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Spacebar not working as quick hand tool on MAC – Adobe Illustrator

fernandam88771201
New Here ,
Jan 24, 2020 Jan 24, 2020

I have the latest Illustator and Photoshop version and in both of them the spacebar ain't working as quick hand tool on Mac.

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correct answers 9 Correct answers

Bill Silbert Community Expert
Community Expert , Jan 24, 2020 Jan 24, 2020

What does happen when you use the spacebar? What is most likely happening is that some other program is using the spacebar as a shortcut and superceding Illustrator and Photoshop. Try rebooting your computer and only opening Illustrator or Photoshop and see if the shortcut now works. Then you can try launching other programs until you find out which one is causing the conflict. You may also want to try simply typing an "H" (with no text active) whenever you want to quickly get the hand tool in e

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arkadiuszf39522898
New Here , Oct 11, 2020 Oct 11, 2020

Hi Bill,

 

You are right in my situation it was MS Word and MS Excel. I closed them both and could use space bar in the Adobe Illustrator rightaway.

 

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Regards,

Arek

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casey .
New Here , Nov 06, 2022 Nov 06, 2022

Hello, in my case, it was because I had 'Enable Full Keyboard Access' on my 'Settings' -> 'Accessibility' -> 'Keyboard 'ticked. Once I unticked that, I could use the spacebar as the quickhand tool again.

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Per2706213762gb
Community Beginner , Mar 01, 2023 Mar 01, 2023

I had the same problem and started to close my programs. The space bar "thief" was the native Mail app in MacOs. Closed it and it works like a charm 🙂

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defaulty6fsmj7ygwj6
New Here , Mar 03, 2023 Mar 03, 2023

Glad I found this post. Its years later and I just ran into this issue for the first time even in my 20+ years of using Adobe products. Turns out it was my open terminal that was stealing the spacebar function. Once I closed, it was working again again in Illustrator.

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default7ty7cxqhx5hr
New Here , May 01, 2023 May 01, 2023

Go to the apple in the menu bar. 

Put the computer to sleep.

Wake it back up and it should work again.

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DanPP
New Here , May 30, 2023 May 30, 2023

I fixed this by turning off all accessibility (in system Prefs) and quiting Mail.

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yasinbolat
New Here , Jul 25, 2023 Jul 25, 2023

The problem was fixed when I closed Safari.

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André Luis380474995cdr
New Here , Jun 14, 2024 Jun 14, 2024

Guys, i fixed this today just Disable the Full Keyboard Acces on Accessibility settings;

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correct answers 1 Pinned Reply

Anshul_Saini Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee , Jul 12, 2023 Jul 12, 2023

Hi @JonVernon-DIRECTV,

 

I apologize for the ongoing frustration you're experiencing with this issue. This generally happens when a third-party app or process is interfering with the system keyboard. To further assist you, I kindly request that you provide the following details:

  • Can you please confirm the specific version of Adobe Illustrator and the macOS you are using?
  • Have you tried starting your Mac in Safe Mode and checking if the issue persists? Safe Mode performs a series of checks and d
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replies 163 Replies 163
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Nicole231658774s0i
New Here ,
Mar 28, 2024 Mar 28, 2024
In Response To chriss99633793

Yes you have to turn on manually the "pause secure entry" each restart 

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tylerster1
New Here ,
Mar 28, 2024 Mar 28, 2024

wow. closing notes did it for me ! thank you for the s-tier advice 

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Louis-Philipp318686687qgz
Community Beginner ,
May 16, 2024 May 16, 2024

I understand that i need to close my other apps to get my "space bar shortcut" back,
but the propblem is : i need those apps to work!
i cannot close everything each time i need illustrator, witch is "always". It doesn't make sense.

Could adobe just solve the problem instead? thanks.

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Monika Gause Community Expert
Community Expert ,
May 16, 2024 May 16, 2024
In Response To Louis-Philipp318686687qgz
Louis-Philipp318686687qgz  schrieb:

I understand that i need to close my other apps to get my "space bar shortcut" back,
but the propblem is : i need those apps to work!
i cannot close everything each time i need illustrator, witch is "always". It doesn't make sense.

Could adobe just solve the problem instead? thanks.

 

Did you already ask the other app manufacturers to change their apps so they do not spill into others?

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Louis-Philipp318686687qgz
Community Beginner ,
May 16, 2024 May 16, 2024
In Response To Monika Gause

when my car's whiper is broken, i'm not asking the rain to stop. 

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Monika Gause Community Expert
Community Expert ,
May 16, 2024 May 16, 2024
In Response To Louis-Philipp318686687qgz
Louis-Philipp318686687qgz  schrieb:

when my car's whiper is broken, i'm not asking the rain to stop. 

 

But if it's the neighbour directing their garden hose at you, you would ask them to stop, right?

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André Luis380474995cdr
New Here ,
Jun 14, 2024 Jun 14, 2024

Guys, i fixed this today just Disable the Full Keyboard Acces on Accessibility settings;

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j9lazur
Explorer ,
Sep 02, 2024 Sep 02, 2024

The app that hijacked it for me was Notes. It was stuck and wouldn't quit when I hit restart to see if rebooting would help. Instead, force quitting Notes and relaunching Illustrator worked for me.

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authentic_fighter0101
Community Beginner ,
Sep 16, 2024 Sep 16, 2024

The number one suggestion should really be to quit Photoshop and then restart the app and test the space bar before restarting the entire computer or checking to see which programs are interfering. Because that worked for me. I restarted Photoshop and lo and behold my spacebar was working and of course I have the latest updates and all that for 2024.

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Listn2yrmom
Community Beginner ,
Oct 03, 2024 Oct 03, 2024

Same as the user known as "casey" -  in my case, it was because I had 'Enable Full Keyboard Access' on my 'Settings' -> 'Accessibility' -> 'Keyboard 'ticked. Once I unticked that, I could use the spacebar as the quickhand tool again

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Louis-Philipp318686687qgz
Community Beginner ,
Nov 18, 2024 Nov 18, 2024

On mac : With the app closed, go to the finder menu GO, press alt to show LIBRARY, open the PREFERENCES folder, then in the Adobe Illustrator ## Settings folder, erase or rename the folder within. 

 

This will reset all your preferences, shortcuts and panels, so hand tool, or any other bug will work again.

You can try to move back your shortcuts or spacework to the new created preference folder when app is closed, but it might bring the bug back. 

 

This solution work all the time for all adobe apps.

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Monika Gause Community Expert
Community Expert ,
Nov 18, 2024 Nov 18, 2024
In Response To Louis-Philipp318686687qgz
quote

 

 

This solution work all the time for all adobe apps.


By Louis-Philipp318686687qgz

 

It will not solve this issue.

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Louis-Philipp318686687qgz
Community Beginner ,
Nov 18, 2024 Nov 18, 2024
In Response To Monika Gause

it did for me several times

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NicSkovgaard
New Here ,
Jan 22, 2025 Jan 22, 2025
LATEST

My issue was having Microsoft Excel open

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