Known Participant

Answered

Copy & Paste not always working - randomly

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 3, 2019
47 replies
96601 views

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

Correct answer Anubhav M

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]

Show previous replies

Evilspam

Participant

Update

As of a few days ago the copy paste function in Illustrator is back and working again. I don't think a new update was released so who knows, just glad its working again.

I did install a few programs since I posted the video, not sure if that fixed it.

SonOfAVondruke

Participant

I'm seeing similar behavior in both Photoshop and Illustrator since updating a few weeks ago. I can ctrl+c 5 times (as I do on instinct at this point) and still get whatever I had copied before when I ctrl+v. I've had this happen occasionally in the past, especially with complicated illustrator files, but now it seems to be rampant across the suite.

Windows 10

Evilspam

Participant

Hi all,

We are having the same copy and paste issue on 5 systems (PC and Mac's). We have tried deleting the preferences, uninstalling and re-installing Illustrator 23.0.3 (64bit). We currently are using the couple of work arounds that other people have mentioned. eg. duplicate the object or drag n drop the object you want copied from a separate document.

Does anyone know if its been fixed?

Thanks

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Evilspam schrieb
Hi all,
We are having the same copy and paste issue on 5 systems (PC and Mac's). We have tried deleting the preferences, uninstalling and re-installing Illustrator 23.0.3 (64bit). We currently are using the couple of work arounds that other people have mentioned. eg. duplicate the object or drag n drop the object you want copied from a separate document.
Does anyone know if its been fixed?
Thanks

Are these old files or new ones?

Do you have any clipboard enhancements installed in the system?

Which other applications are running?

Evilspam

Participant

Hi Monika,

No clipboard enhancements and the clipboard works with other applications fine. No other apps running other than outlook or Chrome opened.

I've read through various forums about this happening but there seems to be no real fix or no exact reason why it is happening. We have another 5 systems which all work fine so far.

Other things I've tried have been an uninstall, deleting the preference folders as advised on the threads. We've reinstalled a previous version of Illustrator (23.0.2) but also did the same thing. Anyways just seeing if anyone had found a fix.

Thank you

Jeff Witchel, ACI

Community Expert

Have you tried deleting Preference?

How to set preferences in Illustrator

Jeff Witchel, ACI

Community Expert

Do you have a different keyboard you can try?

S

ShigaugisAuthor

Known Participant

I don't have another keyboard, but I assume this might not be the issue, since copy-paste keyboard shortcuts work perfectly in other programs.

Jeff Witchel, ACI

Community Expert

Does this problem occur with all Adobe applications or just Illustrator?

Is it just objects? Or does it happen with text as well?

S

ShigaugisAuthor

Known Participant

Only with Illustrator. With Photoshop I have no such problems.

I just checked, it doesn't happen to text, Only to objects.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Which version and which system is this?

Is only the shortcut not working?

Do you have any clipboard enhancement installed in your system?

S

ShigaugisAuthor

Known Participant

Illustrator version: CC 23.0.1 (64-bit)

OS: Windows 7

It's mainly the keyboard shortcut, as the copy-paste flyout menu seem to work with much better statistics (although occasionally will also perform with the same bug).

Nope, I have no clipboard enhancements.

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