Pattern Tool doesn’t save changes?

[Brynn5EB9]

Im fairly new to illustrator and don't know a lot about it but so far no online tutorials have helped with this issue. I'm trying to make a simple geometric repeating pattern. I drew the base design on Procreate and uploaded the PNG to Illustrator, made it vector etc. Once I highlight it all and make the pattern, a lot of the spots are slightly off. I expected this, since it's hand drawn, so while in the pattern maker I go in and adjust it so it all matches up perfectly. I save the swatch, save the file as a .svg, and save the swatch to the library. The problem is that when I go to open the svg file in a new document and select "make pattern" to test it, it all comes out as being off again, as if I hadn't made any adjustments. I cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong. Help!!

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

as long as you are working in your file, save it as an AI file.

Whatever you do inside the pattern editor will only be saved to the pattern swatch. In an SVG file there won't be any pattern swatches, so your edits are discarded.

The native file format in Illustrator is AI. Nothing else. So save that.

SVG and everything else are for delivery and production. Save it for handing to your web designer or whatever. But don't plan on editing it.