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Answered

Swatches disappear in Swatches panel when switching between documents in 29.7.1 on macOS

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
August 6, 2025
11 replies
5121 views

Another adventure with Illustrator this morning...

The color swatch tiles will disappear (hide, not show, go away, whatever) from the swatches panel when switching between open documents. The List and Thumbnail view buttons are grayed out.

What does show when switching documents is apparently new feature of Recent Colors.

The swatch library is loaded. Don't take me down the path of how to load a swatch library.

Accessing the panel drop down menu and selecting something like thumbnail view size will cause them to reappear. Until you switch to another document, then the swatches disappear again. We repeat the process..

Old documents. New documents. Worked fine yesterday.

MacOS Sequoia 15.6

Illustrator 29.7.1

Correct answer Simon5CE7

It looks like that, @Ton Frederiks. I can confirm that the issue is no longer affecting me in the new Illustrator release 29.8.1.

G_Man

Inspiring

Jan 2026 and this is STILL happening.

A

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @G_Man

I’m sorry to hear you’re still having trouble with this. Could you confirm the exact versions of the OS/Illustrator installed, and share a brief screen recording of the problem so we can check it with the team?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

G_Man

Inspiring

Hi there Anubhav,

Thanks for reaching out. It’s version 29.7. Windows 10 Pro.

I’ll sort out a video when i get the chance at the weekend.

Regards,

Gary.

A

anng102106

Participant

I'm experiencing it too with Illustrator 29.7.1. Has there been an update on this issue? Just wondering if anyone knows if this will be fixed soon...

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

It was done in beta, it is supposed to be fixed in the 29.8.1 update.

D

dunazee

Participating Frequently

I'm having this issue as well, but intermittently. The only way to solve it is to click on the show swatches button at the bottom of the swatch palette. It's an easy fix, just annoying.

I have Show Recent Colors turned off.

I quit Ps, InDe, and Acrobat Pro and the Ai color palette seems normal. Fired them all back up and it's still acting as it should. Hmph.

Ai 29.7.1, Mac OS 15.6.1.

FWIW, I cannot use a beta version of anything on the company-owned hardware.

M

mhd6

Inspiring

Having this issue as well. I can "Add Used Colors" to the Swatches... but if I even glance at another tab in Illustrator, all the swatches will disappear!

I wish Adobe would test their generative AI crap more thoroughly before unleashing it on people who have work to get done. 😐

laustrick

Participant

the same thing is happening to me, same thing didn't happen yesterday, i've loaded and saved swatches and when i go to another document they disappear, and as of today "recent swatches" is there. i'm on a 2025 macbook air M4 running sequoia 15.6. : |

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

If you want to try this Beta: Build 29.9.6. The problem seems to have been solved.

The beta is available from the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Derek HolimanAuthor

Known Participant

Curious...

Are we waiting on something special to release the fix? Is there a "schedule" to follow? Staffing issues? "Just let them have to deal with it, we'll get around to it some day, they'll survive!"

If you have a fix for a problem we are all experiencing can we have it?

I'm pretty sure we're all paid up on our monthly subscription dues, I know I am, Including the price increases.

Again, just curious. What's the reasoning?

Hell meanwhile... I just ran an update for Photoshop... for bug fixes... again. It's like Photshop releases an update more than I breath.

S

Simon5CE7

Inspiring

I'm also experiencing this issue. The only way I can get the swatches to reappear is by copying and pasting a shape (or anything) from one document into another. However, as soon as I switch between the documents the swatches then disappear again. I've attached some screenshots to demonstrate this:

1 = document A, 2 = document B, 3 = shape from document B copy and pasted into document A.

It must be a bug, as there doesn't appear to be a logical reason for this to happen.

L

l_8359

Participant

Hi,

Just wanted to share an Illustrator issue to see if others are also experiencing the issue, and see if it can be resolved by Adobe.

Lately I am unable to have more than one Illustrator file open at the same time if I want to retain saved colour swatches. Switching between files deletes the previous files swatches (see attached screenshots with File 1's swatches before and after opening File 2).

When opening File 2, the saved swatches are present. However, if I go between Files 1 and 2, both files lose their saved swatch information. Meaning 2+ files can't be open at once without losing all swatch information.

I'm running Illustrator Version 29.7.1 on a macOS Sequoia 15.4.1 operating system.

<Title renamed by moderator>

creative explorer

Community Expert

@l_8359 Have you tried a simple restart of the application, it often clears up temporary glitches. I am assuming this worked fine just recently. Since the problem started suddenly, it's a strong possibility that you may have corrupted preferences are a very common cause of unexpected behavior in Illustrator. You can try a quick reset by holding down Command Option Shift (Mac) as you launch Illustrator. You will be asked if you want to reset your preferences. If the quick method doesn't work, you can manually delete the preferences file. You will need to close Illustrator first. The location of the file depends on your operating system, so you may need to search online for the specific path for your OS.

m

L

l_8359

Participant

@creative explorer Thank you for your suggestions. Restarting either the computer or the software did resolve the issue, but only temporarily. The issue is recurring unfortunately. Resetting preferences also didn’t resolve the issue. I can’t confirm if deleting preference files is a solution at this stage, as I am a little less confident in discerning which files need to be deleted. Thanks again.

C

Carla_Midford

Participant

I have also encountered this issue today! Funny thing is, with the last version (29.6.1) of Illustrator, I was having issues with my pattern swatches (which is still not fixed). Now I can't even access my swatches/patterns... so I guess Adobe's solution to my pattern problem is to remove my access to them altogether. I feel like I am experiencing adobe induced psychosis.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

@Derek Holiman there is a UserVoice report about this.

But it is about a beta version:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/939477-illustrator-desktop-beta-bugs/suggestions/50286393-swatches-disappear-in-swatches-panel-when-switchin