Mac Problem – When moving the mouse moves the entire enlarged screen
May
I’ve owned my iMac for just a few months now. I love it, but the most frustrating hiccups I’ve had is when I’ve had my toddler, Rocco, on my lap and he’s gone crazy on the keyboard. He’s already renamed my hard drive, but the worst thing that happened was when the whole screen became larger and would move around with the mouse. It really freaked me out. It makes the computer only just usable. Just usable enough to try to find the fix.
The first time this happened was about a month ago, and I managed to google the answer. I promptly forget what the trick was, and today it happened again.
Well, I very much freaked out this time when I just couldn’t find the same web page with Google as I had before.
But I did find the fix. It turns out that Rocco had pressed the Control key while I was scrolling up a web page with the middle scroll button of my mighty mouse. That made the screen zoom in wildly.
All I needed to do was hold down the control key and scroll downwards with the scroll button.
I’m posting this partly as a reminder note to myself for next time Rocco does this trick, and for anyone else who has this happen to them.
Thxs… saved my butt. it was my son…. not Rocco probably same IQ
Glad you found the solution here, Yang. Every day I get visits to this page from people with this problem searching for a fix on Google.
My baby girl….did this to me too…Thanks saved me a headache!
@Sakred1: Glad it helped. Maybe I should write a book called, “Help! My Baby Broke My Computer!”
Wow. What a great, cool, fast fix! lol
Too bad I couldn’t find the answer when I checked my system preferences, etc.
I’ll blame my wife! (But it could have been MY son too!)
I remember checking my System Preferences, too. It’s a real mystery until you realize what actually happened!
Thanks so much, this was driving me crazy. you are a lifesaver!!!
ps. my kid did the same thing!!
thank you for the tip
Glad it helped.
thanks so much!
You are my hero right now. My six year old son enlarged our screen to where I couldn’t see anything. I was out of the room at the time, so I wasn’t aware of what he did exactly. Thanks to you, it is back to normal and I am relieved. Thank you for posting the information above.
Yes, thanks! I was a bit panicked. My cat okra did this shifty trick too while I was using the mouse.
Thank you so much for posting this!!!
same happened just now with my daughter Ciara – thanks for the solution, I told my wife I could find a solution in 2 minutes… it took a half an hour..
her solution also works… restart the computer
Thank-you so much!! Wow- it was the weirdest thing and so easy to do – it was my 10 year old who suddenly while playing a game on line made the crazy mouse as he called it come alive! Thanks for helping us put the crazy mouse to rest!
i have the same problem, what was the solution for it??
Help! I’m having that problem right now! And I tried scrolling while holding down control and it didn’t work. (I don’t have a mighty mouse, just one with a scroll ball on top) I also tried restarting and that didn’t return my screen to normal either! Can this (bad) “feature” be disabled somehow?
So, I got it, the trick I think, was scrolling on the desktop, not in my open program for instance … thanks so much for the blog here. It would be good if I could find out how to delete that whole option if possible.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Same thing happened to me (only I wish I could blame one of my kids but I dont have kids) and your article helped my sanity for sure! I figured it was a simple fix but couldn’t find an answer anywhere and was freaking out not realizing how to undo what I had done. Thanks again for your post!
MC
thanks for the tip fixed the prob within 1 min
From one parent to another. Thank you!!! Baby boy and keyboard + not up to speed with Mac keyboard = needed your answer.
Thanks
Thank you so much!!! My kitten did this to me! So easy to fix, you’re amazing!
Thank you SO much! Our stories are Identical except our sons have different names LOL! Thank you again your awesome for posting this!!
Hi I’ve got the same problem, but I adjusted the zoom in system preferences and it has made no difference, I don’t know what else I can do! Can anyone help? Thanks!
Hi Katie. Did you try holding down the Control key and scrolling? What type of mouse are you using?
Also, try rebooting the Mac – does that restore things back to normal for you? Even just logging out of your user account and logging back in may help.
Thankyou Trisha! We have success! : ) x
You are a life saver…my daughters that is…playing on the keyboard with her friend…ugh. Just wanted to say thanks!
Glad this is still helping people – parents especially, and pet owners.
This really saved me, thank you! I’m new to mac and my toddler did the same thing. It took me a couple days of googling to find your site and figure out the answer. I can’t thank you enough!
Zooming seems to be part of all toddlers’ job description. It’s an occupational hazard.
Thank you – that is so nice of you to post this!! I actually managed to do this myself and I am no toddler. Bless you, bless you
THANKYOU! Yes, it was MY son too, who did this – and he’s 13 so should know better!!
Thank you!!!! Toddler did the same just now.. Rang the Mac helpline.. Couldnt help me.. Found your advice.. Yay! It was making my eyes hurt… You saved the day.ThankYou!
thanks a million………..
wife was doing an online uni exam and must have leant on control key whilst scrolling on track pad, she just freaked out as exam was timed
easy fix and happy wife …………..phew
Thank you! lol my son did the same thing and it was starting to drive me crazy as I did not know what had happened. Yes I think you should write a book “help my baby broke my computer” I would need to buy it for sure!
I am just so thankful that I came across your post so quickly, thanks again!
Aaah! Thanks so much, my cat just did this to me. Such an easy thing to fix hahah thanks again!!
Thanks dude! Experience that I will never forget…. god bless ya!
It’s actually the “command” key on a MacBook. It just happened to me, and Control didn’t work, but your post made me get creative and try other keys while scrolling.
Thanks!
Thank you SO much. My daughter did the same thing and your post saved me.
Thanks! My son just did exactly the same thing, and your article was the first one that popped up after doing a quick search for the fix!
THANK YOU! My 8 month old just did this and I didn’t know what the heck to do. I love you! You’re a life-saver!
thanks this saved me i was freaking out!!!!!
The above suggestions do not work I tried all of them. I dont have a mouse, just a pad, but found he Apple site and their instructions worked. Here they are with link.
“Open the Universal Access pane of System Preferences and turn off the Zoom option in the Seeing tab.”
link: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1145797?start=0&tstart=0
My daughter did the same thing. Thanks to you I fixed it really fast. Bless you.
In my case it was 7-month-old Elizabeth! Thank you!!