Black Bar showing up after saving a file

[joez54130490]

I am IT for a design firm and one of the end-users (iMac, intel i7, 32GB ram, Illustrator 2018) reported a black bar showing up after saving a file. It's pushing the rulers down quite a bit, what could be causing this?

[Daniel E Lane]

Glitch in the Matrix. Try turning off the rulers and see what happens. Also, you can update to the latest version of Illustrator CC 2019 (v. 23.0.1 - though there will be another update shortly I know...)

But what were they doing at the time this happened? cant seem to duplicate it, and have tried quite a few things as well as installing The old version of illustrator.

[joez54130490]

As far as I'm aware, they were just saving the file that they were working on. Once it was done saving the black bar appeared.

[Monika Gause]

When was the last time they restarted that computer?

[joez54130490]

I had them restart after they reported it, and I believe this user is one of the few that shuts down at the end of the day.

[Daniel E Lane]

Do they always use an over 60 character file name? Just wondering as I've seen glitches happen with really long file names in the past, though not lately...

[joez54130490]

So I just chatted with the user, it happens when switching to outline view and back but not consistently. And the only way she has been able to make it go away is by closing that file and reopening it, not fully closing Illustrator.

And yes, quite often the file names are 60+ characters.

[Daniel E Lane]

I jut tried it a few hundred times in CC 2019, and it didn't happen at all when switching to outline view and back. I've tried it in CC 2018 as well and have not seen it happen yet either, so not sure what's up. Can you update to the newest version yet or no?

[joez54130490]

We are trying to stay on 2018 for a bit longer. So no we haven't updated yet. I can try reinstalling 2018 for them.

[Daniel E Lane]

definitely would not hurt. Also, you can have them try and reset their preferences as well first to see if that does it.

[Daniel E Lane · Accepted solution]

There are two levels of reseting your preferences, the first and more commonly known is to:

• Windows users: Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift as you start Illustrator
• Mac OS users: Option+Command+Shift as you start Illustrator

Your current settings are deleted.The second method is to:

1. Quit Illustrator
2. Manually locate your Adobe Illustrator Prefs file
3. Delete it

How do I back and restore up my Illustrator Preferences?

To back up your Adobe Illustrator Prefs file…

• Quit Illustrator
• Locate the Adobe Illustrator Prefs file
• Copy it to somewhere safe

To restore it…

• Quit Illustrator
• Locate the correct folder
• Copy the previously backed-up Adobe Illustrator Prefs file back into the folder

Restoring this file will revert your panels, window positions, native Illustrator and Astute Graphics plug-in preferences.

Locating your Illustrator Preferences file

The file is named Adobe Illustrator PrefsAdobe document the location of this file here. But here is a quick guide on how to find the folder which contains the Adobe Illustrator Prefs file…Mac OS users:

1. In the Finder menu bar, follow Go > Library (this may be hidden so hold down the Alt key to reveal)
2. Open the Preferences > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator [version*] Settings > [local language] > … folder

Windows users:Users > [username] > AppData > Roaming > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator [version*] Settings > [local language / 32/64] > …*Depending on your Illustrator version this folder will be named as follows:

• Adobe Illustrator CS6 Settings = CS6
• Adobe Illustrator 17 Settings = CC (initial CC release in 2013)
• Adobe Illustrator 18 Settings = CC2014
• Adobe Illustrator 19 Settings = CC2015
• Adobe Illustrator 20 Settings = CC2015.3
• Adobe Illustrator 21 Settings = CC2017
• Adobe Illustrator 22 Settings = CC2018

[joez54130490]

Awesome, thank you Daniel. I will have them try resetting their preferences, if that doesn't work I will try reinstalling Illustrator on their computer.

[Daniel E Lane]

right on. Good luck! I bet one of those two things should fix it.