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21

Illustrator application window moves behind everything when I try to move it (mac)

Community Beginner ,
May 28, 2023 May 28, 2023

It's a little difficult to explain this properly, but whenever I try to move the Illustrator program window to another part of my screen, it instantly moves behind every other program window I have open. Even if I just move it a teeny tiny bit...boom... now it's behind all the programs I have open. It is very annoying and I can't find a solution anywhere. I dropped in "before and after" screenshots if they help at all. You can see the "Pathfinder" toolbar is still in front of the Chrome window so it's definitely a weird glitch. The issue doesn't happen with any other Adobe program either. I have updated to the latest vesion of AI a few times and still no luck. I have a 2021 Macbook Pro. Anyone have a solution? Thank you.

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correct answers 3 Correct answers

New Here , Sep 21, 2023 Sep 21, 2023

I have had the same issue for weeks. In an attempt to solve it, I asked the internets and it led me here. Very frustrating stuff, as people have stated. I too tried some of the solutions here and nothing stuck. BUT... and I am crossing my fingers here, I switched workspaces to "layout" and so far everything is back in order. Been a couple hours now. Perhaps try this one... if it reverts back to our hated glitch I will report back.

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Explorer , Jan 27, 2025 Jan 27, 2025
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Participant , Apr 24, 2025 Apr 24, 2025

EVERYONE ON THIS THREAD. I see over 190 replies, but this is a community forum. I only see a handful of people taking advantage of the Bug Fix request posted at the top as the second correct answer by richardw. 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add your comments to that bug fix - 

 

Ill paste it again here:

(from richardw59677702 )
Everyone – you can vote to have this bug fixed by Adobe here: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/46772908-illustrator-window-moves-behind-all-other-windows

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correct answers 1 Pinned Reply

Adobe Employee , Jul 24, 2024 Jul 24, 2024

Hello @jeremyc83162335,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would it be possible for you to have a debug session with us? If yes, please send me your Adobe ID, Country & Timezone, phone number with country code, and preferred dates and times between Mon- and Fri over a private message.
To send a private message, click my profile picture and use the ”Send a message” button.


Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

Thanks,

Anubhav

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replies 216 Replies 216
Participant ,
Jan 28, 2025 Jan 28, 2025

Thanks for the correction! I have seen time and again the community saying they dont. That is certainly good to know. I dont think adding my name to a bug fix link will hurt anything though, and certainly may help.

Im in the same boat as everyone else.

Take care all!

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New Here ,
Apr 24, 2025 Apr 24, 2025

This issue has been ongoing for YEARS. I've never seen a more absurd issue with a software platform. My dream is to go to ADOBE MAX, stand up in their Keynote where they are boasting about how great they are and scream from the top of my lungs. How about you fix the window bug you just ignore This issue has been ongoing for years, and I've never encountered a more frustrating problem with a software platform. I dream of attending Adobe MAX, standing up during their keynote presentation while they boast about their achievements, and shouting at the top of my lungs, "How about fixing the window bug that you’ve been ignoring for years?"thats been happening for years.  

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Participant ,
Apr 24, 2025 Apr 24, 2025

EVERYONE ON THIS THREAD. I see over 190 replies, but this is a community forum. I only see a handful of people taking advantage of the Bug Fix request posted at the top as the second correct answer by richardw. 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add your comments to that bug fix - 

 

Ill paste it again here:

(from richardw59677702 )
Everyone – you can vote to have this bug fixed by Adobe here: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/46772908-illust...

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 24, 2025 Apr 24, 2025
Hey. Just to reply directly to this - the bug fix doesn’t work. The fact the issue has been going on for so many years would suggest it’s more than a bug. I would imagine Adobe MUST have tried to fix it but can’t.

Sent from Outlook for iOS<>
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New Here ,
Jun 14, 2025 Jun 14, 2025

Dear friends, I found a solution to this Bug , it seems the problem happens in Illustrator when the workspace is set to Essential Classic. What worked for me was simply switching to a different workspace, like Essential. That change alone resolved the issue in my case, so hopefully it helps you too!

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 14, 2025 Jun 14, 2025

But what about the people who want to work in "essential classic?" It's
only been 4+ years of Adobe ignoring this problem, but not ignoring their
increasing prices every year.
Jeremy Collinson
Creative Director
Read the full story!

