Can’t Use Illustrator: Text Tool Broken, Bounding Box Missing, Objects Acting Grouped

[Rosamalia]

Hello,

I have been paying for my Adobe student plan since October, and from the very first month I began using Illustrator, I started experiencing occasional random errors. The app would crash sporadically, and I would simply reopen it. At the time, I didn’t give it much importance since it wasn’t directly affecting my work.

However, for the past three days, I have been unable to use Illustrator properly. The issue has become persistent and severely disruptive. Here’s what happens:

• When I select text, the bounding box disappears or doesn’t show up.

• The text deselects itself automatically without me clicking elsewhere.

• When I select a text object, the font name displayed is not the one applied, but the name of the previous font I selected. This incorrect name remains even if I select text with a completely different font.

• When I try to move a single object, multiple unrelated objects move together as if they were grouped — even though they are not.

• The blue outline (bounding box) doesn’t appear around selected elements, which makes editing extremely difficult.

To resolve this, I have tried everything possible, including:

1. Removing all Google Fonts I had installed (thinking that might be the issue).

2. Using only Adobe Fonts — the issue still occurred.

3. Uninstalling and reinstalling Illustrator.

4. Uninstalling Adobe Creative Cloud and all Adobe apps, and reinstalling everything from scratch.

5. Creating a new user account on my Mac to test if it was a system-level issue — the problem persisted.

6. Completely deleting all Illustrator preference files.

7. Installing an older version of Illustrator — the issue still remains.

I’ve followed every recommended troubleshooting step I could find, but nothing has worked. This issue is now seriously affecting my university projects, as I’ve been unable to submit work on time and my grades are being impacted as a result.

Please, I need your support to resolve this. Illustrator is a tool I rely on daily for my studies and creative work, and it has become unusable.

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Monika Gause]

Can you tell us about your hardware and system?

WHat kind of input device are you using?

Are you using font management? Which one?

Are you using a system extension such as Rectangle or Magnet - those are Window managers.