hundreds of websites listed with zoom percents in Settings>Websites>Page Zoom. They are not sites I visited in the few days since my new Mac just arrived and I did not do use Migration Assistant. The settings must come from iCloud>Safari settings.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I have the same problem on a just-acqiured M2 MacBook Pro. There are also hundreds of websites listed with zoom percents in Settings>Websites>Page Zoom. They are not sites I visited in the few days since my new Mac just arrived and I did not do use Migration Assistant. The settings must come from iCloud>Safari settings.

Try deleting that file com.apple.Safari.plist I mentioned earlier. When I experimented, the one located in ~/Library/Containers/Safari/Data/Library/Preferences was updated as soon as I toggled that checkbox off and back on. A quick tip here... the easiest way to get to that folder location is to copy it as I have it typed here (including the ~); go to the Finder menu, click Go, Go to Folder, and paste that path there. I took a look at the contents of my file and it definitely does contain the relevant parameters, but there could be other files that are associated with this setting also.

One other thing to try is using Onyx to flush out the caches, in particular the Internet cache. A buggy cache definitely is a possibility here. In fact, try this first so you avoid tampering with your set preferences.