Personal details removed by moderator

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Participant ,
Jun 16, 2025 Jun 16, 2025

Thank you for the suggestion Ayman, but that doesnt work for me. I have my own workspace i customized - and the bug still happens. The ONLY thing that works for me as a workaround (but an AWFUL one), is to go to ILLUSTRATOR > SETTINGS > USER INTERFACE, and then CHECK "Auto-Collapse Icon Panels". If I do this Illustrator works fine.

HOWEVER, now all panels will close as soon as I select something from them. So imagine all the back and forth when selecting colors with the Color Palette. Or working with a lot of layers in a layers palette and having to open it up again and again.

I have found that the issue DOESNT happen even if I DONT have "Auto-Collapse Icon Panels" checked, but I dont have any panels opened at the time. So it seems to be specific (for me) to ONLY being and issue if a flyout panel is there. But thats how most of us work efficiently.

There is still after all this time no fix it appears. 

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 17, 2025 Nov 17, 2025

Same problem now occuring with InDesign as it goes behind existing windows when you move the window. Adobe and Apple, fix this problem now!!!

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New Here ,
Nov 17, 2025 Nov 17, 2025

It's frustratingly laughable at this point as the problem has been going on for several years. Not sure anyone at Adobe cares.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 17, 2025 Nov 17, 2025

Time to resolve this Adobe. You have great customers spending millions of dollars for your products around the globe. Time to resolve this problem that hundreds or thousands of people are complaining about. 

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 17, 2025 Nov 17, 2025

I am not getting this issue on my indesign as well as my illustrator, what a joke! 

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 10, 2025 Dec 10, 2025

Dec 10

I have come up with a solution which I reported on the INDD forum and stilll awaiting Adobe to respond to my query. 
>OS 15.7 Mac Powerbook 2018 model

This looks promising. I did the same operation on all three open platforms:
> turning off all pop-outs menus on INDD, AI and PSD (the windows on the side) See enclosed

When I did this, the problem went away!  I tried reopening the pop-out windows and the problem still has not come back. Mentioned this to colleague and he verifies the problem goes away. It seems once the program is shut off and reopens, the problem reoccurs. 

Is it possible there is some kind of coding problem for the pop-out menus with one or more of the Adobe programs that potentially effects the entire suites normal operation?

See enclosed

Adobe time to step up and slueth it. 

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Explorer ,
Dec 10, 2025 Dec 10, 2025

@arnold_9836 - that is absolutely brilliant! I can confirm this works! As long as all pop-out panels are closed, this behavior stops!

 

There's an option in the User Interface section of preferences that automatically closes them, called Auto-collapse Iconic Panels. This helps a lot, but I agree it needs to be squashed once and for all.

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Participant ,
Dec 10, 2025 Dec 10, 2025

Yes, this has been mentioned previously and does work as a sort of bad patch. The problem is that now you are going to have to work in Adobe Ilustrator without the ability to leave any flyout menus open. So you are going to have to go back and forth with your color swatch panel, Type Panel, etc. Ive been working this way for over a year now and it is tedious to say the least. Not as bad as the window going to the back, granted. But if you need to work on any sort of complex Illustrator project  with multiple flyouts at once in Illustrator (Think about working on and AI file with  15 Layers, plus trying to build a gradient but not able to leave the swatches out, etc, etc), it adds WAY more unneccessary clicks and time. I have resorted to just NOT having auto-collapse checked and closing all other windows (PSD, INDD, email, internet, music, etc) if I want to be able to use Illustrator effectively (and how it was initially designed to be used). Then once Im done with the art - go back and click auto-collapse iconic panels to be able to have multiple windows open at once for just simple Illustrator stuff that isnt hindered drastically by having the iconic panels collapsed automatically.
Im glad this is working for some people, but for the type of work I often do, Im still holding my breath that adobe will fix this for good so I can go back the way Ive been working for two decades before this problem started.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 10, 2025 Dec 10, 2025

Adobe needs to solve the coding problem they created and are clearly refusing to fix. 

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 10, 2025 Dec 10, 2025
LATEST

another work around to this bug is using different programs in different OS desktop spaces—which has its own unique set of user access and process problems. 

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Participant ,
Dec 10, 2025 Dec 10, 2025

Thank you,

So back to the pop ups as a issue, 2 years now of this issue. If Adobe would find and fix the problems instead of writing more bad code things might work better.

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