Pattern wont drag into swatches palette

[Indus1882]

Hi there, I downloaded illustrator a week ago, I'm a new learner.  I'm selecting my pattern and dragging into the palette section to save it as a swatch.  I've done this before but now it's not working.  I'm not dragging to a swatches folder, I have checked there is only one layer.  It goes blue in the swatches panel and then nothing happens when I release my mouse. I've tried on a different board but still no luck.  Any help would be really appreciated thanks in advance. 

[Ton Frederiks]

What happens if you select it and choose: Object > Pattern > Make... ?

[Indus1882]

Thank you for your reply, sorry for the delay I'm in UK, it was late when I put the post out.  Great question, when I try that I get a message saying 'Patterns cannot contain anything painted with a pattern'.   So I'm wondering if this is becuase I used an element in my design in another pattern?    So then if this is the case, does this mean I have to start over again with creating the element in my design (I can't save it and use it in other patterns)?   

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

I was suspecting something like this. You need to find the pattern you used inyour pattern design.

Maybe you can find that element by filtering your swatches panel to patterns only.

Sometimes patterns look like color swatches, if you have dragged a square rectangle filled with a color to the Swatches panel, it becomes a pattern but looks like a color swatch.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

When you have found the offending pattern element, you could drag it from the swatches panel to your artboard and use it in your new pattern design.

[Indus1882]

Ok thank you I have dragged it back onto the board and am able to re do the pattern from there!  Thanks again 🙂

[Ton Frederiks]

Good to hear you've got it working.