Keyboard shortcuts not working in Illustrator CC for Mac

[Marxamus]

I'm having a lot of problems using keyboard shortcuts in Illustrator CC for Mac. They'll will work intermittently. No keyboard issues anywhere else. Is this a bug, or something I can remedy on my end?

[mec_os]

are there just a few keys?

firefox tends to cause issues.

[Marxamus]

Seems to be anything related to the CMD key. Don't run Firefox, but could Chrome also play a part?

[Esodegrees]

Worked for me once i closed firefox

[Yummygrubs]

Having the same issue; typical keyboard shortcuts, especially those which don't require modifier keys, are failing to register intermittently. Tools like Rotate, Direct Selection, and even regular old Selection are not being selected when hitting their default keyboard shortcut.

I'm running Illustrator v17.0.0 and OS X 10.8.4.

[Anish Singla]

Click in Finder window then in the application frame, seems to be issue of focus

[Marxamus]

I think you're right, Anish. While your suggestion doesn't work every time, it seems to… eventually. How do we now bring this to the Illustrator team's attention?

[PrintFusion45]

It's possible that a background application at OS level is taking the focus out of Illustrator. Does the Illustrator window get inactive when your keyboard stops responding? Try reducing the number of startup items for the current account. Also try from within a new administrator account.

[bonnseye]

I'm having the same problem. When I work, exactly as I did previous to CC, keyboard shortcuts don't always work. For example, hitting the A key to switch between the Selection and Direct Selection tools. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

[dsfremont]

I'm having the same problem with Illustrator CC. My keyboard doesn't work reliably, even with something as simple as moving an object to the left or right with the arrow keys. Another example is the toolbar keyboard shortcuts aren't working (v for black arrow, t for type tool, z for zoom). I've tried quiting all other programs, but nothing is helping. This seems like a serious bug that makes my workflow impossible. I hope Illustrator fixes it asap.

[Yummygrubs]

Having worked with (around? in spite of?) this bug for three weeks now, I think it's probably not a focus issue. The Illustrator window does not become inactive, and the bug persists even when there are a limited number of other applications running (haven't tried with a new admin account because TME CBF). Clicking in or out of the Illustrator window does not do anything to resolve the issue.

Temporary fixes involve hitting ESC, right-clicking and getting the Illustrator drop down menu, alt-tabbing, or bashing the keyboard harder and harder until it breaks. There appears to be no regularity in the bug—it's truly intermittent. Unlikely to go longer than 5mins without hitting it, though.

[Nicholas_Art Director]

The only way around this, that I found, is saving as CS6, and working in CS6. I feared stuff like this happening when they released the Cloud model.

[dsfremont]

Per other posters' suggestions, I switched from my wireless mouse (Apple bluetooth) to a USB-stick one. This seems to have resolved the keyboard problems I was having. Weird, but working, for now.

[chrisw14165372]

Tried another admin account and it works perfectly under that user. How do I get it to work under mine?

[Hugh Todd]

Just want to kick this can along the road. Having the same issue on my machine. No problems in CS6 apps.

Selecting the same commands from the menu works fine. In fact, after doing so the keyboard commands appear to work for a couple more times, then stop doing so.

[bilal_chaudhry]

I am having the exact same problem and it is really infuriating at times... I just switched from CS6 where I encountered no such problems.

It seems that it usually happens when I switch to Finder or another application and back (altough it may only be Finder). The Illustrator window is still active because I can see Illustrator reacting when I press only CMD or ALT. However all keyboard shortcuts just stop working, for instance CMD+S, or V or any other toolbar shortcuts. To fix it I have to do a mouse click on a tool or menu command or something, and the shortcuts are back for a while...

I am also running Illustrator v.17.0.0 and OS X 10.8.4 on a macbook Pro connected to a Thunderbolt Display and bluetooth mouse/keyboard.

I sure hope this is picked up by Adobe soon, it is really messing with my workflow!

[angelaZebra]

I'm also experiencing this issue. I might give the "focus" solution a try, but I agree with the other users- this was never an issue before CC. It began happening the day I switched to CS6. I thought at first it was my keyboard batteries, but then realized my keyboard worked fine in all other applications. I'm running 10.7.5.

Thanks!

[owentheroseblade]

I've been having this issue too, notably with single key shortcuts to tools as well as those involving modifier keys. I'm running Illustrator 17.0.0 and Mac OS X 10.8.3.

I have a useful little app called Better Touch Tool (BTT) running to give me system wide and app specific customisable shortcuts for all my peripherals. Following PrintFusion 45's advice, I went into BTT preferences and disabled the service completely for Adobe Illustrator.

Ever since then (admittedly only a couple of hours) Illustrator has been problem free. Just thought I'd post in case that's helpful for anyone.

[bonnseye]

I've just observed something that might lead us to an answer for the strange keyboard shortcut issue in the new Illustrator CC. The batteries in my Magic Mouse died, and rather than than walking all the way across the room to get new ones, I just plugged in my old (non-wireless) mouse. I haven't had any problems since. Maybe the Illustrator CC is "confused" by the Magic Mouse?

[bilal_chaudhry]

Interesting observation, thanks for sharing!

But in any case there is definitely a bug here, and it's certainly driving me (and others it seems) mad.

Hopefully this is something Adobe addresses quickly! It can't be that hard...

[seahawksean80]

I'm having a similar issue with my keyboard not working at all when within Dreamweaver CC 2017 running on iMac OSX 10.12.6.

Oh, and Adobe never addresses issues quickly!  I mean, this thread was started in 2013 and I still run across the hotkey issue in Illustrator CC 2017.  That's what happens when a company holds a monopoly in the creative application industry.  The only thing they keep updating regularly is Adobe XD because they realized they had gotten behind in regards to prototyping and Sketch was taking up a huge market share.

With that said, I hope I'm wrong and Adobe does fix this.

[Larry G. Schneider]

Sounds as though you have an interferring app installed. Does it work if you turn off all your other apps?

[jbrooks001]

Hi there! I ended up here after searching for the reason why my zoom and pan shortcuts stopped working in both AI & PS. After reading about the Apple mouse issue, I took a look at my System Prefs and sure enough, the mouse power was down to 10%. I believe this is the culprit. My wacom tablet works fine. If charging the mouse doesn't fix the problem I'll let you know. UPDATE - Charging the mouse solved the problem!

[blittlepage003]

I have had this problem since CS3.

There have been various fixes proposed but Adobe has not addressed the problem in any version updates.

I used to be able to quit one or more of the big three (Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign) and it would fix the problems. Now, relaunching sometimes works but it always seems to stop working eventually.

I have not experienced any issues with specific hardware, just the apps.

My main key command that stops working is zoom.

[JDeRocker]

I have also been having the same problem, it seems to just occur out of nowhere...One click the command works, the next command doesn't. Is there a way to disable the command button from the "last tool used" function?