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Mike Choo
Inspiring
August 9, 2025
Question

Guide objects not disappearing if created via copy and then undone

  • August 9, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 142 views

Hi, there is an intermittent bug I keep experiencing that relates to objects turned into guides.

 

Steps to repro:

New document

Draw rectangle

Right+click (ensure object is selected), Select > Make Guides

With Selection tool (Black arrow) selected, Alt+Drag the new guide object elsewhere on the canvas and release to create a duplicate.

At this point confirm in the layers panel that there are two objects in the scene now.

Undo your action - this should leave one object in the scene, as shown in the layer panel, but intermittently a 'copy' of the guide object will remain on the canvas, but it will be unselectable and not appear in the Layers palette.

It will also be visible in the Outline view, but still be unselectable.

The only way found to remove the duplicate(s) so far is to close and reopen the document.

You may even be able to undo so many steps that the object used to create the guides is not longer in existence, but the duplicate guides still are.

 

Obviously, this is not great for working - a load of guides that don't work clogging up the viewport isn't great for productivity.

 

Video attached showing the results I've been having anlong with steps taken to repro.

 

Cheers,

Mike

 

 

1 reply

creative explorer
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 9, 2025

@Mike Choo this may sound silly, but on my end, I had to 'unlock guides' before I could move my shape. 

 

m
Mike Choo
Mike ChooAuthor
Inspiring
August 9, 2025

@creative explorer I've definitely been guilty of that in the past, but this time guides were unlocked and I could move the actual object fine. It's that Illustrator is creating a non-selectable copy of the guide object, which cannot seemingly be selected on the artboard or in the layers panel, as there's no object listed there for it.

 

At about 0:52 in the screen capture the active object does get selected and moved, it's the shadow copy (dunno what best to call it 🤷🏾) that is immovable.

 

Honestly, I hope you don't get this because it makes a mess of the document until you restart Illustrator 👍