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Question

Phantom Objects in .ai files

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
October 25, 2025
4 replies
370 views

I'm on MacOS. When previewing an .ai file in Finder, there will often times be phantom objects visible in Finder Preview. These objects are always duplicates of whatever is actually visible on the artboard-- usually it's a phantom object in the position the object was in the last time I saved the file. When I open the .ai file in Illustrator, those objects do not exist. The objects are not hidden; they are not on some other layer. This is particularly problematic because those phantom objects are still there if I open the .ai file in Photoshop. If I add the .ai file as a Smart Object layer in my Photoshop file, the phantom objects are there. If I attempt to edit that Smart Object, Illustrator opens up and shows the phantom objects are not there. Saving and closing DOES NOT FIX IT. Sometimes toggling the visibility of the Illustrator layer the objects are on and then saving fixes it. Sometimes toggling to outline mode fixes it. Sometimes moving the .ai from one folder to another, brings the phantom objects back. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? How do I make it stop?

Screen_Recording_2025-10-24_at_4-03-14 PM.zip

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Looking at it again.

Opening the .pdf in Illustrator and pasting as smart object in Photoshop does not show the problem, but opening the file in Photoshop or Acrobat shows a duplicate.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @meganp77275122,

Thanks for sharing the details. Could you please share the actual .ai file instead of the PDF, so I can test it more accurately? I wasn't able to see the save action in your recording, and when I tested with the PDFs you provided as well as my own files, the issue didn't appear after saving.

It would also help to test this once in a new local admin user account to check if it's related to any account-specific settings. You can follow the steps here to create one: https://adobe.ly/47HIQza.

Please let me know once you've tried that, so I can check this further.

Abhishek

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @meganp77275122,

Thanks for sharing the detailed description. Could you please try saving the file with a new name and then check if the issue persists? As the expert suggested, it would also be helpful if you could share a sample .ai file where this happens, along with your macOS and Illustrator version, so I can check it.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

meganp77275122Author

Participating Frequently

I need to preface all of this with: This is a work machine and we have required processes and deliverable file types. I cannot just "save as a pdf instead.” I must keep these as .ai files and I am not allowed to update my operating system nor Adobe apps until updates are pushed by IT. There are also some files I cannot share with you since they are proprietary. Since recording my screen, that file no longer has the phantom object issue-- so you're not going to see what I was seeing at the time I recorded it.

I have tried saving without pdf compatibility to see if that fixed it— but that created an entirely new issue when previewed in Finder. Attached is one of the .ai files I used to test— saved as pdf so that this website lets me upload it. Of course, saving as pdf fixes the issue, so I’m not sure how that’s helpful for troubleshooting.

Below are screenshots of what the file looks like in my Finder/Preview. Another is what the file is supposed to look like. (Note that the color is incorrect on the one with pdf compatibility. A work-around we’ve figured out to get the color to appear correct is to hide the visibility of all layers and ALL the objects/groups within those layers. Which is super annoying if I ever need to go back and amend the file.) Also below are screenshots of my Illustrator version and MacOS.

Test1.pdf

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Thanks for sharing, but as you already said, the problem is not visible in this file.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Can you share that file? To attach it here, rename the extension from .ai to .pdf. Or save as .pdf.

meganp77275122Author

Participating Frequently

Unfortunately, when I did the screen recording, I did my work-around where I just toggled the visibility of the layer that contains the object so the issue no longer persists. I certainly could resave as pdf or eps-- but since I require the file to be an .ai I do not see why that would be necessary nor fix my problem.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

When you save an Illustrator file with the option "Create PDF Compatible File" checked, you actually save the Illustrator file with a pdf version embedded.

Same, when you save the file as PDF with the option "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" checked you save an additional Illustrator file in the PDF.

Both these files can be opened in Acrobat and Illustrator and depending on the application, the pdf or the Illustrator part of the file is opened.

Saving files without these options saves files that can only be opened reliably in Illustrator or Acrobat..

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