I'm not sure if I've lost the plot here, but I cant seem to rotate my view around objects any more. When I press and hold alt whilst dragging, I get the same result as if I'm using the hand tool. When I press alt, the hand changes to an eye icon, but no matter what I do I can't seem to rotate the view. please help!
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18 Answers
18Something else worth mentioning with this is the transparent padlock top right of the axis sphere. The XYZ directions in scene view that also allows to change from perspective to ISO.
Clicking the padlock will lock the perspective and disable any orbiting etc.
IDK how this happened, but I just figured it out right before reading Your comment - this worked for me. This little f...riendly padlock o.o
– AdamStThank you! The UI for indicating that you're in this state needs improvement. A possible solution would be pressing ALT+left click (or whatever key combo to orbit) changed your mouse cursor to the Eye with a lock or slash over it. When my perspective was locked, ALT+Click just brings up the hand tool, which is clearly not what users are expecting especially when the perspective lock is accidental (I though Unity had glitched).
– roddlesHi @ShadyProductions. Thanks for your reply. I've attached a screenshot of the profiler so maybe you can help me[153228-profilerscreenshot.png|153228]
– ratchetunityok i found the fix, you dont have to open a new project to fix it
the problem starts when you hold down right mouse button and then click left mouse button it will instantly put you “eye” mode and you cant do anything but zoom in
the fix is to click on the little play button at the top (looks like a button you would use on a video player) , then the scene will place you in some random spot… just click it again and presto , you’re right back where you were with perfect rotation
hope this helps
Hi,
I just had this problem and after 10 min of rage and upsetting research I just figured out that it just happen when you switch into 2D mode.
Don’t know how it happened for me but then just click the 2D button right between RGB button and volume button on top of the scene view.
That worked for me.
Hope this helps
I just had the same (or similar?) problem.
The fix for me was selecting an object, hitting the [F] key to focus on it, and then try navigating around my scene. It just worked after I Focused on an object. 
I just had a similar problem. I closed the SceneView window and reopened it, which seemed to fix it.
There is a little lock icon in the top right corner of the scene view. Unlock it and it should be OK,
Hi @TreyH Thanks for your reply. I have attached a screenshot of the profiler to the question. Is ECS/DOTS compatible with Unity 2018.2.18f? Are bothof them still in preview?
– ratchetunityFor me, the solution was really embarassing:
One of my birds nibbled on the mouse wheel, and thus the middle mouse button wouldn’t work properly anymore. I had to get a Unity supporter tell me about it. 
How embarassing.
It's working again now, after I opened a new project. However I had already tried quitting the program and that didn't work
anyway, I'm sorted :)
That's probably because you pressed 'q'. To fix it next time press 'w'. Pressing q puts you in drag mode. w fixes it.
– e-bonnevilleYes I had it once and it wasn't with q and w . I just had to restart unity. I remember that I was moving unity from one monitor to another or maximizing the window ... something like that. It could be a rare bug. The ALT key froze for the viewport.
– anon38948166Yeah, this is SUPER annoying. Switching between the hand and pan tools (q and w) did not fix it for me… but if you just create a new scene and then throw it away, that DOES fix it.
I just experienced this. I am very new to Unity but I am very accustomed to switching between the q and w functions. For some reason it had switched to the "eye" icon. I don't know what it was but I could not switch back. I had to exit and re-open the project to get back to biz as usual. Wish I knew what it was and how to get back without rebooting Unity.
– rootedI've tried creating a new scene but it doesn't fix the problem. I have the latest version of Unity and I can't figure out how to change the buttons I use for view navigation in the preferences window. I know this isn't an answer, but I'm just saying that for me closing the program or doing anything of the sort still stops me from orbiting. Which mouse button am I supposed to use? I have a three-button mouse (running on Windows, so it's not one of those trackpads or weird smooth mouses Apple makes) so that might affect it in some way.
– IonisedPenguinNone of above solved my problem as it was not Unity’s fault… problem was between chair and keyboard. I had autohotkey script enabled which will rapid click right mouse button when it is held down. Check you autohotkey scripts if nothing above works.
