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December 10, 2025
Question

Why can't I description when hovering over icons?

  • December 10, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 191 views

I found another post about this issue from a couple of years ago that had a solution but the solution did not work for me, so I am starting a new thread with the same question.

 

I am using Illustrator 2026 on macOS Sequoia 15.7.2. When I hover over the icons in the toolbars, the descriptions do not appear like they used to. For example, the icons in the Align and Pathfinder toolbars. There are no descriptions for the different tools (e.g. trim, divide, etc.).

 

I have "Show Tool Tips" and "Show Rich Tool Tips" both turned on. The rich tool tips do appear when I hover over the tools on the lefthand toolbar, but the regular icon descriptions (for pathfinder and align tools) do not appear. One user on Reddit found that if they turned on Show Tool Tips, but turned off Show Rich Tool Tips, the issue resolved itself. But that did not work for me. I've also tried restarting Illustrator, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

    1 reply

    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    December 12, 2025

    Hello @jolene_5035,

    Thanks for reaching out. I tried to replicate this behavior on my end, but could not. Would you mind sharing the system report (https://adobe.ly/44mTpGY) and a brief screen recording of the issue, so we can review it with the team?

    Looking forward to hearing from you.

    Anubhav

    December 15, 2025

    Hi Anubhav,

     

    Shortly after I posted my problem, Illustrator stopped working and I had to force quit and restart my computer. When I restarted Illustrator I chose the option to run diagnostics, so hopefully it sent a report to Adobe. But the problem I was having seems to be fixed now!! The tool descriptions appear now when I hover over the tool icons.

     

    Thank you!

    December 20, 2025

    The problem has returned. This time, I've noticed it since Illustrator crashed again and I had to restart it. Again the rich tool descriptions are working but not the regular tool descriptions. I also lost the file I had been working on (cannot find it anywhere on my computer) even though I have Illustrator set to automatically save recovery data every 30 seconds. Not sure if this issue is related to the tool description issue (let me know if I should start a different discussion thread for the lost file issue).