Inspiring

Question

Why does Illustrator switch hidden layers back on (and unlock) them when duplicating an art board?

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
August 12, 2025
4 replies
1273 views

I've always wondered why Illustrator switches hidden layers back on (and unlocks them) when duplicating an artboard? I have it set to copy hidden layers - but its a bit annoying if say I have some hidden layers (which I want to keep hidden for ref) but then they all get switched back on and unlocked when I duplicate my artborad (and in fact unlock and turn back on the ones in my original artboard). Is there a way I can get Illustrator to copy a new artborad and keep the layers switched off and locked just like the artborad I am copying?

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Posted the problem here:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/50333634-duplicating-artboard-will-unlock-and-show-locked-a

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

@richardesignerUK I can reproduce now what you see.

When using the new option to duplicate an artboard by Alt/Option-clicking the Plus sign with the Artboard Tool unlocks and shows locked/hidden layers, but when you undo immediately and Alt/Option-click again, it works as expected.

Dup_artboard_problems.zip

R

richardesignerUKAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Ton. Thanks for replicating. However I dont undretsand what you are saying or what you are trying to show in the video?

R

richardesignerUKAuthor

Inspiring

When I click the + sign with the Alt key depressed, you can duplicate the artboard and its contents.

It does that, but as you mentioned it also unlocks and show everything that was locked and hidden.

I did an undo and clicked again with the Alt key depressed and it suddenly worked as expected. Unreliable at least.

Oh I see what you mean now. My file also did the same thing. As soon as you open a file or click from one file to another in illustrator and click the + key, and hold down alt, it unlocks all layers and shows any hidden layers the first time you do this. However if you repeat the process again it behaves itself and keeps any hidden layers or locked layers (which obviously I've just hidden and locked again). And if you do this again it behaves itself. So this seems to be a bug when you first open a file or click between files?

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @richardesignerUK,

Thanks for sharing the videos. From what you’ve shown, it seems the issue occurs only when duplicating via the panel option, while Alt-dragging works fine. Could you confirm your exact Illustrator version and OS, and if this happens in a new file with just a couple of layers set to hidden and locked? If you haven’t already, try resetting Illustrator preferences to see if that clears the behavior. Reference: https://adobe.ly/4loLPkL

Let me know what you find.

Abhishek

R

richardesignerUKAuthor

Inspiring

HI Abhishek. I'm using Illustrator 29.7.1 on a 2024 M4 Mac MIni running Mac OS 15.6. I don't really want to trash my prefs at the moment. Sorry.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

I cannot replicate that, when I duplicate an artboard with a hidden or locked layer, I get this:

Where did you set it to copy hidden layers?

R

richardesignerUKAuthor

Inspiring

Here Ton. See screen shot.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Thanks Richard (did not look there).

But when I turn that on, the message about locked/hidden layers does not come up during duplicating the artboard, but the layers stay locked and hidden in the duplicate.

Dup_artboard.zip

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