Participant

Answered

ESC key not working > Illustrator 29.7.1

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
August 8, 2025
30 replies
4906 views

I just updated to 29.7.1, and the ESC key isn't working when exiting a text frame. It works in Photoshop or Indesign. Already tried to fix the issue: reseting the preferences , changing the keyboard increment. I don't use any Illustrator plugin which could cause this problem.
Any other solution ?

Bug

Correct answer natural_neighbors5CA8

Hello everyone,

The product team has made some improvements in the latest Illustrator (Beta) release. Could you try installing the latest Illustrator (beta) and letting us know if it works for you?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

I have installed the beta version of Illustrator, and everything is working fine.

Show previous replies

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franciscoc13498122

Participant

i'm having the same problem and going crazy. it stopped working 1 week ago and can't find any solution

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Lesje

Participating Frequently

Same issue. Also ESC is not working anymore. This is the most buggy update ever.

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Lesje

Participating Frequently

When layers are grouped, My keyboard arrows also doesnt work... going craaaaazy over here.

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Lesje

Participating Frequently

Same issue! Installed older version of illustrator... still not working. Havent tried beta yet.

ESC is a really important part of my workflow. Now I have to deselect (or get out of text editing, or grouped layers) by clicking de dark pointer in the toolbar.

3,6 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9

Radeon Pro Vega 48 8 GB

64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

sequoia 15.4.1 (24E263)

Monika Gause

Community Expert

I'm on Sequoia 15.6 and there are no issues with Esc.

Can you perhaps boot the computer into Safe Mode and then try again?

Mateja Miladinovic

Participating Frequently

And why is the first reaction to so many complaints about an issue that obviously started with the latest update to blame OS, 3rd partiy services, apps, plug-ins, or whatever?

Can you have someone investigate and come back with a solution instead of poking with the stick in the dark and blaming everything else and waisting everyone's time?

Mateja Miladinovic

Participating Frequently

I reverted back to the previous version of AI and ESC magically works again.
I think you have enough evidence to investigate.

Win 10 64-bit

Thanks

Mateja Miladinovic

Participating Frequently

Latest update, ESC key doen't work. Doesn't exit the isolation mode. Doesn't switch to selection tool (V).

It's frustrating. It actually stopped working after the latest update.

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happy_friend5E52

Participant

Hola comunidad! En estos días se me actualizó de manera automática mi ilustrador a la versión 29.7.1 en mi mac y lamentablemente no funciona la tecla ESC para quitar una seleción o salir de una herramienta. Tuve que regresar a la versión 25.9.1 para solucionar el problema ya que intenté varias cosas.

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natural_neighbors5CA8

Inspiring

Specifically, version 29.7.1 has an issue with the Esc key not exiting the isolate mode.
I tested both the previous version and the beta version, and neither had this issue.
I’m quite certain that the update to Illustrator’s AI Assistant caused this issue.

A

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello everyone,

Our team has requested additional information. Please share a recording showing the ESC key working in other Adobe apps but not in Illustrator. This will help the team identify the root cause of the problem.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

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natural_neighbors5CA8

Inspiring

The Esc key no longer exits isolate mode. This is definitely a bug in this version, as the beta version still works fine.
https://youtube.com/shorts/7hQ_tqj7xC4

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Brenda_Reyes8710

Participant

My ESC key is also not working in this new version.