Illustrator tools vanishing or not functioning at all

[MontyDraws]

Looking for help with a reoccurring problem in illustrator. It keeps hiding my tools! I will be working in illustrator, switch to photoshop, come back to illustrator and all my tool panels will have vanished. Going to view and choosing (for example) show layers or show stroke does nothing. None of the tools will reappear. If I “reset essentials classic” the tool panels do reappear but NONE of the tools will function. I can click on them to no avail. Nothing works. My only solution is to restart the computer. About 1/2 the time the tools will reappear and illustrator will function again for a short while before hiding the tools again.

illustrator CC 23.0.2

mac 10.13.6

[meganchi]

Are you accidentally hitting the Tab key? It toggles to show/hide palettes.

[Michael Bullo]

Try the following...

Reset Workspace

Window > Workspace > Reset Essentials (for example)

Switch to a different Workspace

Window > Workspace > Essentials Classic (for example)

Reset Preferences

How to set preferences in Illustrator

"Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (macOS) as you start Illustrator. You are prompted to delete the current settings. The new preferences files are created the next time you start Illustrator."

[dk design studio]

YES YES YES! This is happening to me! My tools just randomly MOVE or get hidden UNDER another tool! It just started...like a month or 2 ago. I've been using Illustrator [mac] since Illustrator #1...every day....this is WEIRD and so friggin' annoying. And god help you if you reset your tools.....DO NOT DO THAT....i did, and it f'ed everything up.

Please illustrator.....fix this bug.

[MontyDraws]

I should have updated this. I finally chatted with Creative Suite customer support. They remotely took over my computer and trashed loads of preference files, caches and a number of other files hidden away in my the library file. There's no way I could have ever figured out which ones to throwaway. After that the tool panel is behaving correctly again, although now photoshop has lost its tools.

[dk design studio]

thanks. i'll contact them.

[Mike23345408qg0l]

Resetting the workspace avtually fixed the issue for me and did not screw anything else up at all. I am not sure why you are telling people not to try this whenit could absolutely solve their issue..

[Mike23345408qg0l]

Resetting the workspace actually fixed the issue for me and did not screw anything else up at all. I am not sure why you are telling people not to try this when it could absolutely solve their issue..

[MontyDraws]

Update. Problem has returned. Tools disappear. Window> Workspace > reset essentials classic will make the tools reappear but none of them will function. Clicking on layers, color, etc has no result.

Spent 4.5 hours with customer service. No results. It seems to be related in some way to having the application frame toggled on or off (Window > Application Frame).  I really can't stand the application frame so I always turn it off. In my work flow it is helpful to be able to quickly move an art board out of the way and see the desktop.

We tried everything. Uninstalled all CS apps (lost all my preferences, extensions and a handful of OTF fonts... sucks). We erased basically everything adobe off the computer via a adobe cleaner app the customer service person installed. We created two new user profiles on my computer and used clean installs of illustrator. Problem comes back immediately and seems to be more persistent. My tools keep getting locked out. No obvious work around I can find. Downloaded illustrator 2018 and am using that waiting for a fix.

[lydiamanson13]

Hello!

I'm having the same problem.

My toolbar disappears, can't change my workspace, it stays in Essential Classic.

I uninstalled illustrator, install it again, used an older version, and the issue still persists

[MontyDraws]

update, 6.30.19. After many claims by adobe customer service that the issue must me within my system I finally bought a brand new $3k computer. With a completely new system and not a single file from my old computer yet imported problem persists and new ones. Adobe's customer support has 6 times now transferred me and 2 times told me that "my shift is ending now I will transfer you to someone who will help". No one helps.

[Monika Gause]

I have alerted staff.

[Srishti Bali]

Hi Monty,

We are extremely sorry about this bad experience with support. I have sent you a DM for the case details, please check and reply there.

Regards,

Srishti

[Srishti Bali]

Thanks for replying on DM. As per your initial query, the toolbar and panels disappear after you go to some other application (eg Photoshop) and come back to Illustrator.

