Is there a way to select every element that uses a color in a gradient, then edit only that color?

[blueloon4142]

My art has hundreds of elements with unique gradients like this. I use the same six colors throughout (same blue, same orange, etc). Some gradients are "linear", but most are "freeform". 

If I want to change the blue I am using to a different shade of blue, but I want to change it in every gradient of every element, is there a way to change it all at once? 

Thank you.

[Doug A Roberts]

Have you used Global swatches for these six colours? If so, just redefine whichever one you need to in the swatches panel.

If not, select your objects and, in the Swatches panel, go to New Colour Group, then redefine any swatch in the group as above.

[blueloon4142]

Thank you. This is definitely close to the answer I am looking for, but I need a little more help.

I created a New Color Group, and converted to "global", but it gave me every color within the gradients. I was able to isolate the main colors I used and delete the excess.

    

When I redefine these, it does the trick...somewhat. It applies to about half the document, but several of the gradients don't change at all (in the below example I changed green to black (for obviousness)) - I believe they are the freeform gradients that remain unaffected even though I'd used the same color scheme on all of them. 

And when I zoom up close, these gradients are no longer smooth, but they are pixelated. They no longer register as gradients, but as squares of isolated colors. I am now unable to view them or edit them as gradients. 

Even after closing the document and re-opening it from my saved file, these elements are pixelated like this and no longer seem to be gradients. Is there a reason this may have happened? And a way I can revert those gradients back to normal so I can change their colors with the rest of the document? Is there perhaps a special trick that needs to be applied to apply global color changes to "freeform" gradients?

Thank you.

[blueloon4142]

Here's a better picture of the pixelated vs smooth gradients. I'm 95% sure it's all the freeform gradients that are like this now. And looking at my original post's picture, I think this happened before I made the global swatches. But do you happen to know how to revert these elements back to freeform gradients so they are smooth again? Or should I start a separate thread wth that question? It seems like a different issue, and you already answered my original question.

[Monika Gause]

Please tell us about the history of that file.

Was that an old file that you edited and then just hit save?

Where did you save it?

[blueloon4142]

I created the file last November and worked on it through March. I recently started working on it again, and it was fine, even last night. Fortunately, I saved two versions onto my desktop last night and one of them has re-opened without the rasterized elements (I have never intentionally rasterized anything). I still have this rasterized one open because I would like to figure out what is going on in case it happens again in the future. It was fine last night, and today it's like this. But it doesn't make sense because I saved two identical versions of the file (with slightly different names), and this happened to one of them but not the other.  I hit "save as" and gave the file new names last night. 

Honestly, I've had tons of trouble saving documents with Illustrator. Half the times I re-open my art something has changed. I save in svg and AI formats (nowadays moreso in AI), and have gotten into a habit of making duplicate copies of every version I save because this has been going on so long.