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Contextual task bar hidden when scrolling/panning in Illustrator

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Hi everyone,

Am I the only one encountering this problem?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hFwapaR7ao

As you can see in the video, my contextual taskbar keeps flickering/shaking endlessly, and I also get visual artifacts on the sides when zooming in and out.

I tried disabling GPU Performance, which gets rid of the artifacts on the sides, but the contextual taskbar keeps shaking anyway.

For context, here is my setup:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4600G
GPU: XFX Radeon RX 6650 XT MERC 308

I also tested this on another PC (also running an AMD setup) and got the exact same issue... I guess I can't be the only one, right? That being said, it's been happening for at least 3 years now...

Any ideas or workarounds? Thanks!

Anubhav MCorrect answer

Community Manager

Hello everyone,

The product team has confirmed that the contextual task bar is hidden when scrolling/panning, as expected for performance/rendering reasons.

We understand that the ability to dock the contextual taskbar is important to you. Would you mind creating a UserVoice for this feature request at https://illustrator.uservoice.com/ and adding your comments there? Doing so helps our product team prioritize feature requests, and you'll be notified of any updates. Please also share the UserVoice link in this thread so other users can upvote it.

Anubhav

Anubhav M

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hello everyone,

The product team has confirmed that the contextual task bar is hidden when scrolling/panning, as expected for performance/rendering reasons.

We understand that the ability to dock the contextual taskbar is important to you. Would you mind creating a UserVoice for this feature request at https://illustrator.uservoice.com/ and adding your comments there? Doing so helps our product team prioritize feature requests, and you'll be notified of any updates. Please also share the UserVoice link in this thread so other users can upvote it.

Anubhav

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L

le_ceeAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hello,

That isn't really the issue. You can clearly see in the video that it’s not a matter of the contextual bar hiding when I move. On the contrary, the video shows the bar shaking and flickering for no apparent reason, rather than simply disappearing and reappearing. Furthermore, the markers are glitching too, and artifacts are appearing. Why is this happening?

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @le_cee

Thanks for confirming. Just to be sure, could you try performing a clean reinstallation of the GPU(s) drivers (Intel / NVIDIA / AMD) and setting the Graphics Preference to High-Performance for Illustrator (https://www.amd.com/en/resources/support-articles/faqs/GPU-110.html) and checking if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello everyone,

I am currently checking this behavior with the team and will update this thread as I have more information.

Anubhav

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L

le_ceeAuthor

Participating Frequently

Got it, thanks! I really hope I can find a solution—it's super annoying to work on Illustrator with this issue...

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Nataliia_M

Inspiring

I am not very sure what you mean by “flickering”. For me, on Windows 10 it just disappears and reappears every time I make a move around the workspace (both moving an object and just moving around). No visual artifacts, though. The panel does this even with the pin option on. BUT. It does not behave like this when I zoom in/out.

This is one of the reasons people are asking to make the panel dockable. This way it should calm down xD

You can vote here:

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Warmly, Nataliia

L

le_ceeAuthor

Participating Frequently

Yeah, I agree! But as you can see in my video, sure, it disappears and reappears when you move or select an object, but on my end, you can clearly see it flickering as soon as I scroll with the mouse wheel or zoom out. On top of that, there are artifacts on the edges of my canvas/artboard. You can also see that when I drag out guides, they flicker too and disappear as soon as I navigate around the file instead of staying visible.

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L

le_ceeAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the replies! Interesting insight, u/CarlosCanto. I actually thought only AMD users were affected. Do you also get the same issue with the rulers? And what about the artifacts?

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CarlosCanto

Community Expert

@le_cee yes, same issue with Guides, they flicker along with the Contextual Task Bar

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L

le_ceeAuthor

Participating Frequently

It's awful! I really wish I could fix this... It's incredibly frustrating working under these conditions. And do you get those artifacts too?

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justlearnskills

Community Expert

@le_cee CarlosCanto I am using Adobe Illustrator 2026, and it does not flicker (knock on wood!). I am using a MacBook Pro M5 Max with 64 gigs of RAM

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m

CarlosCanto

Community Expert

No, it flickers on my system too. Windows 11 with Intel board.

Mac users, are you luckier?

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Simmer1

Community Expert

I have not had any flickering issues so far.

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