Hi @paultech,
I understand how frustrating that must be. Could you please confirm your operating system and if this behavior started right after updating to Illustrator 29.3? Try manually resetting Illustrator preferences and then relaunch the app to check if it helps. You can follow this guide for the steps: Reset preferences in Illustrator.
Also, the latest version available is 29.8.2, please update to this version and test if the issue persists.
Let me know how it goes.
Abhishek
