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JJenkins2
Participating Frequently
September 18, 2025
Answered

Layers menu colors switching to black

I use layer colors in my layers menu to keep things organized. For some reason they are now switching to all black. I have even changed them back and they revert back to black. Any reconmondations?

 

 

    Abhishek Rao
    Abhishek RaoCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    October 9, 2025

    Hi everyone,

     

    Thanks for following up on this. The product team has implemented a fix for this issue in the latest Illustrator 30.0 prerelease build, which is now available through the Creative Cloud Desktop App. Please try updating to that build and check if the layer colors stay intact after saving and reopening.

    If you don't currently have access to prerelease builds, you can easily join the program by following the steps outlined here: How to join Creative Cloud prerelease programs.

     

    Let me know once you've had a chance to test it.

    Abhishek

    View reply

    19 replies

    JJenkins2Author
    Participating Frequently
    October 23, 2025

    I just installed the prerelease version and when I open program it says "Build has expired" regular build works fine. 

     

     

     

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      Michael26680350uweb
      Participant
      October 17, 2025

      I too am having this issue. Mac Studio M2 Max - Illustrator v 29.8.2 - CADTools
      I work with a team of 6 and having the layer colors reset to all black defeats the purpose of being able to quickly identify components by layer. I have replicated this across multiple files. I have reset all preferences to default. Using the same files, I am able to use Illustrator 28.7.10 with zero issues. 
      I opened up my laptop which hasn't been used in about a month and updated to the most recent versions of illustrator as well. 2021 MacBook Pro M1 and it is also changing the layers to all black after opening and saving a file.

      When can we expect a fix for this issue as it is affecting team members that have to share files and edit between them.

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      Michael26680350uweb
      Participant
      October 22, 2025

      Following up to my post. I have reverted to the previous build of 29.7.1 and there have been no issues with layers changing colors. As of 10.22.2025, the newest builds are still having issues changing the layer colors.

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        Abhishek Rao
        Community Manager
        Abhishek RaoCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
        Community Manager
        October 9, 2025

        Hi everyone,

         

        Thanks for following up on this. The product team has implemented a fix for this issue in the latest Illustrator 30.0 prerelease build, which is now available through the Creative Cloud Desktop App. Please try updating to that build and check if the layer colors stay intact after saving and reopening.

        If you don't currently have access to prerelease builds, you can easily join the program by following the steps outlined here: How to join Creative Cloud prerelease programs.

         

        Let me know once you've had a chance to test it.

        Abhishek

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          JJenkins2Author
          Participating Frequently
          October 15, 2025

          Thank you for creating a fix. Greatly appreciated. 

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          Firefly Integrations
          Participant
          September 29, 2025

          Recently, I've noticed that the Layer Options: Color of some of my layers has been resetting to black. It doesn't happen all the time nor do all the layers get reset to black. Everything about this error is seemingly random. It seems to happen more often to sub-layers but it has happened to the primary layer as well.

           

          At the end of the day, its not a major issue. But since I use the same formating style for all my documents, its annoying when I'm looking for a green highlighted outline but now its black.

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            Abhishek Rao
            Community Manager
            Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
            Community Manager
            September 29, 2025

            Hi @Firefly Integrations,

             

            Thanks for sharing your observations. I can understand how frustrating it is. Could you confirm which version of Illustrator and OS you are working on? In the meantime, please have a look at these related community discussions and try the suggestions shared there: https://adobe.ly/3IMHnyY and https://adobe.ly/3IPuDYp. Please let me know if any of these steps help or if you still see the issue.

             

            Looking forward to hearing back. 

            Abhishek

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            Firefly Integrations
            Participant
            September 29, 2025

            I'm currently on Illustrator v29.8.1 and use the latest verion of Windows 11.

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            Abhishek Rao
            Community Manager
            Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
            Community Manager
            September 18, 2025

            Hi @JJenkins2,

             

            Thanks for sharing the details and the screenshots. Could you try resetting Illustrator preferences (back them up before resetting) once and see if it resolves the issue? If the problem continues after resetting, please let me know which version of Illustrator and operating system you are using, and if this behavior happens with all files or just certain ones. 

             

            Looking forward to your update.

            Abhishek

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              JJenkins2Author
              Participating Frequently
              September 18, 2025

              I am running windows 11 Pro. I just updated yesterday to altest Illustrator update. I have had this happen randomly in the past when Illustrator would crash. and the auto backup whould reopen the files with the layers all black. Most of the time i would not save and re open original save from before the crash is was fine. But this time half the files reopened Ok and the other black. I saved to good ones. But when I re opened them they were now black. i just reset the preferences. I will let you know if this changes anything. The previous files are still black. 

               

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              JJenkins2Author
              Participating Frequently
              September 18, 2025

              I did just notice this. In one of the files that I re set the layer colors, and it wnet back to black, After I reset the preferences and re opened. The colors are the same, But it looks like its glitched?

               

               

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