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Shigaugis
Known Participant
March 3, 2019
Answered

Copy & Paste not always working - randomly

Hi all,

This is a very frustrating bug - around 50% of the times copy & paste won't work. I select an object, press ctrl+C, and then pressing ctrl+V produces nothing as if the clipboard is empty.

I cannot reproduce it as it seems random, sometimes it will copy & paste, sometimes it won't.

This makes working with Illustrator extremely hard.

Might be worth mentioning that copy-pasting from Illustrator into Photoshop resembles the same buggy behavior - it will randomly work or not.

Please advise on how to resolve this.

Cheers

    Anubhav M
    Anubhav MCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    July 7, 2026

    Hi everyone,


    We completely understand how disruptive copy-paste issues in Illustrator can be, especially when they interrupt an active workflow. Copy-paste problems usually fall into a few specific categories (clipboard preferences, file formats, system-level conflicts), and we've put together a dedicated post that walks through each with the corresponding fix:

    Why copy-paste breaks in Illustrator and how to fix it


    Please work through the suggestions there and share what you observe - whether the issue clears up, partially improves, or persists. Your feedback helps us keep the post accurate and complete for other users facing the same trouble.
     

    Anubhav

    [Note: Marked as correct for visibility]

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    174 replies

    BlazeDragonz
    Participant
    October 7, 2026

    Defitnitely an Adobe issue, bought a brand new Intel PC (i was using AMD and it was 3 years old now) thinking maybe its my hardware. setup my new pc, installed Illustrator only (and chrome of course) works fine for like 30min and the copy paste issue still persist.
    I have read, and tried every “solution” these so called community copy pasted from their reply book. non work, obviously, we talking to community manager, not the dev. this issue been on for YEARS and I dont think they ever brough it up to the dev team. disappointhing, for many cool new features but the basics are crap. y’know its usually the little things that can make it great.

    Unfortunely, 80% of the industry is still monopolize by adobe, so we have no other choice but to continuing giving our money to make our job worst. 

    AND NO!! I DO NOT HAVE ANY OTHER SOFTWARE INSTALLED IT WAS A BRAND NEW PC, CLEAN INSTALL 

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    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    October 7, 2026

    Hi ​@BlazeDragonz,

     

    Sorry for the frustrating experience, and thanks for your patience. I’ve shared the next steps with you via DM so we can investigate this further.

     

    Please follow the steps shared there and let us know how it goes.

    Thanks,
    Abhishek

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    Design Applications
    Participant
    September 23, 2026

    Recently copy and paste is not working for me. I sometimes can restart illustrator and it works but then it stops working again. Really frustrating as i am always taking mulitple files and pasting them together.

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    Harshika Verma
    Community Manager
    Harshika VermaCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    September 24, 2026

    Hi Design Applications,

     

    Thank you for reaching out, and sorry for the trouble you're experiencing while copying and pasting objects in Illustrator. Would you mind telling us the version of Illustrator installed on your machine and the details of your operating system? Please also tell us your exact workflow on how you're copying & pasting, and from where you're copying & pasting, which would help us investigate further.

    Please also try the steps suggested here and let us know if that helps. 

     

    We will try our best to help.

     

    Thanks,

    Harshika

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    smeckdesigns
    Inspiring
    July 30, 2026

    And this issue STILL isn't fixed in july 2026.
    This is one of a very, VERY long list of bugs that abobe can't seem to be bothered to fix. 
    I'm seriously looking into alternatives that actually work despite using adobe for over 30 years.

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    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Anubhav MCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    July 7, 2026

    Hi everyone,


    We completely understand how disruptive copy-paste issues in Illustrator can be, especially when they interrupt an active workflow. Copy-paste problems usually fall into a few specific categories (clipboard preferences, file formats, system-level conflicts), and we've put together a dedicated post that walks through each with the corresponding fix:

    Why copy-paste breaks in Illustrator and how to fix it


    Please work through the suggestions there and share what you observe - whether the issue clears up, partially improves, or persists. Your feedback helps us keep the post accurate and complete for other users facing the same trouble.
     

