missing rectangle tool

[designm19985728]

Turned on illustrator this morning, tried to draw a box, but the rectangle tool has disappeared?!?

Restarting program made no difference.

Help!

[designm19985728]

um found it, but seriously WTF?

Has this been moved there on purpose or is this wrong?

[Doug A Roberts · Accepted solution]

The tools have been nomadic since the CC2019 update. Click the three dots at the bottom and reset it here:

[KShinabery212]

Curious will the reset fix everything.  As the strange thing with the tools is something bugging me.

[Doug A Roberts]

KShinabery212  wrote

Curious will the reset fix everything.  As the strange thing with the tools is something bugging me.

What do you mean? It sets the toolbar back to its saved state.

[pixelwash]

The annoyance and mystery to me is why the toolbox keeps reconfiguring itself so that the rectangle tool disappears, likewise the pencil tool is inclined to disappear or be demoted to a sub menu. Why should I have to keep "resetting" it?

[Larry G. Schneider]

Two things. Learn the KBSC keys for the important tools and make sure you have released the click before dragging the cursor back to the work area. The tool box is now configurable by a click and drag.

[pixelwash]

More proof Adobe has "lost the plot" when it come to basic app UI design and use, lol. Memorize ALL the key commands? I'm largely a 3d rendering and Unity guy, although I actually met Warnock when he was demonstrating illustrator version 1, and have used it since then. Do you have any idea how many apps I use in the course of my work? F them. Everybody thinks they are the center of the universe.

[Monika Gause]

Are you on the latest version? Its toolbar is locked after you've left the toolbar configuration.

Nobody asked you to memorize all the shortcuts BTW.

[pixelwash]

Man, I never expected so many smarty pants replies here. But thanks Monica, I agree, I EXAGGERATED in my response to the "helpful" suggestion from Larry to just "Learn the KBSC keys for the important tools".

Definitely no need to memorize ALL the commands, just the "KBSC keys for the important tools". 

Illustrator is crucial for my work, but in terms of time, it is far less than 2% of my work, so learning  KBSC keys for the important tools" is a STUPID suggestion....

But thanks for your "help".

[Monika Gause]

You still did not tell us which version you use. When the feature of the custom toolbar was introduced it could indeed not be locked. But the current version is locked when you're done configuring. Are you using the latest version?

It's not hard answering this one.

[pixelwash]

Ha, I update my apps as slowly as possible. I'm on Illustrator Windows 10 version 23.0. Though you seem more interested in me personally than solving my problem. How do you lock the tool bar in the latest version that you seem to love so much, please share some knowledge instead of trolling with questions, lol....

[Monika Gause]

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/tools.html#Customizethetoolbar

[pixelwash]

Why don't you actually say something about the problems I've been experiencing instead of belittling and invalidating them, and sending me a link to the current online manual, which says nothing about what I am troubled about, as I have already been there.

So you are telling me I am "imagining" my problems with illustrator? Despite the fact that thousands of other users have thumbs upped the original question about losing the rectangle (and pencil) tools?

Condescending and useless. Is that a check box on the Adobe website feedback for people like you?

[Monika Gause]

You see, I'm here in my free time helping people, go ahead and report me for that. At least 95% of people on this forum are not staff, I guess everyone will be keen to help you when you in turn report them for asking your version, because that usually is the first thing everyone of them does.

We need to know your version. As I already explained, Illustrator could indeed not lock the tool panel in version CC2019 when the feature was first introduced. But that was later improved and the toolbar locks automatically when you leave configuring mode.

In case you are using the old version, you need to update.

In case you are using the new version, someone will need to look at it or help you to make it work. But that someone will not be me. You might want to contact Customer Care, they can login to your system to check it out. https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html