I am cursed with a shrinking spell!

@Fleura (30928)
United Kingdom
February 4, 2025 3:43am CST
Some months ago my ‘phone suddenly, of its own accord, decided to shrink the font of my text messages. I didn’t change anything, but suddenly all my texts were tiny. The first few words that appear on the locked screen are normal size, but when I go to the actual messages they are barely readable. Emails and WhatsApp messages on the same device are all normal and unaffected (so far). I’ve tried all the usual things – turning it off and on again a few times, changing all the possible settings etc. etc., but none of them make any difference. Friends and visitors all think it’s hilarious but none of them have been able to solve the problem. I’ve mostly got used to it now but it is rather like having regular eye tests, and if the light is poor I do sometimes struggle to get the right numbers of a security code or to check that I am about to say what I want to say in a message – I have to get a magnifying glass! Today I found that the shrinking curse had spread to Word. I used the ‘find’ function to search for the word ‘review’ and the results that appeared in the sidebar were absolutely miniscule! Of course I haven’t changed anything, and last time I used the same function (a day or two ago) all was normal. I have asked my live-in tech support, but for once he is stumped as well. Any ideas? I wonder how many more things this curse will affect? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2025.
14 people like this
13 responses
@DaddyEvil (140499)
• United States
4 Feb
I ran into this a few days ago while texting with a friend. Suddenly the messages from her were TINY! I laughed and asked her if she'd changed anything on her phone... She hadn't but her daughter (2 years old) was playing with the phone... My friend checked the settings on her phone and found her daughter had reset the text size. Once she changed it back, the messages from her were normal size again. I had no idea that someone else changing their text size could affect how the text looked on my end.
2 people like this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
Gosh no I didn't either, I thought the setting just related to the one gadget. As far as mine is concerned though, I (and well-meaning friends) have all tried changing the text size settings (currently set to large) and the display size (currently default medium size, because setting that to large made all the icons on the home screen unfeasibly big and messages on WhatsApp etc just ridiculously too big) - but changing all those things didn't solve the tiny text problem once I actually opened the message.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (140499)
• United States
4 Feb
@Fleura It was weird for me, too. I hope that does help you. Good luck!
1 person likes this
@grenery8 (12664)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
4 Feb
for desktop, i think you need to press ctrl and +.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
That just makes the main text of the document bigger, which I don't need, the main text is fine, but it doesn't change the size of the text in the sidebar, sorry.
1 person likes this
@grenery8 (12664)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
6 Feb
@Fleura o, sorry. yes, that's only for the screen
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (48363)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
4 Feb
Curse begone! Did that help?
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (48363)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
4 Feb
@Fleura Yer welcome.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
Well the Word issue has resolved itself so maybe that was down to you - thanks!
1 person likes this
@Tampa_girl7 (51207)
• United States
4 Feb
That has to be so frustrating. I hope that you can figure it out.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
5 Feb
Thanks, at least it demonstrates to me that my eyesight isn't getting worse!
@RasmaSandra (82244)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
4 Feb
I am not the one to ask, I hope you find a solution to this, See if this might help.
Struggling to get your Word doc back to normal view? Our step-by-step guide will show you how to easily restore your document's layout.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
Thanks, I will look into it!
1 person likes this
@somewitch (1859)
4 Feb
Woah, I have no clue what might cause the issue. I hope you'll figure it out soon!
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
Luckily the Word issue has resolved itself overnight. No progress with the phone though, it's been months!
1 person likes this
@somewitch (1859)
4 Feb
@Fleura Half-good news is still good news.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (95824)
• United States
4 Feb
Is there a phone store nearby you could ask an employee? I’ve done that before. I imagine they help freely in case I ever decide to get a new phone and choose their store. I always try my IT BIL first, and he usually knows, but occasionally a store employee was a lifesaver. Not sure how it works where you are.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
That's definitely worth a try, thanks. Next time I pass one I'll pop in.
1 person likes this
@allknowing (140091)
• India
4 Feb
You can pose a questionj on the Net and someone will answer your question
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
Good idea.
1 person likes this
@id_peace (14487)
• Singapore
4 Feb
OMG, the words are so tiny. I cannot imagine that one day I cannot see tiny words but now I start to struggle.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
I have daily eye-sight tests now!!
@wolfgirl569 (110940)
• Marion, Ohio
4 Feb
I hope you can find a fix for it
1 person likes this
@xFiacre (13205)
• Ireland
4 Feb
@fleura My phone regularly changes things of its own accord. Don’t know why but it usually rights itself in time.
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
I was hoping it would but it's been months now! At least the computer seems to be back to normal today, thankfully.
1 person likes this
@just4him (318962)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
4 Feb
I'm sorry the shrinking curse attacked you. As for Word, did you try enlarging the font size? I needed to do that to work with my manuscripts. 100% isn't large enough.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
I did, but that just changes the font in the document itself. Luckily it seems to have resolved itself by today!
@JudyEv (345279)
• Rockingham, Australia
4 Feb
I have a bar at the bottom where I can ask for 100% or more but I guess you've tried all the obvious things.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30928)
• United Kingdom
4 Feb
Yep, sorry! That just changes the size of the text in the main document, which is already fine, but has no effect on the search results in the sidebar.
1 person likes this