Expanding a pattern fill but then the object goes blank and the pattern disappears.

[Natanya26328951vjtm]

I know if you use a pattern fill and you expand the fill then the pattern becomes a vector for you to edit, clip, etc. The problem I am having with this one pattern is that you can see it's a pattern fill. When you move the object around the pattern is still like it would be and the clipping path (window) moves and you get a different view of the pattern which is normal. But when I expand the object (fill is selected in the expand window) the pattern disappears entirely and I'm left with a blank clipping path. I did try and flatten the transparency and that didn't work either. I played with the fill to make sure it was not being silly. I also tried moving the object to a new document in case something was corrupted. I even tried a new clipping path/object. Please help.

[Ton Frederiks]

Is it possible to share an example file? Dropbox, CC filesharing, WeTransfer, Google...

[Natanya26328951vjtm]

If you can send me your email address for the wetransfer. That would be great. I have the file ready for you. 

[Anna Lander]

Is it your own pattern or it's from any stock? Sometimes the stuff from stocks has some internal issues. And, as Ton said, it would be very helpful to see the working file.

[Natanya26328951vjtm]

It's from a client so I'm not sure how they got it. It shows as a fill but it's now not showing up it the swatches but it is behaving like one. If you send me your email address I can wetransfer the file to you. 🙂 

[Anna Lander]

sent in private

[Ton Frederiks]

Did you try to double click the pattern swatch in the Swatches panel to check it in the Pattern maker?

After Expanding, do you see something in Outline View?

[Natanya26328951vjtm]

It shows as a fill but it's now not showing up it the swatches but it is behaving like one. After expanding there is nothing. only the outline of the shape which contains the swatch. The wireframe shows nothing. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Can you check the Links panel, if it is not a pattern swatch, it may be an image.

[Anna Lander]

I could not find the source of this pattern 🙂
But there is a workaround.
select the object and in the Swatches panel choose "New swatch" (with the button or the menu item). Then the pattern appears in the Swatch panel, and you can edit it by double-clicking on the swatch or expanding the object to edit the particular unit.

[Ton Frederiks]

Your pattern is not visible in the Swatches panel and it fills at an angle.

I had to do what Anna did to add the pattern to the Swatches panel.

I selected your object and clicked the + sign in the Swatches panel to add the pattern swatch.

I deleted your object and dragged the pattern swatch from the Swatches panel to the artboard.

It is very large, so I scaled it to 10% .

Another thing I noticed is the structure of the pattern.

Normally it shows as a group with an empty rectangle at the bottom of the group.

This one is a group with a clipping group that has a clipping path at the top and below the clipping group an empty rectangle.

The clipping path seems to do something strange so I deleted it and dragged the group  back to the swatches panel.

After that the pattern fills and expands normally.