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Participant
January 8, 2020
Answered

keyboard shortcuts not working for illustrator 2020

  • January 8, 2020
  • 8 replies
  • 30809 views

Spacebar no longer activates hand icon in illustrator 2020. In fact most shortcuts are not working.

I've looked through the posts and others with similar problems had solutions that have not worked for me.

 

[Moving from generic Start/Help forum to the specific Program forum... Mod]
[To find a forum for your program please start at https://community.adobe.com/]

Correct answer 61parker

WOW! I have had this issue for quite some time, it's maddening. This …

       Edit >> Keyboard Shortcuts >> Just click okay

Was SO, SO helpful. 

Thank you, Yanis263720300xru

8 replies

Participant
May 20, 2023

This super simple solution fixed my problem immediately.

Edit >> Keyboard Shortcuts >> Just click okay

Could be another source of problem and maybe could not fix your case but give it a try.

61parkerCorrect answer
Participant
October 19, 2023

WOW! I have had this issue for quite some time, it's maddening. This …

       Edit >> Keyboard Shortcuts >> Just click okay

Was SO, SO helpful. 

Thank you, Yanis263720300xru

Participating Frequently
December 8, 2022

I had the same problem and it was Jumpshare. Thanks for the tip – it was driving me crazy.

Participant
October 19, 2021

EUREKA!

I figured out what the problem was. I have an alternate Spanish keyboard installed on my Macbook Pro and one of the Illustrator shortcuts I was using was toggling to the Spanish keyboard and messing up the Illustrator shortcuts. I had to uninstall the Spanish keyboard because I don't know how to turn off the toggling shortcut in the Mac preferences. Maybe someone else does?

 

Hope this helps someone regain their sanity.

Participant
August 29, 2021

just check if any other language  keyboard is activated.....DEACTIVATE IT...and set to official [english] keyboard

Participant
September 20, 2021

I just had this happen to me today. I'm running Illustrator 2021 v 25.4.1 on my MacBook Pro. I opened up my computer this morning after being away for the weekend, and Illustrator had signed me out and required me to sign back into my Adobe account. After signing back in, I checked on my Adobe Creative Cloud App, and saw an update available for Illustrator 2020 that I also have installed, updating it to v 24.3.1. I closed down Illustrator 2021 (just in case that would interfere with the update), ran that 2020 update, and then opened 2021 again, discovering that all tool keyboard shortcuts weren't working anymore. Restarting Illustrator did no good. Restarting my MacBook did no good.

Here's how I solved the issue: I tried opening up the 2020 version while the 2021 version was still open. The shortcuts seemed okay in 2020. I then tried working in 2021, and now the shortcuts were working there too! I closed 2020, and the shortcuts continued to function properly in 2021. All seems well now. No idea what that was all about, but at least I didn't have to uninstall anything, trash my preferences, or anything inconvenient like that!

Participating Frequently
December 30, 2020

That soudns like a catostrophic failure, not a fix.

wdroverAuthor
Participant
January 9, 2020

Thanks all.  I have managed to resolve the issue.  I'm not entirely sure what worked or why it worked, but I restarted, installed an older version of Illustrator, restarted, installed an even older version of Illustrator, restarted then installed the latest version again and it then seemed to fix the issue. It was only during the last step that it seemed to work.

Srishti Bali
Community Manager
Community Manager
January 10, 2020

Hi there,

 

Thanks for sharing this information. It may help others as well.  Give us a shout if you need help with anything else. 

 

Regards,

Srishti

Ashutosh_Mishra
Inspiring
January 8, 2020

Hi there,

 

Thanks for reaching out. In addition to what Monika and Steve has suggested correctly, I'd recommend creating a new user account and see if the shortcuts are working there. Then you can check which additional programs or apps you are running on your user account.
You may follow the links below to get help:
1. For Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4026923/windows-10-create-a-local-user-or-administrator-account

2. For macOS: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mtusr001/mac

Let us know if it helps.

 

Regards,

Ashutosh

S_Gans
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 8, 2020

Hi. Just tested some more. This is in the bug/feature request area already. A consistent issue, despite resets, new user accounts, etc.

Adobe Community Expert / Adobe Certified Instructor
Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 8, 2020

Do you have any browser running? Screensharing? Firewall/virus protection?

Some of those are known to "steal" shortcuts.

Steve Werner
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 8, 2020

Monica is correct.

 

The way to test: Restart your computer, if possible disabling any startup applications. Open Illustrator FIRST. See if you still have the problem. If not, then slowly open new programs to see which one is "capturing keystrokes."