Illustrator not allowing drag and drop

[dzgnr89]

Illustrator is not allowing me to drag and drop objects within a file. It is also not opening pdfs or .ai file through drag and drop. I get a black circular ring with a line in it, a similar shape that is shown when we try to draw in a locked layer. I restarted then ran illustrator as administrator , but failed. I tried again using compatibility modes for windows 8 and windows 7 but failed again. I am using CC 2017 version on windows 10-64 bit.

Is resetting the illustrator preferences the only workaround? Re-arranging the panesl and tools is cumbersome after resets of Indesign and illustrator.

I haven't reset them yet.

[Monika Gause]

What exactly are you trying to "drag and drop"?

[dzgnr89]

Images in png format or jpeg format. Pdf files from a folder in my D drive. I dragged and dropped from various locations just in case a folder had some permissions messed up but it isn't like that. Illustrator doesn't allow drag and drop regardless of that.

[Monika Gause]

So it doesn't concern objects that are inside the file but rather stuff you want to place into the file from outside?

Can you instead File > Place them?

[dzgnr89]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Monika+Gause  wrote

So it doesn't concern objects that are inside the file but rather stuff you want to place into the file from outside?

Can you instead File > Place them?

Yes, that is working fine as usual. I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that in my original post. But I want to fix drag and drop.

[Monika Gause]

Did drag and drop work previously?

Did you update anything? the system or Illustrator?

[dzgnr89]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Monika+Gause  wrote

Did drag and drop work previously?

Did you update anything? the system or Illustrator?

Yes, drag and drop was working previously. I just did a restart after my system got hanged while working in another software. I was using my system daily and closing it through hibernate. It has been probably 10-12 days of using my PC in hibernate style.

[Monika Gause]

You could try some more restarts.

Software tends to hand when the system doesn't get restarted for weeks.

Also this might lead to preference corruption.

To just try if the preferences are the cause, you could rename the preferences folder. Illustrator will then create  a new one. If it then works, you know that the preferences got corrupted. But then you can still try and replace the new workspace settings by the old one.

How to set preferences in Illustrator

[dzgnr89]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Monika+Gause  wrote

You could try some more restarts.

Software tends to hand when the system doesn't get restarted for weeks.

Also this might lead to preference corruption.

To just try if the preferences are the cause, you could rename the preferences folder. Illustrator will then create  a new one. If it then works, you know that the preferences got corrupted. But then you can still try and replace the new workspace settings by the old one.

How to set preferences in Illustrator

Is there a way that I can reset the preferences but keep my workspace intact? The link you shared doesn't describe that trick.

[Monika Gause]

As I described: rename the folder and later try to replace the new workspace prefs file with the old one (hope that it isn't corrupted).

They are all separate files. Please take a look into the folder.

[dzgnr89]

Not again!

I renamed the folder of preferences. Now Illustrator is crashing every time I start it. Running it in compatibility mode for windows 8 or  doesn't help either. I am in continuous loop for running diagnostic test . Now I'm in the same trouble as I was here in the last posts. Now reinstallation seems to be the only solution for me. Now I see another 45-50 minutes gone down the drain as I will uninstall and reinstall Illustrator to fix this.

Weird blacking out of illustrator menu items and buttons

Any other trick you have for me?

[Monika Gause]

Any other trick you have for me?

Contact customer care.

contact-bumper

THey can log into your computer to sort things out.

[dzgnr89]

What is the best way to clean uninstall illustrator from the PC? Get rid of each and every trace of illustrator installation?

[dzgnr89]

I reinstalled illustrator and although the crash issue is gone, the drag and drop issue hasn't resolved yet. What can I do instead of contacting customer support ?

[Monika Gause]

What can I do instead of contacting customer support ?

I don't know.

Why don't you want to contact them?

[Srishti Bali]

Hi arjun,

We hope that the issue must have been solved by support team. If It is still not solved I would request you to please try following steps and share results.

• Check in safe mode. For Details click here : https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/17419/windows-7-advanced-startup-options-safe-mode

• Please delete all preferences manually (This will delete all Illustrator preferences including workspace)

1. Close Illustrator and other Adobe applications
2. Go to Location C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe and Delete Adobe Illustrator 21 Settings and Adobe Illustrator .
3. Launch Illustrator from Creative Cloud Desktop App.

• If it still does not work, please try and test in new user account. For Details Click here https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/13951/windows-create-user-account

Please do share your observations or if you have any further questions.

Regards

Srishti

[nakittina · Accepted solution]

I had the same issue and closed Illustrator then updated it to the latest version. I had mine set to auto-update so I turned that off and had it reinstall the latest version which fixed the issue. 

I also suspect that if you try to drag the image into a layer that is hidden then it will force the image to open in a separate window.

[Dsner5000]

I had the same issue and closed Illustrator then updated it to the latest version. I had mine set to auto-update so I turned that off and had it reinstall the latest version which fixed the issue. 

I also suspect that if you try to drag the image into a layer that is hidden then it will force the image to open in a separate window.

By @nakittina

OMGosh! This was my issue. Thank you! 

[andresr97877581]

if you run illustrator as admin it wont work, you have to run it normally 

[marcyj55750277 · Accepted solution]

I had the same issue, and resetting preferences and such did nothing. I contacted Support, and they found I needed to update a graphics driver. The tech remotely installed the update, and now it works fine. 

[marcyj55750277]

Update -- same issue a few weeks later, but the drivers were current. I contacted Adobe again and they fixed it remotely by going to Edit -- Preferences -- Performance and unchecking "GPU Performance."