Ctrl Key Activated When I'm not Touching it

[Paytonne]

Hello,

I've been encountering this issue across Illustrator and Photoshop where after working on a project for some time, something seems to trigger the cursor to act as if I'm holding the Ctrl key on my keyboard when I'm not touching it. I can't do anything to solve it, closing the program and reopening also doesn't change it every time I do it but after some time it returns to normal.

I spoke to the chat support about this issue, they said to reset my preferences and then restart the program... Which has resolved it for now but they couldn't tell me what preference I had that caused this to happen so I'm not really sure restarting the program every 30 or so minutes is really going to make a difference for me.

Overall I'm just looking to know what causes this issue, how I can resolve it when it happens, and what to do if it persists.

I appreciate any help or advice. 🙂

[Monika Gause]

It's not a keyboard hardware issue?

What else is running on your computer? Some applications are known to interfere with modifier keys, Chrome is infamous for that, but also antivirus, screensharing, some banking software, keyboard and mouse enhancers, some adware installed by web banners etc.

[Paytonne]

I don't believe it's a keyboard issue, I don't have sticky keys or anything like that that would be causing it.

I do have Chrome on my computer but it's the only thing within those that you listed that I even have. Is it just having Chrome run in the background or is it when it's open? I feel like I always have Chrome open when I'm working on something for pictures but this issue isn't always present, it's just present enough to have become an inconvenience.

[Monika Gause]

It can also happen with Chrome just running in the background.

I would suggest rebooting the computer and then running just Illustrator and see if that helps.

[Paytonne]

I've done that and it works for a little while then will start again, so it's not really a permanent fix.

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

There is other software interfering and you have to find out which one it is.

Probably use a different browser.

Rebooting the computer regularly is recommended anyway. Personal computers are not made for running without end.