Some tools stopped working but are still visable

[candycornwax]

This just started happening to two of my high school students. Some tools work, others suddely don't. I've shifted from layout to layout on their machines, run updates, and reset the tools and preferences. No luck so far. I can select the stroke color but if I click on the fill box it won't bring up the color picker. The pen tools work as do the selection tools, rotate tools and a few others but the width too, the shape builder and many others just stopped. We have restarted the machine and looked for any and all updates. This is bizarre and distressing since they are in an Illustrator class. Thoughts?

[Monika Gause]

Which operating system is it? If Sonoma, please try and turn on the Application frame.

Are any other applications running? Please shut them all down.

Did you already reset the preferences?

[candycornwax]

Hello Monika,

One of the computers is a macbook air and the other is a newish Lenovo. I'll check which operating  systems each one is running. What's weird is that the tools are still there and not greyed out but are not selectable. On the Lenovo, if I switch to Essentials, it will let me use the rectangle tool but when I switch to Essentials Classic things get weird. I can use the tool there until I click on any other tool. Then it suddenly becomes unselectable again. Also, I can select the color of the stroke line but it won't let us select the color of the fill.

[Monika Gause]

The switching of workspaces has been mentioned in this forum already as a relief for certain issues. So if you can solve it with that, then maybe just do it?

[candycornwax]

Unfortunately, that's not a workable solution. I'm teaching Illustrator in a course based around Adobe software so students having a different looking workspace isn't a good workaround. Also, I'm not sure if everything is working in the Essentials workspace either as we just encountered the problem today. That, and honestly, Essentials Classic should just... work. It's kind of crazy-making when the tools just... stop working.

[candycornwax]

Thank you for your suggestions, though! Please don't think I don't appreciate it. It's just frustrating when you can't help a student because the software goes wonky. I'm wide open to any other thoughts you might have. I've researched this a bit but there's not a lot out there that I'm finding. Not much encouraging, at least.

[Monika Gause]

OK. So this is a public user forum where volunteers try to help others.

It's all we know in this forum right now. I'm teaching Illustrator to beginners as well. I can't see why a different workspace should make any difference. They could all switch workspaces.

You could have Customer Care inspect the system. https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html 

[candycornwax]

Thank you for taking the time. I really do appreciate it. Hopefully I can find some answers or Adobe runs an update patch. We can't be the only ones experiencing this.

Thanks again.

[candycornwax]

Also, yes. We did reset prefs.

[candycornwax · Accepted solution]

This seems to have worked. Here's what I did and the order I did it in. No admin password required. This should hopefully work for most app-related issues:

1. Clear Illustrator preferences
1. Press Win + R
2. In the dialog box type %APPDATA%
3. A window will open. Open the Adobe folder in the window
4. You'll see folders named "Adobe Illustrator XX Settings"
5. Delete the folders that correspond to your version of illustrator. You can just delete them all if you're unsure
2. Clear Photoshop preferences
1. Launch Photoshop and immediately press and hold ALT + CTRL + Left Shift
2. Click "Yes" when prompted if you want to clear settings
3. Reboot Machine (This step is very important. The device needs to be restarted from the start menu)
1. Open the start menu (Win key)
2. Click the power icon
3. Click "Restart" or "Update and Restart" if available