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Illustrator artwork/objects disappearing on Mac

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
January 23, 2017
23 replies
32337 views

Hi all,

I'm using Illustrator CC on my MacBook Pro Retina (2015), running Sierra. Processor is 2.2GHz with Intel Core i7 and I have 16GB of RAM.

Often when using Illustrator (in fact very often, after around 50% of my actions), objects and artwork will be "cut off" and disappear from view, seemingly invisible. This most commonly occurs when I'm zoomed in on an object or group, perform some action, and then zoom out again; when I zoom out, any object that was outside the boundaries of my screen will become invisible.

An example:

I have a few groups of objects scattered around my artboard. I zoom in on one group, leaving the other groups partially out of view. I isolate my intended group, and make some adjustments to the objects in that group. I then exit isolation mode for that group, and zoom out.

Now any objects that were outside of the boundaries of my screen when zoomed in are not showing. In order to get them to show again I must zoom in or out a few times and scroll the screen left or right a bit to shake it out of this weird issue. The invisible objects will then reappear.

It doesn't matter if the missing objects were in a group or ungrouped or anything like that - as long as the object was out of view then it will disappear when I zoom out again. The objects are still there - they just can't be seen. If I cmd+A then I can see the object outlines.

As you can imagine, this has a huge impact on my workflow, having to constantly "shake the artboard around" in order to see all of my work. I never had this issue when I used Illustrator on a Windows OS - only since I got my MacBook. My machine has fairly good specs (see above) and I'm sure it should be able to handle Illustrator without these weird graphical performance issues. It doesn't seem to matter which version of Illustrator or which macOS I'm running; I've always had this issue since I first bought it.

Has anybody else experienced this problem, or does anybody have some advice as to what it could be and how I can resolve it?

Many thanks in advance. Let me know if you need more information.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Chris-911

I tested this thoroughly and came to a conclusion. The only time that the artwork will be missing is when you use the pinch to zoom on your trackpad or possibly on your Wacom tablets. If I use the normal zoom (cmd+spacebar+left click and drag) on my mac it never does that. If I start using the pinch to zoom on my trackpad either on my late 2013 Macbook pro or my 2014 iMac 5K dislpay, it starts to act up again. Since I've been using the (cmd+space bar) shortcut I never had this issue. It would be fun if Adobe could fix this issue with the track pad cause it would be very convenient to use it in this way.

J

Jennifer38143627dews

Participant

Wondering if there was any answer to this... its seven years later and I'm having the same problem. I'm using a 2015 macbook pro that still works great except this glitch is driving me crazy

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

2.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Your computer is 9 years old and doesn't have a lot of RAM installed and the graphic card doesn't either.

Do the objects get lost/deleted from the files completely or is this just a display issue?

J

Jennifer38143627dews

Participant

just display, exactly like others have said, if I scroll away and back all objects come back. If its just a matter of the computer being too old I'll def consider upgrading, but it seems to run everything fine besides that

T

tehrimkhaliq

Participant

what i noticed about this problem is that if usually happend when you work with multiple document modes in a single file.

Just change the document mode to "RGB" and it will work fine.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

what i noticed about this problem is that if usually happend when you work with multiple document modes in a single file.

Just change the document mode to "RGB" and it will work fine.

By @tehrimkhaliq

Illustrator documents can only be one document color mode.

Changing back and forth between them will wreck your colors every single time.

And going from CMYK to RGB is counterproductive most of the time.

T

tehrimkhaliq

Participant

Not in that way, take a scenario that you are working in some CMYK space, and copies a logo to put in that document. if you just place it with default settings you ll notice this "disapearing problem".

i dint meant to change your document to other mode, just make sure that the document is in a single required mode thats it.

D

defaultjn5qpo466ax9

Participant

If "smart guides" are turned on I continually have this issue you're referring to. Once I turn those off the issue goes away. If you don't want to turn smart guides off then doing a quick zoom in and back out with cmd + and cmp - restores the missing graphics for me...or scolling the artboard off screen for a second and then back into view.

peterc5088498

Participant

Hi. I experienced the same problem, but remedied the situation by turning off GPU in the performance settings (under Preferences)

joannaf86202484

Participant

Thank you so much !! It was really helpfull!!!

You are G!!!

jcruz11@me.com

Participant

I THINK I FIGURED IT OUT JUST NOW!!!! If you go to your view menu and select" preview on CPU". instead of GPU it instantly fixes it!

S

sofiaruizu

Participant

Oh my god you're a GENIOUS!!!!! changed my life.

M

markl5583850

Participant

This is still happening to me after this update. I Upgraded to high Sierra, unsure why it has been happening, but wow is it annoying

jcruz11@me.com

Participant

I THINK I FIGURED IT OUT JUST NOW!!!! If you go to your view menu and select" preview on CPU". instead of GPU it instantly fixes it!

R

rosies79021145

Participant

Thanks! Fixed it for me.

B

bethmccreary

Participant

I just updated my 2017 MacBook Pro 13-inch to Sierra and now I am experiencing these issues. I do not use a trackpad, or tablet. So, I am confused why this is happening to me....

A

AtomCreativeMediaAuthor

Participating Frequently

I don't know about anybody else here but since the latest update (Oct 18th, V20.0.0) I'm not seeing this problem any more, and can't replicate it using any of the usual "triggers".

Hopefully this is fixed now! Anybody else seeing improvements since the update?

naxchielic7356205

Participant

Hi guys!

I just want to say that my English it is not perfect, so I will try to explain myself the best I can.

I have been reading, and I have the same issue than all of you, It is not a problem with the computer, it is a problem with Adobe, and as you say it is really annoying. One thing that works for me in order to solve the problem is to replace the file that it is disappearing for the original file again, this new file will do the same movements than the file you replace. I know to do this can be annoying, especially if there are a lot of files or objects, but it is the only thing that worked for me.

Hope this could help you

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