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Nosajat
Participant
November 17, 2021
Answered

Illustrator flickering when moving cursor

  • November 17, 2021
  • 15 replies
  • 51909 views

Hello - I updated Illustrator yesterday to version 26.0.1 and a strange flickering is now occurring. When I move my cursor the grey background behind the artboard flickers between light and darker grey. Also, filled shapes onscreen do the same thing -- jumping between a slightly lighter and darker shade of the same color. This appears to be related to onscreen guides for alignment trying to appear -- when the flickering is happening, alignment lines are visible, but no text (Anchor, Center, 45 degree angle, etc.). I'm attaching a quick screen recording in which you can see the flickering happening, then it stops, then starts back again. Never seen anything like this until the update yesterday. Please help, this is incredibly annoying and headache-inducing!

 

More about my system:

2017 Macbook Pro, 15"

2.9 GHz Quad-Core Intel i7

16 GB Memory

Graphics: Radeon Pro 560, 4 GB

OS: macOS Monterey 12.0.1

Dual screen setup via USB-C to an LG 27" 4K monitor (Model # BK67U), 60 Hz refresh rate

 

Thank you in advance for all suggestions and input :^)

 

PS -- Saw similar posts to the community but they were either older, occurring on M1 Macs, and/or not the same as my experience (with background and shape colors flickering).

    Correct answer Lubomir285926928nzg

    This Actually helped! Only turning the 3 preferences off did not helped. But cleaning up the caches after turning them off was that! Thank you very much!!

     

    15 replies

    S
    sandeep37978755l8kt
    Participant
    October 16, 2025

    Just close the photoshp or creative cloud app 

    evmoius
    evmoius
    Participant
    March 27, 2025

    Turning off GPU Performance fixed this issue for me.

    wax lily
    wax lily
    Inspiring
    January 7, 2025

    I was just able to get it to cease flickering by turning off Animated Zoom & Real Time Drawing as suggested (Left my GPU Performance on) and restarted all Adobe apps. Thanks for the tips. I hope Adobe resolves this issue as the original post here is from 2021, and now it's 2024 and I'm on a brand new macbook and most current version of Illustrator.

    I
    Isaac_BA
    Participant
    December 3, 2024

    Happens to me all the time, in my case it has to do with Keynote being open, as soon as I close it, everything works correctly

    hamidrezasaleh
    hamidrezasaleh
    Participant
    September 29, 2024

    Hey, same problem here. I tried quitting and reopening my Chrome app and it worked! Seems like some active script in Chrome or Photoshop is triggering this behavior.

      U
      UNO Platform
      Participant
      August 5, 2024

      Thanks for posting this. I just started getting the "seizure inducing" screen flicker from illustrator this month. It's been 3 years since you posted but the solution you proposed solved the issue all the same. I'm very greatful to you.

        C
        Charlotte5FEC
        Inspiring
        April 7, 2024

        Had this happen to me today on my Mac 1 so I just quit out of all running applications restarted illustrator and it was gone. 

        U
        UmairMukhtar
        Participant
        April 4, 2024

        This is the solution

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvcqjFP5w-A

        Monika Gause
        Community Expert
        Monika GauseCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        April 4, 2024
        @UmairMukhtar  schrieb:

        This is the solution

         

         

        This video just shows how to reset the preferences.

        B
        Community Expert
        bonehausCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 20, 2023

        i've noticed this happens for me on MOS in particular, when I have Adobe Photoshop opened in the background, I'm not sure if that's what's happening with you, but maybe just starting with only having illustrator open and see if that makes any difference

         

        R
        Ryan_Q3L
        Participant
        December 18, 2023

        I have this same issue. Before with my 2018 Macbook Pro and now with my brand new 2023 Apple Studio Max. There's no way the GPU should be doing this with a simple vector Illustrator file. 

          A
          Community Manager
          Anubhav MCommunity Manager
          Community Manager
          December 20, 2023

          Hello @Ryan_Q3L,

          Sorry to hear about your experience. Would you mind sharing some more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator, system config (CPU/GPU/Memory/Display Monitors used), a sample file if you're having trouble with specific files (https://adobe.ly/3NBFBzR), and a screen recording of the problem (https://adobe.ly/3Ny4vjO), so we can investigate this further?


          Looking forward to hearing from you.

           

          Thanks,

          Anubhav

          R
          Ryan_Q3L
          Participant
          December 20, 2023

          Sorry to hear about your experience. Would you mind sharing some more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator:


          Illustrator: 27.9


          system config (CPU/GPU/Memory/Display Monitors used):

          Apple Mac Studio M2 Max, 64 GB Memory, running MacOS Sonoma 14.1.2, Running on Apple Studio Monitor. This also happens on my Macbook Pro 2018 Intel model with 32GB Memory



          a sample file if you're having trouble with specific files (https://adobe.ly/3NBFBzR), and a screen recording of the problem (https://adobe.ly/3Ny4vjO), so we can investigate this further?







          Best,
          Ryan

          +

          R Y A N C U T H R I E L L
          Owner/CCO & Designer

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