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cmcmorrow
Participating Frequently
February 5, 2013
Answered

Illustrator randomly selects unrelated objects

  • February 5, 2013
  • 55 replies
  • 78184 views

About once  a day, when I click on an object with the direct selection tool, the bounding box will be way larger than it should, implying another object on another artboard is included in the selection.

This happens when the object I am selecting is NOT grouped with anything else. Moreover, is seems buggy because the mystery object doesnt have its "edges" visible the way it would if it were legitimately selected.

I can deselect all, but then anything I click on, the selection's bounding box is expanded to include the mystery object. The only way I have found to deal with it is to drag a corner of the bounding box, then undo, and then click off again. Then Voila! I am able to select my object (or any other) without the mystery selection happening.

I use clipping masks a lot, as well as many artboards, and have wondered if it's related to this, as the mystery objects are sometimes masked images, and often on another artboard. However, the mystery objects are not always masked.

Anyone else having this weird problem??

I had it with CS5, and hoped it would go away with CS6, but it has not.

    Correct answer BigMacca

    I have also just had this issue in what appears now to be an 8-year-old issue.

    (I'm no Illustrator expert btw).

    I solved it... through luck.

    In my case, the box was linked (somehow) to a 2-letter text box which I had moved to another layer and then hidden. Somehow this 'shadow' from the text box was left behind. I didn't see a clipping mask in the layers box. When I selected it (or more normally I selected 'off' a different object) this item was left behind.

    My suggestion is therefore: 

    Select EVERYTHING - make everything visible and unlocked.

    You may, like me, see that this phantom box is linked to a 'known' object. 

    Which I simply deleted.

    It has worked (for now!?).

    55 replies

    Show previous replies
    J
    JesseWest
    Participant
    June 5, 2014

    Same problem here, and it also follows me from desktop to laptop etc... Its driving me bonkers. Going to lose it here.

    The only way to get their attention is to continue emailing help. Hopefully they'll get tired of it and make it a priority to fix.

      julian88888888
      julian88888888
      Participant
      May 20, 2014

      Still having this same issue. CS6, Maverick.

      O
      obuu
      Participant
      May 22, 2014

      I've had this problem off and on for years... it started in CS4 then they fixed it then when I joined the creative cloud and downloaded CS 6 and Upgraded my System Software - it started again. This time worse than any other.

      they upgraded to CC and the problem was off and on depending on the "BUG" fixes but the last bug fixed seemed to have worked. Recently I upgraded My system Software and the latests CC Updates and it's Back With a VENGENCE.  I literally can't do anything without multiple ghost boxes everywhere. It Seems to start when the file has a lot of artwork and art boards. ADOBE PLEASE FIX THIS!!!

      R
      RynoBucket
      Participant
      January 22, 2014

      I am having a similar issue. I have a screen capture of my particular issue. I'm on CC with the most recent update V 17.1.0 and using OSX Mavericks 10.9.1 on a mid-2011 iMac.

      This is the video showing my glitch.

      http://cl.ly/0e2e1j0O0E2o

        E
        elegant_ease16B8
        Participant
        February 7, 2014

        This is an easily reproduced and thoroughly irritating bug that has persisted through a few versions. Quitting and restarting Illustrator sometimes corrects it but it eventually returns 100% of the time. The response from Adobe is [crickets]. Maybe it's fixed in CC?

        OldBob1957
        OldBob1957
        Inspiring
        February 6, 2013

        I've had this same problem, on and off, since CS3 (though not yet with CS6). Sometimes in quite simple files; a box with some text, no clipping masks, and where nothing in the file has ever bee in the area where the box suddenly appears (usually off the artboard).

        My usual way of dealing with it (found quite by accident), is to select anything else in the file, click it one more time to 'anchor' it, then use any of the align tools (see below). The anchored object doesn't move, and, nine times out of ten, the box is gone. For that persistent tenth time, I have been simply closing and reopening the file (that always cures it), but next time I will try your trick.

        Hoping someone will eventually figure out where this ghost comes from, -- OB

          H
          hongo4868757
          Participant
          September 8, 2017

          Best resolution ever!

          chuckm33968178
          chuckm33968178
          Participant
          October 25, 2017

          I've been experiencing this for years. My resolution has always been to draw an object (square, whatever), lock it (common-2), unlock it. The tip above works well, too, and is probably easier.

          Mike_Gondek10189183
          Community Expert
          Mike_Gondek10189183Community Expert
          Community Expert
          February 5, 2013

          Most likley you have a clipping mask selected. Use your layers and appearance palette to help deteremine what you have selected.

          Eiditng masks got to be cumbersome since they changed how masks work in CS5, and suspect that is what is giving you trouble. To edit the contents of a mask, you need to click on the 2nd icon below (circle with a dot in the middle), and also using selection targets in the layers palette (the round buttons left of the blue squares on my first screenshot)

          C
          cmcmorrowAuthor
          Participating Frequently
          February 5, 2013

          Thanks Mike,

          I agree at first it seems like I'm selecting a mask. I am familiar with how to edit clipping masks, though, and I dont think that's what's happening here.

          Looking in the layers panel shows nothing selected except the object I'm clicking on.

          And when I'm clicking on an object, it's often many artboards away from the one that the bounding box is suddenly including, and has no relation, in most cases, at all.

          Also the behavior is strange. I can deactivate the abnormally large bounding box by dragging its corner (which will resize the second, unintended object, which I was calling mystery object), then clicking off it. When I undo, and then click my first object again, all is well. It's as if the resizing action gets illustrator to realize it has mistakenly grabbed something else.

          I tried to take a screen shot of the extra large bounding box, but as soon as I hover the crosshairs over the illustrator document, the large-sized bounding box disappears, showing just the normal sized one around the object I intended to select. ESC out of screenshot mode, and it comes back!!! It's like the dancing frog in that old cartoon. I'll have to use my iphone to capture it.

          I'd love to hear any other thoughts!!

            Mike_Gondek10189183
            Community Expert
            Mike_Gondek10189183Community Expert
            Community Expert
            February 5, 2013

            If you are on the mac and a Shift CMD 4 fails to capture what you need, you can instead use Shift CMD 3 to shoot the entire screen, or in utilities there is grab which can do a timed screenshot.

            Try to copy your selection, paste into a new document to see what appears.

            If some made an opacity mask in the tranparency palette, that also can do something similar, if the opacity mask square(one on the right) was left selected last.

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