In Animate 23.0.1 I can no longer drag from the Fill Color swatch to sample a single flat color from a gradient — it selects the object instead of sampling color.

Hello, I’m having a color sampling workflow issue in Adobe Animate 23.0.1 (Mac) and I’m trying to confirm whether this is a bug or a removed feature.

In older versions of Animate, I used the following workflow:

1. Select a filled shape with the Selection Tool

2. Press and hold on the Fill Color swatch in the Tools panel

3. Drag the cursor over another shape (even a gradient fill)

4. Release on a specific pixel inside the gradient

5. The originally selected shape would take that single sampled flat color (not the whole gradient)

This worked like a “drag eyedropper from color well” behavior and was very fast for picking intermediate colors inside gradients.

❌ Current Behavior in Animate 23.0.1

Now when I try the same workflow:

• Dragging from the Fill Color swatch does not sample color

• Instead, the object under the cursor becomes selected

• I lose the original selection

• No color sampling happens

Additional notes:

• Object Drawing Mode is OFF

• Shapes are merge shapes (not objects/symbols)

• Workspace reset did not help

• Preferences reset did not help

🎯 What I Need

I want to restore or replace this workflow:

Sample a single flat color from inside a gradient and apply it to the currently selected shape — without selecting the sampled object and without copying the full gradient.

❓ Questions

• Was color-well drag sampling removed in Animate 23.x?

• Is this a known regression/bug?

• Is there a hidden preference or tool modifier to restore this behavior?

• Is this fixed in a newer version?

Thanks — this is a critical speed workflow for coloring and shading work.