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15

Copy & Paste not always working - randomly

Explorer ,
Mar 03, 2019 Mar 03, 2019

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Hi all,

This is a very frustrating bug - around 50% of the times copy & paste won't work. I select an object, press ctrl+C, and then pressing ctrl+V produces nothing as if the clipboard is empty.

I cannot reproduce it as it seems random, sometimes it will copy & paste, sometimes it won't.

This makes working with Illustrator extremely hard.

Might be worth mentioning that copy-pasting from Illustrator into Photoshop resembles the same buggy behavior - it will randomly work or not.

Please advise on how to resolve this.

Cheers

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correct answers 5 Correct answers

Community Expert , Mar 03, 2019 Mar 03, 2019

Have you tried deleting Preference?

How to set preferences in Illustrator

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Community Expert , May 27, 2020 May 27, 2020

Is any clipboard enhancing app installed?

Can you try if turning off the SVG option in Preferences > File Handling and Clipboard helps?

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Community Beginner , Jul 27, 2020 Jul 27, 2020

wah... thank you sooo much!!! after all the methods I've tried, finally this "turning off the SVG option in Preferences" method can solve my "copy-paste Lag/Bug" problem in my Adobe Illustrator.

thankyu very much!

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New Here , Dec 25, 2022 Dec 25, 2022

Hi! I have the answer.

I am lucky that in my case I use copy paste a lot for drawing everyday so I know exactly when that weird behavior happen.

I uninstall this 3 program to fix the issue,
- chrome remote desktop
- mouse pointer highlighter
- anyViewer

*I installed those program to setup my tablet as secondary monitor, but it doesnt feel good anyway.

Once I uninstalled all of them and restart my Illustrator all working fine. I still don't know what the culprit is, but for my case it must be in one of

...

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Community Beginner , Mar 10, 2023 Mar 10, 2023

Here is an update of my issue of copy and paste in Illustrator.
Have switched keyboard, Now using Logitech keyboard and mouse on the same wireless usb dongle.

 

I must say, problem is gone.

So maybe this issue also can be caused by keyboard set up..

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correct answers 1 Pinned Reply

Adobe Employee , Jan 27, 2023 Jan 27, 2023

Hi @ivobachkov,

 

We are sorry to hear about your experience. Would you mind updating the app to v27.2, released recently, and see if that helps?

 

This generally happens due to third-party application interfering with keyboard shortcuts when working on Illustrator.

Would you mind booting into safe mode (Mac/ Windows) and launching Illustrator to check whether the same behavior is happening?

 

Also, would you mind confirming the exact version of your Illustrator & OS installed on your machine?

 

...

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replies 129 Replies 129
Community Beginner ,
May 03, 2020 May 03, 2020

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I am working with Adobe Illustrator. I am having the same copy-paste issues. It seriously wastes our time and mind. Please have a clear fix. We have tried all those methodologies mentioned here. None works. The problem is only with objects like rectangles and triangles, which are like building blocks for any of the works. 

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Community Beginner ,
May 26, 2020 May 26, 2020

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I am also having the same bug. Copy-paste is not working on objects. Very irritating and spoils the speed of work. 

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Community Expert ,
May 27, 2020 May 27, 2020

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Is any clipboard enhancing app installed?

Can you try if turning off the SVG option in Preferences > File Handling and Clipboard helps?

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 27, 2020 Jul 27, 2020

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wah... thank you sooo much!!! after all the methods I've tried, finally this "turning off the SVG option in Preferences" method can solve my "copy-paste Lag/Bug" problem in my Adobe Illustrator.

thankyu very much!

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New Here ,
Oct 26, 2020 Oct 26, 2020

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Thank you!!!! SO frustrating.  Now it appears to be a non issue.

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Explorer ,
Jun 18, 2021 Jun 18, 2021

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THANK YOU! This has been killing me and I thought it was my computer breaking down. So much better now. 

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2021 Aug 11, 2021

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I wish this worked for me. Turned off the SVG and PDF settings in Preferences and still can't copy/paste certain objects or text. It is a serious flaw and major time waster. Wish this video showed the Edit menu where "Paste" is not an option after "Copy". https://www.loom.com/share/291ee58e9b3343a2a289a39f16f3e24b

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Explorer ,
May 31, 2023 May 31, 2023

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I don't know who marked this the "correct" answer, but it doesn't solve the problem.

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Community Expert ,
May 31, 2023 May 31, 2023

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There are different solutions for different people with this. Most probably you need to search for the app that ruins the clipboard in your case.

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Community Beginner ,
May 31, 2023 May 31, 2023

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Done wasting my life with this stupid problem. Switching back over to Corel Draw 🙂

Jason Scott​

personal details removed by moderator

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New Here ,
Apr 01, 2021 Apr 01, 2021

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Thank you so so much! You are my life savior!!!

