Really weird Selection Tool bug

[Dan OB]

This is a bug that I have found cross platform. A few days I was on a Mac using Illustrator and rage quit because of the bug. Now on my PC the bug is back. I might boot up OBS and record it because I don't see anyone else with this problem.  Illustrator did crash when I was attempting to solve this issue.

Basically, the regular Selection Tool is bugged so that I select text boxes that my mouse is nowhere near. It's as if my mouse is actually down and to the left. I used the ruler tool and I am apparently selecting text boxes that are at least 200 pixels away from my mouse. Like it has this weird large radius of selection, EXCEPT it only allows some text boxes to be selected but not others. Meaning certain text boxes are inconsistently selectable. It only selects text boxes that are being used for ASCII artwork and doesn't like selecting text boxes containing regular text.

Why is there a preference when everything is spaced out, the same font, and font size? I just need to edit the text. . . The only difference between the art and word text boxes is the color. Which shouldn't be enough to crash Illustrator or bug out the Select tool.

I'm making a poster for a class about a font, so I have a bunch of ASCII artwork that I'm using. At first I thought it was a platform issue like Mac, especially since the Mac I was using had a really bad mouse. I figured it was just the busted jank mouse messing with my selection. But now I'm having the same issue on my PC. So I thought maybe its my file? So I made a whole new file and its just as bad. I've moved the easily over-selectable text boxes to another layer and hidden them to make my life easier. This is when Illustrator decided to crash. I am literally almost done with this project, but I feel like I'm pulling teeth trying to finish it.

[Dan OB]

Note: I have found some older threads with this issue. I reset my preferences with no benefit. Restarted the whole software. Gonna restart my computer next. So far the only solution I have is separating everything by layers.

[Monika Gause]

Do you have any extensions or plugins installed?

Do you have Magnet or Rectangle running?

Or DisplayPilot?

[Dan OB]

Zero plug ins. Zero extensions. Nothing like Magnet or Rectangle or DisplayPilot, don't even know what those are. Just a college student learning Adobe products. Unless there is a bunch of stuff installed on the Mac I don't know about (which there probably is) it shouldn't carry over to my personal PC right? Everything is on the Adobe cloud

[Monika Gause]

Does this also happen when you boot the computer into Safe Mode?

[Dan OB]

Never booted it in safe mode for this issue. I resolved my issue by just reorganizing the whole project into layers so I could finish it. Booting it into safe mode sounds kind of irrelevant if the cloud file is screwy in the exact same way on different computers operating on different OS.

It seems less like it's Illustrator and more like the file itself. I think it is just that file specifically, because this bug does not ever occur on any other files or projects I'm working on. Which by the way, I shall post the finished product here! And I'll share the file too so you too can enjoy the jankiness.

[Dan OB]

Guh, won't let me upload the package file? Or Zip? Or ai? Come on man. . .

[Larry G. Schneider]

Change the .ai file to a PDF file to upload it here.

[Dan OB]

Please take a look and see if it repeats the issue for you. I am wondering if it being a PDF will fix it or not though.

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Your problem is the Outerglow effect you have applied to the text. They make the bouding box pretty huge.

You'd better put those textes behind the others.

https://youtube.com/shorts/9iIwTZjCj04?feature=share 

[Dan OB]

Thank you! Still learning Adobe software in general, didn't know that the glow effect is selectable? Got a lot to learn apparently. But I'm only like 2 months in if you'll excuse my ignorance lol