    Anubhav

    [Note: Marked as correct for visibility]

    Translate
    Jason Burnett
    Jason Burnett
    Inspiring
    July 5, 2026

    I feel certain this has something to do with memory management. I have 128Gb RAM and over 200TB of storage on my PC. I never close out apps and often have most of the Creative Suite open as well as Cinema 4D, Excel, Word, and Visual Studio. 

    The copy thing in Illustrator only happens when I have had tons of things open for a long time. It seems to “forget” how to copy and paste. Like it has run out of memory. I allocate a great deal of RAM and scratch disk space to it, so it doesn’t happen every day.

    If this were a driver issue, it would happen all the time that the driver was loaded. It doesn't.

    If this were a competing clipboard app, the same thing would happen; it doesn't. 

    Corrupt preferences still would happen all the time; it doesn't.

    None of the solutions explain how this problem seems to come and go. 

    But all of these solutions tend to hint at the fact that they are using less RAM afterwards. Nobody suggests that installing something new helps; it’s just removing existing drivers/software/preferences, etc. 

    I’m wondering if they are using a portion of RAM that is traditionally considered “available” for short-term storage of things like cut and paste. If they are somehow being locked out of that portion of RAM because another app/drivers is using it, it could cause this problem with being unable to copy/paste. They need to check memory management and run some persistent diagnostics on someone’s machine that has this problem. The diagnostic should report when the problem happens, and they can figure out how to resolve it.

    The biggest thing that everyone should come to terms with is that this is 100% an Illustrator problem. No other software has this problem and no other sofware would suggest that you have to uninstall other software for their app to work. That is an unreasonable request. 

    Illustrator Devs should spend less time adding features and more time solving these critical issues that affect so many people. 

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      TahiaDesign
      Known Participant
      June 10, 2026

      Having same problem in June 2026! Please help me!

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      Anubhav M
      Community Manager
      Anubhav MCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      June 15, 2026

      Hi @TahiaDesign,
       

      Sorry to hear you're hitting the same Illustrator issue. Could you try running it in Safe Mode (Windows / macOS) and let me know if it helps?


      Thanks,
      Anubhav

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      chuck_campbell
      chuck_campbell
      Participant
      June 10, 2026

      Uninstalling the Logitech stuff solved this problem for me.

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      robin-
      Participating Frequently
      June 10, 2026

      Not for me sadly.
      I suspect it has something to do with AMD software but i’m not sure.

      Translate
      Anubhav M
      Community Manager
      Anubhav MCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      June 15, 2026

      Hi ​@robin- ,
       

      I'm really sorry you're running into similar issues with Illustrator — let's see if we can get to the bottom of it.

      When you have a chance, could you try launching Illustrator in Safe Mode (Windows) and let me know if that makes a difference?


      Looking forward to hearing how it goes!

      Anubhav

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      zedzedzedzed
      zedzedzedzed
      Participant
      March 20, 2026

      Found the setting that solved the problem for me:  unchecking GPU performance (Preferences > Performance). Working with Windows 11, AI 2026.

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        LokiUSA
        LokiUSA
        Participant
        March 23, 2026

        Thank you, this worked perfect.  Instant copy paste no issues.

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          ManSchle
          Participant
          October 1, 2025

          I had this problem too and found the solution for myself: If you have a Radeon graphics card and have installed the AMD software, try closing the “AMD Software Host Application” program in Task Manager. After that, copying elements and CTRL+C worked again immediately for me.

          Translate
            Mohammad Bibi
            Mohammad Bibi
            February 12, 2026

            Crazy, this actually worked. Thank you!

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              Alluring_individual4091
              Participant
              September 10, 2025

              I did find one solve that I suspected as the third party. If you have windows clipboard history turned on (Windows+V), it saves things that were copied. I noticed when you turn this off (Start>Type "Clipboard">go to settings>turn off), illustrator seems to work again with the stupid copy paste issue. 

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                GuyDudeman
                Participant
                September 14, 2026

                OMG this worked. Friggin’ Windows, man! I hate windows.

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