Google Earth is an amazing tool that lets you see all the places in the world that you never got a chance to see in person. You can walk the streets of the biggest cities in the world and explore some of the most famous landmarks. Google Earth also lets you zoom out and see things from an above perspective. You can keep zooming out as much as you want, until all the cars on the street look like busy ants, and entire cities turn into little spots on the map. You can take it even further than that and zoom out completely until you see Earth in its entirety. Some people love to spin the globe around and revel in their newly discovered power. But what happens when the globe does not stop spinning? This is a problem that many encounter and it can be downright frustrating. Luckily, there are a few known fixes for this, as follows.
The controls you are using
One of the main causes of having your globe spin out of control is related to the type of control scheme that you are using. You can use many tools in order to spin the globe or generally navigate around within Google Earth. Some use mice and keyboards, while others like to use a controller, or a gamepad. When the control option of choice is not properly calibrated or tweaked to suit Google Earth, things like this are bound to happen. But here’s how you can fix it:
Using a controller or gamepad with Google Earth
If you are using a controller or gamepad with Google Earth, you need to calibrate it so that it works properly with the software. In order to do this, you need to consult the manufacturer’s booklet or whatever manual you have for said controller. Moreover, if you don’t have any printed information, you can try accessing the manufacturer’s website for a digital version of the manual. If you have a generic controller, you should look up a third party tool that lets you calibrate the controller.
Using a mouse and keyboard with Google Earth
If you’re not using a controller but your globe is spinning out of control, then you might have the controller option activated from the settings. In order to change that, navigate to Navigation. This menu can be accessed from Tools>Options on Windows and Google Earth>Preferences on Mac. From Navigation, uncheck the option that says Enable Controller. This will let the software know that you are in fact not using a controller and that you’d like to use your mouse and keyboard to get around Google Earth.