diff --git a/zephyr/static/js/viewport.js b/zephyr/static/js/viewport.js
index c1e66b37fa..4e1ef2848d 100644
--- a/zephyr/static/js/viewport.js
+++ b/zephyr/static/js/viewport.js
@@ -64,23 +64,15 @@ exports.system_initiated_animate_scroll = function (scroll_amount) {
 };
 
 exports.user_initiated_animate_scroll = function (scroll_amount) {
-    disable_pointer_movement = true;
+    suppress_scroll_pointer_update = true; // Gets set to false in the scroll handler.
     in_stoppable_autoscroll = false; // defensive
 
+    var viewport_offset = exports.scrollTop();
+
     // We use $('html, body') because you can't animate window.scrollTop
     // on Chrome (http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/10419).
-    $('html, body').animate({
-        scrollTop: viewport.scrollTop() + scroll_amount
-    }, {
-        complete: function () {
-            // The complete callback is actually called before the
-            // scrolling has completed, so we try to let scrolling
-            // finish before allowing pointer movements again or the
-            // pointer may still move.
-            setTimeout(function () {
-                disable_pointer_movement = false;
-            }, 50);
-        }
+    $("html, body").animate({
+        scrollTop: viewport_offset + scroll_amount
     });
 };
 
diff --git a/zephyr/static/js/zephyr.js b/zephyr/static/js/zephyr.js
index 1bd9f1d9d5..c857192457 100644
--- a/zephyr/static/js/zephyr.js
+++ b/zephyr/static/js/zephyr.js
@@ -20,8 +20,6 @@ var load_more_enabled = true;
 // not load_more_messages().
 var have_scrolled_away_from_top = true;
 
-var disable_pointer_movement = false;
-
 // Toggles re-centering the pointer in the window
 // when Home is next clicked by the user
 var recenter_pointer_on_display = false;
@@ -1124,10 +1122,6 @@ function keep_pointer_in_view() {
     var candidate;
     var next_row = current_msg_list.selected_row();
 
-    if (disable_pointer_movement) {
-        return;
-    }
-
     if (next_row.length === 0)
         return;