Bug Report: Illustrator crashes when triggering an action to flip an object horizontally or vertically.

Forum|Forum|8 days ago
February 18, 2026
3 replies
61 views

I think I’ve finally narrowed this down!
I’ll cut to the chase:

• Custom Action #1: Transform Panel > Flip Horizontal
• Custom Action #2: Transform Panel > Flip Vertical

Triggering Actions #1 or #2 with the play button in the Actions Panel - or a hotkey linked to the action - is successful if:
• The Transform Panel is open in a Panel and is the Active Tab
• The Transform Panel is completely closed (triggering the actions then open the Panel floating somewhere in the workspace)

Triggering Actions #1 or #2 with instantly cause Illustrator (30.2.1) to CRASH if:

• The Transform Panel is present in a Panel in the workspace, but is not the Active Tab

Whew!
That’s a load of frustration off my mind!

My Fix: I now just keep the Transform Window open in its own small Panel all the time. I never use it anyways, and would prefer to just keep it closed, but it’s annoying to have it pop up every time I flip an object, so keeping it stuffed quietly in the corner is the next best thing.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @KyleUltimateAthletic

I’m sorry to hear about your experience. Would you mind trying the suggestions shared in this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/fix-crash-on-launch-issues.html) and checking if it helps? Also, kindly submit the crash report using your Adobe email address and share it here for quick tracking. Steps are shared here: (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/crash-next-steps.html).

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Following your description, I cannot reproduce your complaint in Illustrator version 30.2.1.

No crash, as far as I can see.

About what OS are you talking? And what objects are you flipping?

Can you provide a sample Illustrator file as well as the Action file you are using?

KyleUltimateAthleticAuthor

Participant

Running macOS Sonoma 14.7.5

It has been plaguing me on multiple versions of Illustrator after I upgraded from v29 I believe.

The crash happens on any and all objects in any file if I follow the steps outlined in my OP.

I’ve got a weird vertical mouse with extra hotkeys - two of which I use to trigger those actions - thought maybe the mouse was causing it after macOS upgrade, but then I got the same crash when clicking the play button in the Actions panel.

Full System restarts would seem to occasionally fix the problem for a while, then it all of a sudden it would crash again, and then reliably on every reboot of Illustrator after that. Now I think that after the system restarts, my Transform Panel would just happen to be the active tab, so no crashes until I inadvertently used another tab in the same Panel, then tried to Flip again.

The attachment button on this comment window will not seem to allow me to select my .aia actions file for upload.