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Inspiring
January 15, 2025
Question

Black arrow acts like white arrow

  • January 15, 2025
  • 6 replies
  • 2283 views

I thought this was an obvious bug and it will get fixed quickly but this was a couple of versions ago...

 

Why does the black arrow acts irregularly like a white arrow?
Meaning... I have the black arrow selected and a group of objects, I'm zoomed out, I want to drag this group to another position on the page, but illustrator keeps selecting single points, so I'm dragging single points out of a single object instead of the whole group  - which is usually what a white arrow does, not the black one. ..

 

Why? What is this?
It's pretty annoying and stops the workflow.

6 replies

Inspiring
October 2, 2025

I have the same issue here and couldn't find a solution

wnwkaAuthor
Inspiring
October 2, 2025

This is a couple of versions old and still not fixed. I assume that the command button is delayed, so everytime you combine a command+X combination (such as paste= command+v), the command button is delayed and still registered as pressed, which give the black arrow a white arrow function. I already said this makes no sense, as all you need to do to get the white arrow is to press "a", which is simple enough to switch between tools and it has no issues. But who am I...

Inspiring
March 10, 2025

I just experienced the other version of this. I sometimes use the white arrow to drag/copy part of an illustration. But now when selecting some points and draging, when pressing ALT (to copy) it suddenly selects and copies the whole object. (I have used this workflow since Illustrator 3 in the 90's.)

Srishti Bali
Community Manager
Community Manager
March 18, 2025

Hi @superpanic and @wnwka

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. We tried to replicate this behavior with the current release but couldn’t reproduce it. However, that doesn’t mean we haven’t been encountered before. I’ve occasionally experienced this issue on my machine, and it was often resolved by changing the mouse or updating the mouse driver. Sometimes, adjusting the mouse sensitivity settings can help, and in some cases, we’ve seen interference from third-party apps like Magnet, as Monika mentioned.

I’d recommend testing this behavior in safe mode, updating your mouse drivers, or trying a different mouse. Let us know if the issue persists!

 

Regards,

Srishti

wnwkaAuthor
Inspiring
March 18, 2025

Sorry, but this is BS, it's Adobe's app.
I don't even know if it's fair to call these apps »professional software« anymore. It's an unstable mess, and it gets worse by every update, and you know that.

There's no third-party app. Sensitivity has nothing to do with it, as it comes from clicking. Drivers are up-to-date. It happens with different mouse's and trackpads. This app is just lagging (on an M3!) for whatever reason, which causes weird inputs.
It's as if I'm running the software through a stream rather than it's installed on my hardware.

 

I'm still waiting on an update from Adobe which actually resolves problems instead of creating more.

wnwkaAuthor
Inspiring
January 20, 2025

The issue seems to be, that keyboard inputs are occasionally delayed. Have to do further testing if this is because of macOS or Adobe. But I've seen some similar complaints (regarding input delays) in other Adobe Apps such as AE, Acrobat, InDesign and Premiere.

barbara_a7746676
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 16, 2025

You asked if there was a way to change the shortcut. Under Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts,

wnwkaAuthor
Inspiring
January 16, 2025

This one is not in the shortcuts. But it's also not what causing the problem, that's why I deleted the question.

wnwkaAuthor
Inspiring
January 15, 2025

Here's a video to show what I mean. I was able to replicate it a couple of times, but I have absolutely no clue how to do it regularly. It makes no sense anyway, as the black arrow is selected. I don't know why Illustrator is moving points....

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 15, 2025

This is Mac OS. Do you perhaps have a software called Magnet installed?

wnwkaAuthor
Inspiring
January 15, 2025

No, I don't.

barbara_a7746676
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 15, 2025

Make sure  you're not in Isolation mode.

You might try resetting preferences. 

wnwkaAuthor
Inspiring
January 15, 2025

Thank you for your answer.

I'm not in Isolation Mode. It just grabs points occasionally. If I have a combination of text + shape in one group, it works fine if I move the group by grabbing the text (not expanded). It also works fine when I'm grabbing inside a shape (and not on the edge/path of the shape, for example). The issue occurs mostly when I'm zoomed out a little, I can't even replicate it. It just grabs points occasionally and moves them instead of the group, despite I'm being working with the black arrow and not the white Direct Selection Tool.