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toolbars not offering dropdown menus

Community Beginner ,
Dec 19, 2017 Dec 19, 2017

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Working on Adobe Illustrator CC 18 (20.0.1) on a mac running OS 10.11.6. A number of my toolbars are not providing dropdown menus. More specifically, I cannot click on the arrow next to the type size to see a drop down of menu options. Noticed the same for Transparency tool; the drop down does not work so I cannot change the transparency effect. Has anyone experienced this issue and found a fix? Thanks.

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correct answers 3 Correct answers

Adobe Employee , Dec 19, 2017 Dec 19, 2017

Hi designmade,

As per your query, drop-down menus of few panels are not working. In that case please try resetting preferences for Illustrator.

How to set preferences in Illustrator

Regards,

Srishti

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Explorer , Feb 06, 2023 Feb 06, 2023

Prefernece dump did not solve. I have no sub-menus; cant change arrow tool; can‘t change units. Been corresponding and chatting with Adobe with no solve.  Just did deep clean app remove and re-install. Found it works on newly created user. Very puzzling and annoying.

 

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New Here , Apr 10, 2023 Apr 10, 2023

Screen Shot 2023-04-10 at 8.13.29 PM.png

This seemed to work for me. Go to 3 dots to 'edit toolbar' then go up to the top right corner of the window and click on the drop down icon which has the option for advanced. That added the arrow for the drop down list to my shape builder tool as well as others. 

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Adobe Employee ,
Dec 19, 2017 Dec 19, 2017

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Hi designmade,

As per your query, drop-down menus of few panels are not working. In that case please try resetting preferences for Illustrator.

How to set preferences in Illustrator

Regards,

Srishti

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 06, 2020 Mar 06, 2020

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Hi, Thank you for your response, but I hope you do realize that this is the Adobe suggestion for every bug that we encounter and it does not work. At this point, the first thing we do is reset the preferences. Still have problems. By the time we finally resolve the problems, if we do, then you upgrade the software and new problems arise. This problem has been replaced by host of new problems in the latets release. Thank you, but not really. 

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New Here ,
Mar 07, 2024 Mar 07, 2024

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I had this same problem...I use 2 monitors. Monitor 2 has the menus on it. Those option pull downs dont work on the 2nd monitor. They DO work on the main monitor.

 

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New Here ,
Jan 13, 2021 Jan 13, 2021

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Are there any other suggestions for this issue? I m encountering the same problem in Illustrator on Windows. Drop down menus won't work for any panels. I did reset preferences and nothing changed.

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New Here ,
Jan 22, 2021 Jan 22, 2021

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I have the same issue since the update... Did you manage to solve it?

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New Here ,
Apr 30, 2021 Apr 30, 2021

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Can I jump on this too - same issue. 

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New Here ,
May 02, 2021 May 02, 2021

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hey Dear
you nedd to right click on any tool bar till more than 3 to 4 seconds then
dropmenus will be opened.

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New Here ,
May 04, 2021 May 04, 2021

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Thank you @Tayyab S - feel a little stupid now but I am sure pre-update that you just hovered over!!!! 

 

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New Here ,
Apr 30, 2021 Apr 30, 2021

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This is absolutely horrible and unacceptable. I basically cannot do anything in Illustrator: choose transparencies, fonts, toolbars, set format settings, dpi's, and a lot more. Stupid.

 

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New Here ,
Aug 26, 2021 Aug 26, 2021

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I also have the same problem, when I click on the drop down menus, it doesn´t show me any off the options, and i just downloaded it and started working on it today, so i have never messed with the preferences

 

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 07, 2022 Jun 07, 2022

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Yep - Same issue.

My mac is up to date, my Ai is up to date.
The very top bar "File, Edit, Object, Type..." etc are not responding.
I can click them, nothing happens, I click again and get a flash of the menu.
This is rendering my Adobe Illustrator as completely USELESS without my knowledge of hot-keys.
What can I do?!?!?!

 

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Community Expert ,
Jun 07, 2022 Jun 07, 2022

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quote

Yep - Same issue.

My mac is up to date, my Ai is up to date.
The very top bar "File, Edit, Object, Type..." etc are not responding.
I can click them, nothing happens, I click again and get a flash of the menu.
This is rendering my Adobe Illustrator as completely USELESS without my knowledge of hot-keys.
What can I do?!?!?!

 


By @CGB_CGB

 

Current version?

Which system?

Are you using more than one monitor?

Did you already reset the preferences?

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 08, 2022 Jun 08, 2022

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Hi Monika,

I am on the latest version of Adobe Illustrator from Creative Cloud.
My mac is the most upto date it can be.

I am only using one monitor,
And I cannot get to the Preferences section of the menus, as my menus will not drop down.

I shall continue to restart Ai and hope for the best.

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Community Expert ,
Jun 08, 2022 Jun 08, 2022

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But your Mac is not running a beta system, no?

 

To reset the preferences, you do not need to open the dialog box.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/setting-preferences.html

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 08, 2022 Jun 08, 2022

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My mac isnt running a Beta system as far as I am aware. 

I will try the Option+Cmd+Shift shortcut to reset preferences now!

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 08, 2022 Jun 08, 2022

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No idea how to use this shortcut "as you start illustrator" 

Rebooted a few times, still to no avail. I guess I will have to await an update or something! 
I cant use any of the drop down menus to disable any of my plugins etc either

 

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Community Expert ,
Jun 08, 2022 Jun 08, 2022

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Please contact Customer Care: https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html

They can login to your system to check this out.

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Explorer ,
Feb 06, 2023 Feb 06, 2023

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Prefernece dump did not solve. I have no sub-menus; cant change arrow tool; can‘t change units. Been corresponding and chatting with Adobe with no solve.  Just did deep clean app remove and re-install. Found it works on newly created user. Very puzzling and annoying.

 

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New Here ,
Apr 10, 2023 Apr 10, 2023

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Screen Shot 2023-04-10 at 8.13.29 PM.png

This seemed to work for me. Go to 3 dots to 'edit toolbar' then go up to the top right corner of the window and click on the drop down icon which has the option for advanced. That added the arrow for the drop down list to my shape builder tool as well as others. 

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Explorer ,
Apr 11, 2023 Apr 11, 2023

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Update for my experience:

 

My solution ended up being migrating the new test user space where the application performed as expected.

Adobe was unable to determine a fix on my MacOS user–after hours of unhelpful, and hard to understand at times tech support could only advise building a new user.

 

Very frustrating and disappointing experince causing hours of productivity loss.

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New Here ,
Oct 22, 2023 Oct 22, 2023

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A dual monitor setup was the culperate for me. I'm in Ai 2024 running Sonoma. First time I've ever had this happen. I'm just trying to get a few things done and have not tried to kick the 2nd monitor back on yet.

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New Here ,
Oct 22, 2023 Oct 22, 2023

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*culprit. 

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New Here ,
Feb 27, 2024 Feb 27, 2024

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I'm having this issue with my dual monitors. Did you ever find a fix for this issue? It seemed to start once I updated to Sonoma. Very frustrating as I can not use all my monitors. 

 

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 04, 2024 Mar 04, 2024

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It's quite ridiculous but the only solution I found that resolves the issue, so that I can get on and do some work, is before launching AI I disconnect the external monitor on my Mac and then launch AI and then reconnect the monitor.

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