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Community Beginner ,
May 09, 2023 May 09, 2023

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Thank you!! This has been such a frustrating issue.

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Adobe Employee ,
Feb 16, 2021 Feb 16, 2021

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Are you using any backup or sync services , like google drive or dropbox or icloud . 

if yes , try to quit the sync/ backup. 

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Community Beginner ,
May 28, 2020 May 28, 2020

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I have the same issue, currently using version 24.1.1 but had this problem with previous versions 22 and 23 too. still the same... Never had it with the good old CS5

Tried resetting preferences many times - from Illustrator, from Windows (deleting pref files from AppData/Roamign folder) and also the trick with ALT-CTRL-SHIFT ... none of them solves the issue permanently. The only thing works temporarily is restarting Illustrator everytime when stops working. when I exit  Illustrator it clears the Clipboard and after restart i can use the Paste tool - once or twice and then starts again... very very frustrating.

 

does not matter what file what shape...

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Community Expert ,
May 28, 2020 May 28, 2020

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Is a clipboard enhancing tool installed?

What else is running?

 

For most people this issue is caused by other applications interfering. You only have to find out which one it is. There are several threads on the same issue that list several apps causing it.

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Community Beginner ,
May 28, 2020 May 28, 2020

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Thanks. I do not have any extra clipboard tool installed and usually I run Chrome and Outlook, but these are not affecting it as the problem occurs when these are closed or after the computer freshly restarted and only Illustrator running. (+some apps in the background like onedrive, Skype, CC Desktop and antivirus+ whatever Win10 running in the background) . I understand maybe interferring with other apps but maybe it should not ? these are very standard apps, i have nothing special running or installed. do not use the clipboard in any other apps apart from Illustrator... 

 

tried founding solutions online, as said it is a problem for years now for me but all i read is to reset the preferences or it is an other app... but no idea what it can be and surely more could be done to investigate (reinstall the whole computer or similar but i do not have time for this and actually I gave up rather   - luckly i do not need to use Illustrator every day... 

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Community Beginner ,
May 28, 2020 May 28, 2020

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sorry one more thing i noticed during the years... it only happens if a geometry copied to the clipboard, if it is a text, then always able to Paste it... I think a read this in other people's posts too..

 

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Community Expert ,
May 28, 2020 May 28, 2020

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Is the antivirus Digital Guardian? If so: it's known to cause issues: https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator/copy-paste-crashes-illustrator/td-p/9293580?page=1

 

When other apps interfere, how should Illustrator prevent them?

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New Here ,
Oct 01, 2020 Oct 01, 2020

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Hi i use adobe product since 2002 there was no problem at all with copy/paste function.
But now i am strugling with this kind of problem like you. I bought a ryzen 9 3900x processor and it has 12 physical and 24 emulated cores...AAAAAND that is the problem!

I figured out Illustrator is strugling if you have more than 4 cores. My i5 never had this issue before. [it has only 4 cores]

I recently have this copy issue and my CPU usage were around 30% process only on illustrator process with no active calculating. And copy/paste function not working. Now i have 8% with no active use, illustrator is in background because i write this message in the meantime.

So in task manager [ctrl+shift+esc] / DETAILS tab / click on illustrator.exe / right click / set affinity / ALLOW ONLY 4 CORES

It's working now...
So Adobe, please move on with time, and please support our multi core machines. thanks
sry for my bad english

 

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2021 Aug 11, 2021

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Tried this too. No luck. Same issue continues.

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New Here ,
Aug 13, 2020 Aug 13, 2020

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Thank you satria03! I read your post to see where you got your answer from, couldn't find it so I just turned off my SVG option and BAM, it works! I work for a printing company, we don't do web design so I don't think I'll have an issue with it being off. 

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 13, 2020 Aug 13, 2020

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your welcome

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New Here ,
Nov 06, 2020 Nov 06, 2020

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If you keep the object selected, it would end up being copied.

Meaning don't click anywhere else after you select and copy it.

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Community Beginner ,
Feb 26, 2021 Feb 26, 2021

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Same issue here. Both shortcut and menu are not working, exactly like in the video that Evilspam posted here in this thread. It happens even in Illustrator 25.2, newest update I installed. It happens irregardless of what I have running in the background. If I restart the system (Windows 10) and run only Illustrator it still happens.
I turned off "Include SVG code", I tried to reset preferences, it didn't help. It happens with cut and paste, copy paste, copy in front...
It's very time consuming, because you have to undo and try again many times if it's failing.
But also I have lost work because of this, because I didn't notice cut and paste didn't work. Basically cut and paste would delete parts of my graphic.

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Explorer ,
Aug 11, 2021 Aug 11, 2021

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Same. Have tried all of the solutions on this tread and no joy. Same issue constantly. Where is Freehand when you need it? lol

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