swatches disappeared/can't create new swatches in illustrator

[Guest]

I have adobe cs6 and suddenly when I was working all of my swatches have disappeared. To make maters worse I can't create new swatches or folders in the swatches window. I tried restarting Illustrator and resetting the preferences. Nothing worked.  Help.

[John T Smith]

Mac or Windows, and exactly which version of the operating system?

Did this start happening after an operating system update?

[Guest]

Windows. There was no update. It started while i was using illustrator.

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Never mind. I was able to figure out the problem. For some reason it was set to "show patterned swatches" but I switched it back to 'show all swatches'

[Cactus Cowboy]

Once in awhile when you have some time to spare it doesn't hurt to open the help files or manual and re-read through them even from the beginning just to refresh your memory on all it's intricate features. Even if you know the simple stuff it'll reinforce your skills. I know it's kind of dry reading but important nevertheless. Just saying.