Participating Frequently

Answered

Illustrator randomly selects unrelated objects

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
February 5, 2013
55 replies
78184 views

About once a day, when I click on an object with the direct selection tool, the bounding box will be way larger than it should, implying another object on another artboard is included in the selection.

This happens when the object I am selecting is NOT grouped with anything else. Moreover, is seems buggy because the mystery object doesnt have its "edges" visible the way it would if it were legitimately selected.

I can deselect all, but then anything I click on, the selection's bounding box is expanded to include the mystery object. The only way I have found to deal with it is to drag a corner of the bounding box, then undo, and then click off again. Then Voila! I am able to select my object (or any other) without the mystery selection happening.

I use clipping masks a lot, as well as many artboards, and have wondered if it's related to this, as the mystery objects are sometimes masked images, and often on another artboard. However, the mystery objects are not always masked.

Anyone else having this weird problem??

I had it with CS5, and hoped it would go away with CS6, but it has not.

Correct answer BigMacca

I have also just had this issue in what appears now to be an 8-year-old issue.

(I'm no Illustrator expert btw).

I solved it... through luck.

In my case, the box was linked (somehow) to a 2-letter text box which I had moved to another layer and then hidden. Somehow this 'shadow' from the text box was left behind. I didn't see a clipping mask in the layers box. When I selected it (or more normally I selected 'off' a different object) this item was left behind.

My suggestion is therefore:

Select EVERYTHING - make everything visible and unlocked.

You may, like me, see that this phantom box is linked to a 'known' object.

Which I simply deleted.

It has worked (for now!?).

Show previous replies

J

JesseWest

Participant

Same problem here, and it also follows me from desktop to laptop etc... Its driving me bonkers. Going to lose it here.

The only way to get their attention is to continue emailing help. Hopefully they'll get tired of it and make it a priority to fix.

julian88888888

Participant

Still having this same issue. CS6, Maverick.

O

obuu

Participant

I've had this problem off and on for years... it started in CS4 then they fixed it then when I joined the creative cloud and downloaded CS 6 and Upgraded my System Software - it started again. This time worse than any other.

they upgraded to CC and the problem was off and on depending on the "BUG" fixes but the last bug fixed seemed to have worked. Recently I upgraded My system Software and the latests CC Updates and it's Back With a VENGENCE. I literally can't do anything without multiple ghost boxes everywhere. It Seems to start when the file has a lot of artwork and art boards. ADOBE PLEASE FIX THIS!!!

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RynoBucket

Participant

I am having a similar issue. I have a screen capture of my particular issue. I'm on CC with the most recent update V 17.1.0 and using OSX Mavericks 10.9.1 on a mid-2011 iMac.

This is the video showing my glitch.

http://cl.ly/0e2e1j0O0E2o

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elegant_ease16B8

Participant

This is an easily reproduced and thoroughly irritating bug that has persisted through a few versions. Quitting and restarting Illustrator sometimes corrects it but it eventually returns 100% of the time. The response from Adobe is [crickets]. Maybe it's fixed in CC?

OldBob1957

Inspiring

I've had this same problem, on and off, since CS3 (though not yet with CS6). Sometimes in quite simple files; a box with some text, no clipping masks, and where nothing in the file has ever bee in the area where the box suddenly appears (usually off the artboard).

My usual way of dealing with it (found quite by accident), is to select anything else in the file, click it one more time to 'anchor' it, then use any of the align tools (see below). The anchored object doesn't move, and, nine times out of ten, the box is gone. For that persistent tenth time, I have been simply closing and reopening the file (that always cures it), but next time I will try your trick.

Hoping someone will eventually figure out where this ghost comes from, -- OB

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hongo4868757

Participant

Best resolution ever!

chuckm33968178

Participant

I've been experiencing this for years. My resolution has always been to draw an object (square, whatever), lock it (common-2), unlock it. The tip above works well, too, and is probably easier.

Mike_Gondek10189183

Community Expert

Most likley you have a clipping mask selected. Use your layers and appearance palette to help deteremine what you have selected.

Eiditng masks got to be cumbersome since they changed how masks work in CS5, and suspect that is what is giving you trouble. To edit the contents of a mask, you need to click on the 2nd icon below (circle with a dot in the middle), and also using selection targets in the layers palette (the round buttons left of the blue squares on my first screenshot)

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cmcmorrowAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks Mike,

I agree at first it seems like I'm selecting a mask. I am familiar with how to edit clipping masks, though, and I dont think that's what's happening here.

Looking in the layers panel shows nothing selected except the object I'm clicking on.

And when I'm clicking on an object, it's often many artboards away from the one that the bounding box is suddenly including, and has no relation, in most cases, at all.

Also the behavior is strange. I can deactivate the abnormally large bounding box by dragging its corner (which will resize the second, unintended object, which I was calling mystery object), then clicking off it. When I undo, and then click my first object again, all is well. It's as if the resizing action gets illustrator to realize it has mistakenly grabbed something else.

I tried to take a screen shot of the extra large bounding box, but as soon as I hover the crosshairs over the illustrator document, the large-sized bounding box disappears, showing just the normal sized one around the object I intended to select. ESC out of screenshot mode, and it comes back!!! It's like the dancing frog in that old cartoon. I'll have to use my iphone to capture it.

I'd love to hear any other thoughts!!

C

cmcmorrowAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi Camille!

Yeah, we use a ton of artboards, probably more than we should as we build a lot of decks directly in Illustrator, and typically have a combination of placed artwork and lots of logos and type.

Hopefully that helps. I'd love to find out why it happens in general. Adobe, are you listening?

Thanks!

Fritz

Yes, Adobe, can someone look into this please? (And does Adobe pay attention to this forum?) We are not the only ones experiencing this issue.

(By the way, if you're of OMFGCO in Portland, I'm a fan. I drink a lot of stumptown here in NYC, and ever since I saw your work for them and Ace, have occasionally checked back on your site to admire your disgustingly good work. : ) )

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