Pen tool cursor is an X

[AustinMonroe]

Why is my pen tool cursor an X?

Caps lock is OFF and precise cursor is OFF. Both of these are off. Cursor is still an X.

I reset all my preferences to see if it would fix this but it hasn't. Still an X.

[Bobby Henderson]

Normally turning off Precise Cursors in Preferences should do the trick. I wonder if there could be something else inteferring with the Pen Tool icon display. Are any third party plugins installed? If so, are they up to date?

[barbara_a]

You've already tried the two things that would normally fix the issue.

You could try uninstall/reinstall with the Adobe Cleaner Tool.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @AustinMonroe,

Sorry to hear about your experience and for the delayed response. I hope Barbara's suggestions helped resolve the problem. If not, kindly share more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator and a screen recording of your workflow and the problem (https://adobe.ly/3WElMgs), so we can investigate this further?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[Jacob Bugge]

Austin,

If you mean a pen with an X is (usually) a sign of your trying to draw in a visible but unselected Layer; you can have a look at your Layers palette.

The + instead of a pen is the sign of what has been mentioned already.