Illustrator CC 2017 direct selection tool suddenly stopped showing anchor points and handles :(

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
November 25, 2016
4 replies
2814 views

It happened abruptly, suddenly it wasn't working. I did not change any settings and the preferences are still the same, but i can't grab handles or see anchor points using the direct selection tool

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Cheryl23943539i9sq

Participating Frequently

This is what has happened to me. Illustrator appears to "decide" how I'm going to interact with it. I'm not one bit happy.

Doug A Roberts

Community Expert

Which of the situations in this thread happened to you?

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Cheryl23943539i9sq

Participating Frequently

On tool change, the Direct Selection Tool just stopped showing path and points/handles. Switching to Selection Tool revealed Bounding Box. Going back to DST, anchors, et. al. are missing. I've changed preferences. Quit Illustrator. Restarted. Rerechanged preferences...

debbiesdebs

Participant

This is terrible, it happened here too. When creating something I can no longer check if the paths are clean, they could be riddled with anchor points but I don't see them. Expanding paths has always been troublesome since CS3 but now I can't even see the points and have to use either the direct selection tool (which is a pain since it only allows selection of elements unless I use a workaround, takes time) or I select it with the selection tool and hold 'Ctrl'.

This is a disaster. I can't create professional paths unless I see the anchor points.

I may have to revert to using CS6.

debbiesdebs

Participant

angelaamongstrangers, you DID check if the 'Bounding Box' was visible though, right? A shortcut is easily mistyped

To make sure: 'Ctrl-Shift-b' on Windows, 'Cmd-Shift-b' on Mac.

MagnoliaRabbit

Participant

I have the same problem, only Cmd (Ctrl) + H doesn't fix it. Neither does Cmd (Ctrl) + B. It's driving me crazy. I can select an anchor point with the direct selection tool, but I can't see that it's selected.

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

You may need to reset your preferences.

To do so:

For Macintosh Users: With Illustrator closed launch a Finder Window in column view and click on your home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. Within the Library folder find the following two files and delete them: “Adobe Illustrator <Version #> Settings” (earlier versions of Illustrator might just say “Adobe Illustrator”) and “com.adobe.Illustrator.plist”. When Illustrator is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

After you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, it is a really good idea to create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

For Windows Users: Hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching Illustrator and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset.

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stephenr38052659

Participant

I've tried all of the above, and nothing is fixing the problem. Can someone from adobe please offer a solution? This is making a quick project really long.