Can't Resize in Illustrator even though Bounding Box is visible?

[Marina Boese]

Hello! Hoping someone can help as this is frustrating and I can't for the life of me get any answer from anywhere that does not involve the bounding box.

I am unable to resize objects and text in illustrator despite the anchor points being visible and the bounding box being turned on. This normally happens by accidentally hitting an unknown hotkey (Not sure which one...). My mouse has a different icon on it when this happens that I do not recognize (photo below).

Program version: 2018 CC Illustrator (Newest Update as of May 31, 2018)

Please help... uninstalling does not work and this is really slowing down my workflow.

[Monika Gause]

There are 2 pages of replies. To spare everyone the need to read through all of them, please tell us what you already tried.

Also: which version and system is it?

[Syeda Fatima Zehra5FE7]

THANKS MONIKA

[CHKLZOfficial]

A combination of what clarissaj and bobbending wrote helped me. Thanks all.

[Caroline5E22]

Very helpful thank you! I was having the same issue and this worked - check 'scale corners'. 

[Doug A Roberts]

For anyone reading this, the reason 'Scale Corners' worked for this person was because their rounded corners were at the maximum radius for the shape they had selected. It would not be possible to resize the shape while maintaining the corner radius.

[Sieun33085785hhjg]

THANK YOU SO MUCH AFTER 4 YEARS I WAS DOING MY DESIGN CLASS HW AND THIS SAVED MY LIFE THANK YOU SO MUCH I LOVE YOU

[beauhenneha · Accepted solution]

FOr anybody still having trouble, i did all of these solutions and nothing worked. I made a rectangle then with the regular selection tool i pressed control and dragged the corners to make it a cureved ractangle. THEN when i pressed show bounding box, it actually popped up, it would not work for a regular rectangle. after that it worked for whatever shape i made

[Hamda25008652950a]

you are a life saver!!!!! Thanks a million!!

[진원곽97050541]

saved my life! 

[focused_adventurer5ED3]

Great sir it worked perfectly and now im able to work .

A BIG THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION YOU'RE THE LEGENDS GUYS

[KateM86]

I'm having a similar issue. I checked in View>Show Bounding Box and it is selected. Any ideas?

[lindsey.haller]

Currently haveing the same issue. I have tried the "Show bounding box" option as well and nothing is working. I can scale a single shape I have drawn, but once I group it, or try to scale group text, it won't let me. 

[BobBending]

If you're having problems adjusting the width/size of a block of text and it's distorting the text when you resize the container, the block needs to be converted to a 'Type Area'. Select the block of text with bounding box displayed then go to the 'Type' menu in the top bar, then down to 'Convert to type area'.

Now when you resize the text block, the text will re-flow.

[itstommo]

....and this is the one that worked. Thanks. 

[Mehak5E6B]

Thank you so much sir 

Problem solved

[fernandop51228657]

I was having a similar issue, regardless of how big the artboard was, Illustrator refused to resize the selected objects. Eventually, I realised that guides were unlocked so it was selecting the guides as well as the object making the selection too large. I cleared guides and that solved the problem for me.

[Paul5CFE]

problem solved. Thank you

[Elizabeth5CFE]

OMG Thanks SO much! I had to do some stuff on it for my class and i had to make it the PERFECT size or it didnt work! I had to try OVER AND OVER to get it to work. I was SO confused! THANKS SO MUCH! (the bounding box worked!!!)

[MicheT_YYC]

I made the above changes and it wasn't until I CLOSED the program and restarted it that it worked and I could resize objects. 

[kimhanana]

OMG!! This was sooooo fustrating for those who had the bounding box on and still couldn't scale 

YOU NEED TO RESET AI PREFERENCES IN ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIYtk10G4HU

USE THIS VIDEO! IT WORKED FOR ME! 🙂 

[sj1122]

Thank you! Trying that now. 

[jefferyc39837706]

Yes - resetting preferences and restarting fixed this issue for me in Illustrator 26.0.1 - very frustrating.

[Ta2dgela]

I was having the same issue! Thank you to all those who have the answers for us still learning in fine tunings of things as we go. 

[Janith5C72]

thank you so much I got the same problem and this solved it

[Srishti Bali]

Hi all,

If you are still facing this issue, even if the bounding box is turned on, you may try the steps shared on this page.

Feel free to reach out if you have any suggestions or feedback or need assistance with this feature.

Regards,

Srishti