Unable to Copy layer correctly from one Illustrator document to another on MAC

[pacol38509684]

Help,

I’m thoroughly confused. Yes I know about the Paste Remembers Layers.

And I have them checked.  However every time I try to copy a layer with groups from one  illustrator cc document to another illustrator cc document everything breaks apart. And when I paste, instead of having everything in the perfect hierarchy and the groups like in the original ...  the new copied version has everything in one long layer with all the groups ungrouped.

Please help.

Thanx

{Renamed by MOD}

[Jacob Bugge]

Paco,

Presuming a Layer name that does not appear in the new document:

What happens if you select the (whole) Layer in question (click the circle to the right beside the name), then Ctrl/Cmd+C, then open the new document with the relevant Layer clicked, then Ctrl/Cmd+F to insert the copied Layer on top?

[pacol38509684]

Hi,

Thanx for taking the time to respond.

Nope. Doesn't work.

Heres a video capture of my copy-paste layer groups problem

copy - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGzCxrkllRg&feature=youtu.be

.

[Monika Gause]

Do you have any clipboard enhancement installed or activated in your system?

[pacol38509684]

No.

I only have astute graphics plug-ins

Sent from my iPhone

[Monika Gause]

pacol38509684  schrieb

No.

I only have astute graphics plug-ins

Sent from my iPhone

I'm not talking about Illustrator plugins, but about your system.

[pacol38509684]

None tha I know of.

This is my system.

[Ares Hovhannesyan]

Can you make a test.

1.Draw 4 objects. Group them

2. Open new document

3 Go Window Arrange-Tile

4.Select group and drag it into new document

Thabks

[pacol38509684]

I did it it works. That works. But the old way with the other things still

doesn’t work. What do I do now my friend?

On Sun, May 12, 2019 at 10:51 AM Ares Hovhannesyan <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[Ares Hovhannesyan]

That means that program works fine but something wrong with your object or it contains some elements that crushes groups, Can you share your original file? 

[Srishti Bali]

Hi Paco,

I would like to know if the steps suggested above worked for you, or the issue still persists.

Kindly update the discussion if you need further assistance with it.

Thanks,

Srishti

[Jacob Bugge]

Paco,

Nope. Doesn't work.

Heres a video capture of my copy-paste layer groups problem

Actually, you never tried the suggestion.

To express it another way, please try exactly as suggested:

0) Make sure the name of the top Layer in the source document to be copied is different from any top Layer in the target document;

1) In the source document, click the top Layer to be copied (just click on top of the Layer name), then select it (with everything in) by clicking the circle to the right, then Ctrl/Cmd+C;

2) In the target document, click the top Layer (just click on top of the Layer name) that is to be just below the new top Layer from 1), then Ctrl/Cmd+F.

[pacol38509684]

I tried,

Still no success.

video link here

copy 2 - YouTube

:

[Jacob Bugge]

Paco,

You were using Paste (in Place) instead of Paste in Front, but actually that should make no difference.

Failing everything else with no brighter suggestions within a reasonable time, it may be time for the list.

If things that should work simply refuse to (all possibilities exhausted including the A) - C) below (and carefully making sure you are performing (all) the needed things)), you may try (the relevant part(s) of) the list 1) - 6) below.

Sometimes, (certain) things may fail or stop working for no apparent reason. When the (other) possible reasons/cures fail to work, it may be some kind of (temporay or permanent) corruption, or even some inconvenient preference setting(s), which may be cured with something on the following list set up in an attempt to provide a catchall solution for otherwise unsolvable cases. It starts with a few easy and harmless suggestions 1) and 2) for milder cases, and goes on with two alternative ways 3) and 4) of resetting preferences to the defaults (easily but irreversibly and more laboriously but more thoroughly and also reversibly), then follows a list 5) of various other possibilities, and it ends with a full reinstallation 6). If no other suggestions work, or if no other suggestions appear, you may start on the list and decide how far to go and/or which may be relevant.

The following is a general list of things you may try when

A) The issue is not in a specific file,

B) You have a printer correctly installed, connected, and turned on if it is physical printer (you may use Adobe PDF/Acrobat Distiller as the default printer with no need to have a printer turned on, obviously you will need to specify when you actually need to print on paper), and

C) It is not caused by issues with opening a file from external media.

D) It is not caused by other applications (you may close down/disable everything else running, including browsers and antivirus, then try again). There are quite a few usual suspects that may disturb and confuse Illy (job description Adobe Illustrator) so she moves in mysterious ways (even more than usual, some would say).

You may have tried/done some of them already; 1) and 2) and 3) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 4) and 5) and 6) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt/inconvenient preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.

If possible/applicable, you should save current artwork first, of course.

1) Close down Illy and open again;

2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to at least 5 times);

3) Log out of your Adobe account and log back in;

4) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);

5) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible), for CS3 - CC you may find the folder here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/preference-file-location-illustrator.html

6) Follow the instructions here: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/setting-preferences.html

7) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);

Even more seriously (this may be serious because you may need to restore plugins and whatnot afterwards if you have customized things), you may:

8) A) Uninstall (ticking the box to delete the preferences if applicable), B) run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and C) reinstall. You may try without step B), but sometimes it is needed, because otherwise things may linger.

As it appears from this thread, it may be worth repeating this if it fails to help the first time:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2283530

To uninstall:

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/search/index.cfm?loc=en_us&term=uninstall&cat=support&product=illustra...

Cleaner Tool:

http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

[jane-e]

pacol38509684  wrote

And when I paste, instead of having everything in the perfect hierarchy and the groups like in the original ...  the new copied version has everything in one long layer with all the groups ungrouped.

Hi Pacol,

For a test, what happens when you paste to a new artboard in the same document? Do the groups still ungroup?

Jane

[chriscantrell72]

Same problem ... and yes, copying into the same document loses the sub layers and groups. AI 2019.

[Monika Gause]

Do you use any system extension that "enhances" your clipboard?

[Levi5E93]

This may be late as a solution, but I was having the same issues. I found on another forum to make sure that the "Paste Remembers Layers" is checked within the Layer panel options. I checked this and I was then able to copy groups and subgroups from document to document. 

Hope that helps!

[Snakedogman]

Damn I was having the same issue and didn't even know there was such an option! (and apparently neither did any of the other responders).

[Ton Frederiks]

The whole thread started with:

"Help,

I’m thoroughly confused. Yes I know about the Paste Remembers Layers. And I have them checked. "

[James23322742agk1]

Hi,

I was having the same issue and found that when I was having the issue I was only copying over a selection from one file to another, and not the majority of the objects. When I then "selected all" from one document, and copy and pasted that to a new file, it pasted it all with the correct layers and sub-layers in the correct hierarchy. After then I just pruned what ever I copied over that I didn't need.

You might have to do some extra organizing to make it easy to prune everything you don't need that was copied over, but hopefully this works for the next person to come across this thread.