My layers became paths in idiot illustrator?

[jessicas55458932]

WTF. How do I undo this? All of my layers are now empty, and have become paths. I tried command-z. I tried closing it and reopening. I'm at a loss and stupid adobe doesn't have anyone i can talk to.

[Monika Gause]

What's your problem with this?

[jessicas55458932]

I want them to become their own layers again. These were all objects, gradients, etc, and somehow they all turned into paths, and I can't take them out of that grouping.

[Monika Gause]

Are the gradients still there?

[jessicas55458932]

The entire image is still there, but I can't do anything to it. I wasn't nearly done editing. Nothing is labeled, and everything is a new separate path, where multiple items were on the same layer.

[Monika Gause]

That's quite normal.

You don't need a layer for every single object. The paths are editable, you just need to select them in the right way, that's all.

If you want to label the paths, just go ahead and edit the <path>. But actually calling something "gradient 8" doesn't make too much sense to me, because it doesn't tell you anything about the nature of that object.

Maybe you grouped them and then ungrouped again and that's how they got onto the same layer.

[jessicas55458932]

I understand how to label layers. There's a method to my madness. I don't know what happened, but all of my layers got emptied and turned into separate paths.

I didn't have a layer for every single object, all of the flowers and leaves were under the flowers layer, for example.

I don't want them to be paths. I want them to go back into the layers they were in. Now they have zero name and I have no idea what went where.

[Monika Gause]

You might want to read about how Illustrator's layers panel works.

How to use layers in Illustrator

Your paths have always been paths.

They have obly been moved out of their original layer into the one where they are now.

Most probably this happened because you grouped your paths. Illustrator can't put them back to where they came from. You will have to do that manually.

When looking at your artboard you should now which of your path is which and bleongs to which layer.

And by the way: this forum consinsts of 90% regular users who donate their spare time to help other users. You're not talking to "Adobe" here unless someone is labled "Staff".

[jessicas55458932]

Clearly I'm not talking to Adobe. I didn't group anything. I know how the layers work.

What I'm trying to say is that, I literally left the program, did something in photoshop, and came back to Illustrator, and everything was out of its layer. I labelled my gradients like time on a clock. It's how I remember the direction.

I know they've always been paths, but if you look back at the picture, they are now all <path>. I want to know what happened and how I can revert it without having to do all of it manually. And adobe has somehow removed right clicking, so this process has become twice as difficult.

But for some reason the program is throwing an error when I try to do anything to these "new" layers. Manual drive isn't working.

[Monika Gause]

Removed Right click where? In the layers panel? Illustrator's layers panel never had right click.

[jessicas55458932]

No, Illustrator won't let you right click anything anymore. There's a ton of posts in here about this bug, or whatever it is. So I can't right click layers.

[Monika Gause]

No, Illustrator won't let you right click anything anymore. There's a ton of posts in here about this bug, or whatever it is. So I can't right click layers.

In Illustrator you could never right click layers and that's that.

The contextual menu issue affects users with 4k or 5K monitors or with dual and other multiple monitors setups.

Please be precise and tell us:

- your exact system and version

- any third party plugins

- your hardware: computer specs, input hardware, monitor setup

- what exactly you did step by step to create this file and then before the issue happened and what exactly are you trying now to repair it.

- please tell us, which tool you use, which functions you use, where exactly you try to use the contectual menu

[jessicas55458932]

I've tried the patches that have been suggested but something isn't working.

[jessicas55458932]

See the empty layers at the bottom? That used to contain all of the "paths" at the top.

[carlosgarro]

Does it only occur in this document?

Or in any document?

[Cactus_Cowboy]

You had to have done something for the file to have re-formatted to that incarnation. Don't you have the original file saved or did you just see that one and over-write the original? Why can't you just start from the original file? I'm afraid your going to have to bite this one and do like suggested and start reordering things again.

[Ares Hovhannesyan]

You mention that you have left the program, did something in photoshop, and came back to Illustrator, and everything was out of its layer.

What have been done in Ps?

[badul]

 mine became path.. but you can see the layers.. however it became empty in my artwork/canvas.

[Monika Gause]

Try View > Preview.