There is the pad lock Will Fix the issue.
Downvote because: - The question is 8 years old and has already two pages of answers, so it's already answered. - Your answer does present the same solution as the top voted answer. So it's effectively a duplicate necro post answer. - It seems your main aim was to advertise your Discord group and your youtube channel which is irrelevant in an answer to this question. You can insert your links on your profile page
– Bunny83just click on the lock button at the upper right corner of the scene view. actually scene view rotation is locked .
Hi @Fragsteel! Thanks for your reply! I've taken a look to the website but I'm finding it tricky. I mean, I've tried the "moving transform" methods in a new project which I'm using for test purposes and it worked (although in my project I just move the parent of the 20k objects), but I'm having issues to change my current methods (change color, size, etc) to DOTS. Any suggestions like other websites or videos?
– ratchetunityI have solved this problem by disabling “Gameobject” having Easy Water Shader.
I believe Animated Materials were causing the problem.
You shouldn't necessarily keep pushing at one aspect for performance. If you look at your profiler output the blue scripts bit is relatively small so there will be diminishing returns if you only attack that side of things. Rendering for example is taking up most of the CPU time. Without knowing more about your set-up it's hard to say more but, for example, LODing can make a big difference. You're unlikely to need to be drawing 20K objects at full res.
– Bonfire-BoyAt the top right of the scene viewport, there’s a rotation GYRO with your y x and z directions. If it’s grayed out just click the lock icon to the top right. You may have accidentally tapped it.
There is a lock button right above the persp gimbal. Make sure it’s unlocked!
Looking at the graph, there is a ton of garbage created constantly. It's not that much compared to rendering, but garbage can be easier to get rid of, so I would start with that.
– CasiellHi @Bonfire-Boy Thanks for your reply. Before trying LOD, I thought it could be a good idea to change all the object meshes for a simple quad and the FPS are the same than with a more complex geometry. I'm attaching a screenshot of the rendering part of the profiler so maybe you can help me.[153312-profilerrenderingscreenshot.png|153312]
– ratchetunityI have this problem … again … It has happened before and was resolved after installing new versions of Unity, but… seriously…
There’s a bug somewhere in there that will randomly cause orbiting to stop working and it has been an issue for ages. And please don’t ask me to press the lock on the gimbal. That answer has been given 15 times already and it’s not the problem.
I’ve done a diff on my entire project - no changes vs. when it worked. I’ve deleted UserSettings completely, no change. Restarted Unity, and the hub, no change. Created a new scene, no change. (And yes, I’ve checked the gimbal lock on and off multiple times, no change).
This is Unity 2021.2.5f1on OsX (Monterey)
@Casiell - yep that makes a lot of sense. I wasn't looking that closely tbh, just trying to make the point about diminishing returns.
– Bonfire-BoyI accidentally clicked a tiny little lock just aside the xyz rotation axis, unclick it to fix, hope i helped
You did not. It's been suggested a million times already, and that is not the problem... I even explicitly pointed this out above - it has nothing to do with the lock.
– BoaNeoI mentioned LODs as an example of something that can make a difference, that's all. Like I said, I'd have to know a lot more about your project to make any kind of specific recommendation with regard to rendering. You should investigate yourself. Yes, clearly, simply looking at swapping things out for less complex meshes (rather than going straight for LODs) would be part of that. I still doubt that you really need 20K objects. But even if you do, you certainly don't need them all being rendered in detail.
– Bonfire-BoyBelow orientation… Is persp … maybe u guys changed it too Iso…change it back to persp also u maybe have clicked the lock type icon(Pad lock) uncheck it… faced the same problem…
Duplicate Question. See the answers here: http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/4656/rotate-with-alt-doesnt-work
– duckI have this problem too. I assume it's a hot key. But unity provides no feedback on what hot keys are running or how to turn it off. I heard resetting layouts may help but that's a bad workaround. Also please do not mark as a duplicate question of the link provided is private.
– sloveys