Why is center alignment so unpredictable?

Unless you are having some weird GPU issue, features tend to work or don't work. There may be an issue of how the objects are selected. (All the alignment features are working correctly on my systems.)

this might be over simplifying your question -- sorry if it is.

Are you using the "distribute" alignment?

Is the alignment set to "align to artboard"? (as opposed to "align to selection" or "align to key object"

You mean for artboard? Yeah, mine hasn't worked reliably for a long while, I just do the math. There seems to be one rogue element in every doc that won't do what everyone else is doing. I've spent way too long trying to work out what it is and given up - i thought inadvertently locked to a hidden guide was a winner for a while, but nope... weird thing is if I cut and paste into a new doc it behaves, but paste it back it won't... fortunately one of the least annoying things to worry about.

Hello @defaultukwwuionfxf0,

Sorry to hear about this experience. I hope the suggestions shared by John helped resolve the problem. If not, kindly share a screen recording of the problem so we can investigate this further.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anubhav

After selecting the objects you want to center-align, click again on the object you want to stay in place, to designate it as the "key object". When you click center-align button, all the other objects will align on the key object.

Hi,

could you post a screenshot or a short video? Thank you.