touchpad - pinch to zoom not always works

[8mrg81]

I switched from a 2015 pro where touchpad was always for me perfect, here on the new 14 inch it feels weird. Kind of a step back comparing to what I had before. At times touchpad doesn't seem to register that I am trying to do "pinch to zoom". It's almost like I have to put my fingers in a specific ways for it to catch it. Kind of like regular "windows" laptops 🙁
Anyone else has noticed something like this?

 

[8mrg81]

Nobody has problems with zoom in/out with trackpad?
I found that people have issues with trackpad in general after upgrading to Monterey but they complain about scrolling issues (I get these too) and some double tapping (which I don't use).
So it gives me hope that this is OS related and might be fixed.
Really, no one noticed anything weird about pinch to zoom?

 

[CMMChris]

I have issues with tap to click since monterey. And sometimes my mouse cursor jumps. Never use pinch to zoom so can't say if that's an issue as well. Anyhow, if there are general sensitivity issues it's likely. Open a bug report with Apple in any case.

 

[8mrg81]

So I went to apple store today to "touch" other trackpads.
And I found that regular silver macbooks with silver trackpads are responding much better to my double fingers gestures
Also they feel different … silky smooth while the space gray seems to be more coarse.
Granted, on the silver ones I still would miss zoom in/out gesture once in a while but seriously … way less often than on the space gray!

I will be updating my old 2015 to monterey and see if it is OS related at all.

 

[happyemu]

I have this problem too! Just upgraded to new 14" Macbook from my late 2013. That trackpad was perfect and this one is really bugging me. @8mrg81 did you figure anything out? is it hardware or Monterey?

 

[8mrg81]

I have this problem too! Just upgraded to new 14" Macbook from my late 2013. That trackpad was perfect and this one is really bugging me. @8mrg81 did you figure anything out? is it hardware or Monterey?

I returned mine and got another one. This time light silver.
It seems just a little bit better but still a big issue Might be placebo at this point.
I hope software update will fix this but I am worried that they've just made a step back in hardware components t of the touchpad to save money because my old 2015 on newest macos is not THAT bad

Touchpad was always my most important reason for getting and keeping a macbook.

 

[mereøl]

Nobody has problems with zoom in/out with trackpad?
I found that people have issues with trackpad in general after upgrading to Monterey but they complain about scrolling issues (I get these too) and some double tapping (which I don't use).
So it gives me hope that this is OS related and might be fixed.
Really, no one noticed anything weird about pinch to zoom?

I have same problem and its not fix in 12.1

 

[mereøl]

I have this problem too! Just upgraded to new 14" Macbook from my late 2013. That trackpad was perfect and this one is really bugging me. @8mrg81 did you figure anything out? is it hardware or Monterey?

Same problem here with 16" M1 Max

 

[Areil Istanbul]

I returned mine and got another one. This time light silver.
It seems just a little bit better but still a big issue Might be placebo at this point.
I hope software update will fix this but I am worried that they've just made a step back in hardware components t of the touchpad to save money because my old 2015 on newest macos is not THAT bad

Touchpad was always my most important reason for getting and keeping a macbook.

Hi, I had the same problem with my MacBook Pro 2020 (intel chip) after Monterey. Then 2 days ago I bought a brand new 14'' MacBook Pro Silver... But faced the same problem... Trackpad SOMETIMES doesn't response to two-finger pinch. I returned the device to store back, bought a space grey, but now facing the same problem. I will try to fix it, otherwise throw it back to the store...

 

[foldpages]

I have the same issue on my M1 Air and Monterey 12.1. Sometimes pinch to zoom or other multi-touch gestures just won't work. It's definitely a software bug because it was working fine before Monterey.

 

[Memolomazo]

same problem m1pro 14''

 

[Martin_B]

Just bought a brand new macbook air m1 and I see the same problem. The pinch zoom gesture almost NEVER works at once.. This is a huge setback as the trackpads on my old macbooks always worked like a charm. It looks like as if apple tried to save money on hardware, and if so, it will surely backfire. Seriously, it feels like a trackpad on a PC laptop 15 years ago..

 

[CMMChris]

They have not saved money on Hardware. The Trackpads did work fine with Big Sur. It's just an issue with Monterey.

 

[Jurwin]

I noticed this too on my 16 inch M1 Pro MBP. I use pinch to zoom al lot. And often the trackpad does not respond the first or second pinch to zoom try. I still have a mid 2012 retina MBP and on the old retina the pinch to zoom is always immediately recognized by the trackpad and works without failed attempts.

 

[adamlbiscuit]

I have two Magic Trackpad 2s for my Mac mini (desktop) and currently pinch-to-zoom doesn't work on either of them (one is Silver and one is Space Grey). It was working earlier today but it's very come and go. It's also sporadic on my Gold Intel MacBook Air.

That's three different trackpads on two different machines, each in a different colour way and all with intermittent pinch-to-zoom issues. Safe to say it's definitely a software issue in Monterey and nothing to do with the hardware or the finish. Surprisingly still prevalent in 12.2 for me.

 

[Jurwin]

Glad I'm not the only that noticed this problem. There are various complaints over at official Apple forum too.

Pinch zoom on MacBook Pro unreliable with… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[chabig]

Do you live in a dry climate? Have you tried hand lotion? That seems to help me.

 

[Jurwin]

Do you live in a dry climate? Have you tried hand lotion? That seems to help me.

No. I live in western Europe. Also the pinch to zoom works as it should on my old mid 2012 retina MBP (10.15.7 Catalina). So I'm hoping it's a software issue on my 16 inch M1 pro MBP (Monterey 12.2).

 

[Doru Oprisan]

16 MBP 2019 here, my trackpad is really annoying after updating to Monterey from Catalina. I thought they just made the Finder uglier, but they also messed with tracking and especially double tapping on the trackpad.

 

[Mitchdoc]

I am currently testing out similarly spec'ed out 14 and 16 inch MBP and to be honest the trackpad has been a bit hit and miss with pinch to zoom. Seems that this might be more a software Monterey problem rather than the laptop itself.

 

[jbodd]

Same situation, 2021 14" MBP track pad decides not to pinch and zoom randomly on and off. Also have an external Magic trackpad and it does the same at the same time.

 

[f54da]

Known issue with Monterey. According to btt dev issue is with any application using cgeventtap. This will usually be either BTT, or window snapping tool. I'm not sure I'm 100% convinced issue is in the quartz layer as opposed to iohid event generation though; I've never seen synthetic fluid zoom event fail.

Best solution I've got for now is to hook up gesture toggle to corner force-press, that way it's easy to restart gesture when you notice it isn't working. Restarting gesture more frequently actually seems to make the issue worse is what I've seen.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/tap-to-click-issues-on-b9-and-10-and-now-monterey-release.2317279/post-31220615

 

[Sensamic]

I experienced this on a 14 MBP in store yesterday. Very annoying.

Does it also happen with a Magic Trackpad 2?

 

[f54da]

Yes, it will happen with a magic trackpad as well. Codepath for both is shared in MultitouchHID kext (although technically there are minor branches based on transport type == 4 (bluetooth), but that's not relevant here).

 

[AlumaMac]

Testing out my new 16" MBP and pinch to zoom is widely unreliable.