Can't move objects in Illustrator any more!

[davidicus_RYOT]

suddenly, I can't move objects with the selection tool. I can use arrow keys. I can move only if I drag from the center point. very annoying!

• I've tried restarting, rebooting, turning various view settings on and off (outline, edges, corner widget), pasted and drawn elements, a wireless and a wired mouse.
• currently i'm testing by opening a new 500 x 500px document, drawing a red rectangle, selecting the Selection tool, and trying to drag the rectangle. it's the only Illustrator file open, so there's it's about as simple as it gets.
• i'm using Windows 10, Illustrator 23.0.1 64bit with massive 256GB RAM (so it's probably not memory related).

[Lord_Vulture]

This is still an issue as of 10/20/2020... and this solve from below worked for me as well (found no reason to re-install)!
"Really, I've been trying to fix this for over an hour.  but turning off my photoshop solved the problem.  So much for work flow. "

[ninjunc]

Here in 2021 and this weird Photoshop/Illustrator glitch still exists. Had both programs open and after about 2 hours of work, I was no longer able to move objects in Illustrator. It would give me the error sound that you get when you try to do something but have to close a dialog/option box first. Only, there are no dialog boxes open. Literally opened a fresh doc, drew a square, filled it with red, swtiched to selection tool, and tried to click-drag it across the page. Error sound. 

I stumbled across this post and tried closing Photoshop. Illustrator started working again... Both versions were recently updated to the latest of the 2021 versions, so maybe that matters.

[Mica M.]

Glad to hear this helps!

But yes, sadly the bug still exists. It is strange, and I also noticed that the Wacom tablet can throw in some problems. Adobe and Wacom software sometimes don't play nice together.

But realising two Adobe applications sometimes sabotage one another hurts my brain (and workflow). I even had the Dreaded Stalling again today, while trying to move a layer up in Photoshop while holding 'Alt' to copy it (Photoshop freaks and zooms way up instead of simply copying the layer, and freeze issues galore 😞 A simple 'Alt-Tab'-ing will unblock it so it can breathe again, but really, come on... 😞

[Mica M.]

I forgot to add: if you're stuck in Photoshop (cursor no longer working, things freeze), try the good old 'Alt-Tab' to switch applications and then 'Alt-Tab' back to Photoshop to see how you can suddenly paint, erase, select et cetera again. This is usually a quick fix, but if this fails, well, sigh... you know what to do!

[Hektor5E95]

I just had this issue and so I stopped adobe update services from task manager and it unlocked my objects. Hopefully this helps anyone else with the same issue

[deborahjb1]

I don't know about Windows, but I just got help for the same issue on Mac, and the tech went into my settings and got rid of all the app's files, the preferences, etc., for Illustrator. These will regenerate when you reopen the app (or should). Make sure it's ok to get rid of them before doing it, but, if you can, it should solve the problem. (On Mac, they were under ~Library/Application Support/Adobe Illustrator 26/; ~Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator 26 Settings; ~Library/Preferences/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator. There may be more so do a system search to find the files.)

Or, just hop onto the help.adobe.com page and click the chat icon in the lower right and allow a tech to go into your computer to get rid of all the files. Took just a few minutes.