Embed button deletes image

Question

Does anyone else have this problem?I drag a graphic file (e.g. tif, jpg) onto the artboard, press the Embed button to embed it into the document, and it gets deleted. Sometimes I get a Sorry, an error occurred" dialog, but not always.I’m running Illustrator v30.8.2 on Windows 11. I rolled back to v30.8.2 only a couple of days ago (for an unrelated reason - an extension I use isn’t compatible with v31), so it’s basically a fresh install. Note that I’ve had the problem before the up- and downgrade to v31. So I don’t think it’s related to the up/downgrade.The problem occurs regardless of whether I use the Embed button in the Control toolbar or the Contextual Task Bar.I’ve tried restarting Illustrator, rebooting my PC, and resetting preferences, and none of these solve the problem.I’ve tried starting with a fresh blank document and dragging in a graphic, and Embed deletes the image immediately, so I don’t think it’s a memory issue. (Illustrator is only using less than 1% of CPU and 2Mb of memory.)If I use File>Place and add a graphic as a link, then press Embed, the image is deleted. If I use File>Place and add the graphic without link selected, it gets embedded into the document successfully.If I drag in an image and use Rasterise, the linked image is successfully rasterised as raster art embedded in the document. It only appears to be a problem with the Embed button.

Eugene Tyson · Answer

Sounds odd.Embedding a linked image should convert it into an embedded image, not remove it from the document…strangeYou've already done quite a bit of troubleshooting, so I wouldn't suggest resetting preferences or reinstalling again just yet.A few things might be worth checking:Try placing an image stored in a simple local folder, such as desktop or downloads, rather than OneDrive, a network drive or another synchronised location.Try View > Preview on CPU before embedding, just to rule out a GPU display issue.Since you mentioned using an extension, could you try temporarily disabling any third-party Illustrator plug-ins or extensions and testing again?When the image disappears, does it also disappear from the Layers panel? If you immediately use Undo, does the original linked image return?The fact that File > Place with Link unchecked works, and Rasterize works, suggests the problem is specifically with the conversion from linked to embedded artwork.There have been other reports of placed and embedded image problems in Illustrator 30.x, although this may be a separate issue.If none of those tests makes a difference, I'd recommend reporting it as a bug with a short screen recording and a sample image that reproduces the problem.In the meantime, placing images with Link unchecked seems to be the safest workaround.

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