Path Eraser Tool is erasing too much in Illustrator 2025.

[Patrick248]

I recently updated to Adobe Illustrator 2025 and since then there have been a few issues that I've discovered while working with this new version. The first issue that I would like to discuss here is that the Path Eraser Tool is erasing much more than it used to. For my job, I need to remove small segments from lines, leaving dashes intermettently throughout. In this update, the tool is much more (or maybe less?) sensitive, and will erase much larger chunks. I will drag along the line close to the end of it and it will erase a larger portion of the line than I selected. It also deletes the small segment that I wanted to leave at the end of the line. Previously it felt much more precise and allowed me to get pretty small segments after erasing.

It's frustrating that Illustrator doesn't have easier tools to erase sections of your drawings. The Eraser tool will warp my lines after erasing, and the Knife tool only works on closed shapes. I might have to resort to just using the Scissors tool to cut portions out, but when I am supposed to create lots of little gaps throughout my shapes, it is much easier to just click and drag to erase a bunch of times.

Has anyone else found any solutions? Also are there any ways to possibly alter the preferences for the Pather Eraser Tool so that it doesn't erase with such a heavy hand? I have tried double clicking the tool in my toolbar to no suffice.

[Kurt Gold]

Are you using the Mac version or the Windows version of Illustrator?

[Patrick248]

Windows version.

[Kurt Gold]

So far I cannot reproduce the issue with Illustrator 29.0 on Windows 10 using a simple mouse. The Path Eraser is acting very precise.

Guess some more infos are required, such as the exact version of Windows OS, the drawing input device you are using, etc.

[Patrick248]

I have Windows 10 Home running on Version 22H2. I'm using a mouse to draw and erase in Illustrator, which is the same as what I did in the previous version of Illustrator.

I've attached a screenshot showing how it looks as I am erasing. My inner circle is 135px big. I am attempting to erase around the top part of the inner circle so that there is a line segment above that gap, but even erasing this far from the anchor point makes it erase the entire end of the line. My blue arrow is pointing at the stroke of the Path Eraser tool and the red line shows how I want my circle to look.

Thank you for your assistance!

[Patrick248]

Also to add another point on, if I draw an even smaller line with the Path Eraser tool, it will delete the entire shape. This was not an issue that I experienced on the previous versions of Illustrator.

[Kurt Gold]

Thanks for the additional info. As said, I cannot reproduce the behaviour.

Probably the issue is related to some other anomalies that have recently been reported about the Pencil tool and the Smooth tool. Some people can reproduce them, others cannot.

[Patrick248]

Yeah I've gone on to ask some of my coworkers if they have experienced this issue and some of them have been able to reproduce it, but most others have not. I almost expect the Path Eraser tool to have settings like the Pencil tool where you can set how much to increase/reduce the accuracy of your strokes. I may just end up downgrading back to the previous versions of Illustrator for a few updates until it seems like this issue has been resolved.

[aj65461]

@Patrick248I have this exact issue! I found your post here as a result of my own frustration with this. I'm also on Windows and can recreate this problem with my Intuos 3 tablet AND my mouse. I suppose like you I'll have to downgrade to version 2024.

This feature working is SO crucial to my work as well. I routinely (multiple times a minute) have to delete segments of a path, often very small sections, and in version 2024 it will delete either the whole segment if it's a small path, or at least 50% of the path, if it's a bit larger. On "bigger" paths it works like it is supposed to.