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Leo Hans
Leo Hans
Participant
August 17, 2022
Answered

Copy and Paste Bug

  • August 17, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 1065 views

Suddenly I cannot copy and paste from Illustrator to other apps (including Photoshop).

Pasting as a smart object in photoshop results in an empty smart object.

The clipboard is empty.

I tried with some squares and shapes and it works, but with more complex stuff it doesn't (and with stuff I used to copy & paste without issues before).

 

I tried emptying cache, deleting preferences, uninstalling and installing Illustrator again and still not working.

I even rolled back to the previous version without any luck.

 

I'm currently running 26.4.1 on my M1 Macbook Pro

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Leo Hans

Ok, I found a solution.

 

Selecting all the artboards, copy & paste on a new document solves the issue. It appear to be the .ai file(s) damaged (plural since they were more than one with the same problem).

Now it works.
Really strange behavior

3 replies

mjdesign1957
mjdesign1957
Participating Frequently
December 2, 2023

This happens on almost every document I work on. So in the middle of a job I am supposed to work around by coping the entire contents into a new document? @Adobe please fix this!

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 2, 2023

Search for the third party application that interferes with your clipboard.  Might be one of these:

 

  • Parallels Toolbox running with the Clipboard History
  • TeamVewer Clipboard > Use Shared Clipboard
  • Apple iOS device simulator from Xcode
  • Windows Multi-clipboard
  • Windows Clipboard History
  • Chrome Remote Desktop
  • Mouse Pointer Highlighter
  • AnyViewer
  • Pastebot app
  • Overzealous antivirus (Digital Guardian) as well as viruses that empty the clipboard
  • Vector Magic
Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 17, 2022

Do you have anything installed in the system that "enhances" the clipboard?

 

Leo Hans
Leo HansAuthor
Participant
August 17, 2022

Yes, Unclutter. But no. that's not the issue for two reasons:
1) It hasn't been updated, so nothing changed.

2) I've already tried closing Unclutter just in case.

BTW googleing about this it appears to be not the first time Illustrator got this kind of behaviour.

Y
Y8RKD
Participant
February 27, 2023

I have found that if I have Outlook open it stops me cutting and pasting in Illustrator.

The only way round I have found is to close Outlook while working in Illustrator.

    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Anubhav MCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    August 17, 2022

    Hello @Leo Hans,

     

    Sorry to hear about this experience. Kindly confirm if the issue persists with other files. Also, does pasting as Layers help resolve the problem?

     

    Looking forward to your response.

     

    Thanks,

    Anubhav 

    Leo Hans
    Leo HansAuthor
    Participant
    August 17, 2022

    Hi. Not at all. Just started today.
    It appears to be happening with the files I've have been working today. But even then, objects that were created before in the same file are able to copy and paste without issues.

     

    This is really unfortunate while working

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