Participant

Question

Illustrator CS6 Spacebar stops working seemingly randomly

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
June 21, 2012
57 replies
134916 views

This is an infrequent issue I've had, but it has happened more than once in the last few weeks that I've been using CS6 on a regular basis:

On occasion, my spacebar will just stop working in Illustrator CS6, so I can't use the hand tool or zoom or… you know, type, basically making Illustrator unuseable. Now, I'm PRETTY sure it has nothing to do with my actual keyboard, because the spacebar will continue to work just fine in every other application even after it does this.

The only fix is restarting the computer. Just restarting the application doesn't do it. Deleting the preferences file and restarting doesn't fix it. It's really perplexing.

Now, I'm NOT certain about this, but I think it might occur after waking from sleep (but not immediately, so perhaps it's unrelated). If/when it happens next, I will attempt to see if I can reproduce the issue, but so far I have no idea why it happens; it just seems random.

I'm using a late 2008 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM, running Mac OSX 10.7.4 and Illustrator CS6 (16.0.0, in case people see this after an update has been released).

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Mike Diehl

Known Participant

For what it's worth, I had this problem -- not with the spacebar turning the cursor into a hand, but with the spacebar not producing a word space. I tried everything suggested here, and even uninstalled and reinstalled the app (CS 5.5, on a Mac Pro running 10.6.8). Finally determined it was ... the document, of all things. Copied the art/elements onto a new page, and suddenly could type again. Bloody hell, as the Brits would say....

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nano_soubiran

Participant

was having exactly the same problem until today. i found it where is the conflict on my computer. was using fluid with the browserapp "teuxdeux", in teuxdeux you can write, grab and move text around. all was working fine until i move a word there. in this moment the spacebar stopped working on illu and indesign. closed the app, anything is working fine again.

i'm not shure, but i guess it is a conflict with ajax features what is causing the problem.

W

wistfullull

Participating Frequently

I just had teh same issue but with InDesign CS6 and it was a conflict with 1Password as well. Once I closed it the hand/spacebar started working again.

Joerg Klaus

Inspiring

I have found out there is a conflict between Adobe and 1Password. Quitting 1Password brings back my spacebar.

G

G_Snyder

Participant

Thanks for mentioning that, Joerg -- 1Password's what was causing the problem for me.

B

bre-bro

Participating Frequently

Odd. I was not having this problem before, but today it happened in BOTH Manga Studio 5 AND Photoshop CS5 while working in both! I was only running Safari at the time and even though I have 1Password 3 installed, the app was not running at the time, but the Safari extension was. I've had this setup for a long time though, why would it start affecting two different apps this way now??

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goodcoffeemedia

Participant

I'm having the same problem. I can't pinpoint a fix yet, but a workaround is to close all browsers. It seems to correct the issue for me...every time so far. I'm running on Mac-OS 10.6.8.

My troubleshooting thus far (re: illustrator & photoshop CS6 - hand tool stops working) = conflict between browser and illustrator/photoshop...that's as far as I am. Sorry for the vague, non-tech response, but it's all I got so far

cmyck

Inspiring

I have the same Problem on 10.8. It was fine on 10.6.8.

I use neither Chrome nor Firefox.

Larry G. Schneider

Community Expert

Are you using any Growl notification software?

cmyck

Inspiring

Nope. I think it's got to do with Safari.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Gordon, others,

Item 7 in Other options is a list of usual suspects.

M

mememetx

Participant

I've run into this problem and having searched other forums, I found there was a conflict between Adobe and Chrome (at least in my case). I hate having to shut down Chrome, but at the moment, that's the only fix I can find. I want to find a way to disable Chrome's shortcut keys, but can't seem to find it.

Good luck.

Tim