Please share a few more details:

• What is the OS of your new system?
• Please make sure that you have the latest version of Illustrator (23.0.3 for Windows and 23.0.4 for MAC) installed.
• Which graphics card is installed on your system?

[MontyDraws]

Latest update... per adobe's advice bought a new computer. Problem persists with latest mac and new install ( did not transfer any info from old computer). With customer support for many more hours more. Several customer support agents "ended their shifts" as soon as I was transferred without me saying anything. No one took up their spot. Promised a manager call 3 separate times. No call ever. Just received email that my case is closed and my account is canceled!!!! Outrageous. Most up to date mac and adobe software possible.

[Srishti Bali]

I am so sorry about this distressing experience. I have sent you DM please check and reply accordingly.

Regards!

[Peter Villevoye]

These problems sound very strange !

I can hardly believe that this is happening to a new Mac with freshly installed Adobe CC software.

Sounds like a one-out-of-million chance of getting this kind of horrific mayhem.

However, there's a mention of a reproducible situation: going back and forth between applications.

I'm curious to see what happens. Could you record a video of it ?

[MontyDraws]

Latest update... per adobe's advice bought a new computer. Problem persists with latest mac and new install ( did not transfer any info from old computer). With customer support for many more hours more. Several customer support agents "ended their shifts" as soon as I was transferred without me saying anything. No one took up their spot. Promised a manager call 3 separate times. No call ever. Just received email that my case is closed and my account is canceled!!!! Outrageous. Most up to date mac and adobe software possible.

[grafxman777]

So, Monika alerted staff end of June - is there a solution after 2+ months? I'm having the same issue, started a couple days ago and I need to get it resolved.

[Monika Gause]

Just to clarify: I alrerted staff about the support issues. You will need to contact Customer Care so they can login to your system. On weekends you won't have much luck with this. https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html

[merelyuseful]

This is happening to me too. All tools disapear and I have to restart Illustrator. OS X 10.14.4  Illustrator 24.0.1 although it kept happening with previous versions.  Restarting Illustrator usually brings them back

[suzanneo16265142]

Me too. I open the toolbar, then everytime I work on the artboard it dissapears again and I have to reopen. Every single time. Highly frustrating. I's unworkable. 

[Olivia5D2D]

Hi there! I've been having the same issue. I teach a Media course to 7th and 8th grade students, and they're learning Illustrator. Their panels and toolboxes keep disappearing, and it's not a 'hit TAB' issue. 'Reset Essentials' is ghosted out. My only solution is to go to Window--> Toolbars --> Advanced to make the toolbox come back, and Window--> Whatever to make their missing panels come back. It's ridiculous. Any advice, Adobe? I'd rather teach my kids than spend time trying to solve these issues! 

[Monica MacGeen]

My Illustrator does this, or another issue. I'm on pointer tool and then switch to drawing a box. Suddenly the hand or black pen tool appears. I click every tool and it doesn't change. I can't do anything in the file. sometimes if I click back to the desktop and then back to Illustrator it corrects itself. Now I have been sitting here for 20 min. clicking back and forth and evrything on the page and it will not get off the black no pen tool. Also, it deletes my layers. Which is a big issue because the EFI printer I use requires layers to be names White_Ink Clear_Ink for color seperations. I save out the pdf file needed for printer output and all of my layers are gone and it populates everything with clipping masks. Clipping masks hides the art in the Rip software. The printer is VERY specific on the file format and Illustrator is NOT cooperating!!

[Monika Gause]

 Also, it deletes my layers. Which is a big issue because the EFI printer I use requires layers to be names White_Ink Clear_Ink for color seperations. I save out the pdf file needed for printer output and all of my layers are gone and it populates everything with clipping masks. Clipping masks hides the art in the Rip software. The printer is VERY specific on the file format and Illustrator is NOT cooperating!!

By @Monica MacGeen

Illustrator doesn't do that on its own. This happens when opening a file?

In that case the file you are opening is either corrupt or a higher version.

Please tell us where you are saving your files. Preferably in a new thread, because that is not the subject of this particular thread.