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Illustrator artwork/objects disappearing on Mac

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
January 23, 2017
23 replies
32337 views

Hi all,

I'm using Illustrator CC on my MacBook Pro Retina (2015), running Sierra. Processor is 2.2GHz with Intel Core i7 and I have 16GB of RAM.

Often when using Illustrator (in fact very often, after around 50% of my actions), objects and artwork will be "cut off" and disappear from view, seemingly invisible. This most commonly occurs when I'm zoomed in on an object or group, perform some action, and then zoom out again; when I zoom out, any object that was outside the boundaries of my screen will become invisible.

An example:

I have a few groups of objects scattered around my artboard. I zoom in on one group, leaving the other groups partially out of view. I isolate my intended group, and make some adjustments to the objects in that group. I then exit isolation mode for that group, and zoom out.

Now any objects that were outside of the boundaries of my screen when zoomed in are not showing. In order to get them to show again I must zoom in or out a few times and scroll the screen left or right a bit to shake it out of this weird issue. The invisible objects will then reappear.

It doesn't matter if the missing objects were in a group or ungrouped or anything like that - as long as the object was out of view then it will disappear when I zoom out again. The objects are still there - they just can't be seen. If I cmd+A then I can see the object outlines.

As you can imagine, this has a huge impact on my workflow, having to constantly "shake the artboard around" in order to see all of my work. I never had this issue when I used Illustrator on a Windows OS - only since I got my MacBook. My machine has fairly good specs (see above) and I'm sure it should be able to handle Illustrator without these weird graphical performance issues. It doesn't seem to matter which version of Illustrator or which macOS I'm running; I've always had this issue since I first bought it.

Has anybody else experienced this problem, or does anybody have some advice as to what it could be and how I can resolve it?

Many thanks in advance. Let me know if you need more information.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Chris-911

I tested this thoroughly and came to a conclusion. The only time that the artwork will be missing is when you use the pinch to zoom on your trackpad or possibly on your Wacom tablets. If I use the normal zoom (cmd+spacebar+left click and drag) on my mac it never does that. If I start using the pinch to zoom on my trackpad either on my late 2013 Macbook pro or my 2014 iMac 5K dislpay, it starts to act up again. Since I've been using the (cmd+space bar) shortcut I never had this issue. It would be fun if Adobe could fix this issue with the track pad cause it would be very convenient to use it in this way.

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G

Graphicosaur

Participating Frequently

Hi GreatSplott,

Yes I did try, but that didn't help.

I took it to the apple store and they suggested I restore the machine to factory settings, which I ask them to do and try it.

Then I spend all afternoon downloading and reinstalling adobe etc, as apple recommended not to restore the machine from a backup in case something was wrong in the previous settings.

So I went back to the Apple Store to let them know the problem wasn't solved and since I only had the machine for less than 30 days I wanted to replace it. To my surprise they said no, unless there was a problem with it.

According to genius bar the problem doesn't appear to be a hardware issue and according to him it was most definitely an adobe issue, though another genius person I saw earlier said there is probably a GPU issue - so I think they're structuring some policy to avoid mass returns

So they suggested I leave it with them for 2 days to thoroughly check it by pushing it to the limits. That worries me a bit, because I will be getting back a second hand machine as it will be used so extensively over two days :/ haven't made my mind up.

A

AtomCreativeMediaAuthor

Participating Frequently

avdsnh

Phew! Sounds like you've really been trying everything!

I personally wouldn't let them have mine for 2 days to push it to its limits. By the sounds of it it's an undiagnosed anomaly on a particular category of machines, so I would have my doubts as to whether they'd come back with an answer, and it would have all just been a waste of time and effort.

There must be some common denominator on selected machines, as you're the only other person I've spoken to who's having the same trouble as me. Here's what I'm running:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

Processor: 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics: Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

So there are some minor differences in our machines, however you've also got the Radeon Pro - I don't know if I have this, where would I check?

G

Graphicosaur

Participating Frequently

GreatSplott

Yes indeed, I've been trying to get to the bottom of this for 2 weeks now.

I spent some time at the genius bar as I mentioned earlier without any help - they need to start serving alcohol at that bar...

Just now I finished a 1.5 hours long chat with tech customer service, they couldn't get to the bottom of it either.

I've send numerous screenshots and even a video of the issue, while it was happening at the moment we were chatting.

So after the first 30min with customer service, I was assigned a direct contact that will be dealing with my case.

After an hour with the direct contact, which took over my case to deal on a one-to-one, they've escalated my case and is now with the engineers at HQ.

They will get back to me in the next few days they said...

Regarding the radeon..go to  > about this Mac > overview or displays tab

A

AtomCreativeMediaAuthor

Participating Frequently

I have updated Illustrator to the latest version and reset the preferences - unfortunately no joy.

Anybody have any other ideas as to what might be causing this? Hopefully somebody has experienced a similar issue?

About to uninstall and reinstall, see if that shakes anything loose.

G

Graphicosaur

Participating Frequently

Hi GreatSplott, I have the exact same issue

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)

2.6 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3

Radeon Pro 450 2048 MB

Intel HD Graphics 530 1536 MB

I visited Apple Store thinking it is a hardware issue (GPU) and they asked me to leave the machine with them to check it and run it through a series of tests for a couple of days although an initial test showed no issues at all, they said, 'unofficially', that are aware of issues like this and that Adobe is looking into it for a fix update.

Did you find a solution/ has it improved since?

A

AtomCreativeMediaAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi avdsnh, glad to know i'm not completely alone in this! I still haven't tried uninstalling/reinstalling Illustrator to be honest, have you tried this yourself?

Monika Gause

Community Expert

How many objects are there in the file?

Does it work when you select View > Preview on CPU?

Which version of Illustrator exactly is this?

A

AtomCreativeMediaAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hello Monika, thanks for your reply.

Illustrator running is CC(2017), V 21.0.0.

Switching to CPU preview doesn't fix the issue, objects are still disappearing.

It also doesn't seem to matter how many objects are in the file - could be many, in multiple groups, or could be 2 or 3 simple ungrouped objects - the problem still occurs.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Can you try and update Illustrator to the most recent version?

Also: maybe the preferences need to be reset. That sounds like a very strange error.

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