Seriously it's about time the counterintuitive method is fixed to work without having a quirky way to apply it. I'm referring to applying a gradient to editable text. You should be able to apply a gradient directly onto the text without having to first remove it's fill then add a fill back in the 'Appearance' panel, then apply the gradient. Even when the swatch indicates a gradient is applied it is not. It isn't fun when things are designed counterintuitively, especially when learning how to master the environment of Illustrator.

As far as I recall, applying a gradient to live text never worked in Illustrator. We have to create a separate fill first to that, in the Appearance panel — then it works (although the individual fills for character stay below and can be visible at the edges).
I tested it again to see if it works in multiple versions before 25 and could not find one.
I am merging this report into a general request to have a better way to do that (because it is possible in other apps without this special ritual! — Affinity Designer can do that, Corel Draw can, Inkscape...)

In earlier versions of Illustrator, when the modern gradient annotator was introduced (CS4), we had only one shown when applying a gradient to a group of objects (or just a selection of objects).
The users wanted to see annotators for all of the objects in the selection: even if some are not filled with gradients, even if the gradient differ, even if they don’t match in lengths and angle.
This was a nice change (although sometimes it prevents from editing a similar gradients for an ungrouped selection of objects).

I imagine something similar can be permitted for character in a text objects, which can be treated as special type of groups (if we look at the Appearance panel).
But seeing a bunch of annotators — one per each character! — would be a very difficult thing to manage! And separate annotators per character is probably the way it is going to be implemented, because this is how Ai treats gradient for groups :(

So the current way of applying the gradient with a unified separate fill is a better way, actually — to my taste... I still upvote it, but this should be made VERY carefully.

Not with the appearance technique, just with the eyedropper

Can you add the possibility to add a gradient to a text without outlining it?

Gradient fills are not working on text in Illustrator. It just turns the text black. Also, after I converted the text to outlines, drop shadows won't show.

still & also have the very same issue in Illustrator 23 / 2019 in Mac OS / Mojave 10.14.6

Trying to mock up a gradient on text to represent a reflective light on it when printed. Before the update I know this worked, but in v25.0 gradients on live text appear black. Example attached with text in a random solid colour, and text in a random gradient appearing black.

From all the posts I've read, you should be able to have individual gradients per letter once you add a non-destructive outline in the Appearance Panel. I've even seen the steps described many times. However, trying to add an individual gradient per letter/number does not work no matter what method I use to add the gradient fill. The letters only show black or show the gradient across all letters - no matter what gradient I choose. There's seems to be a bug, because I've tried several different ways of adding the colors, even selecting each letter individually, and it will not change. Single colors change fine. Destructively outlining it and adding a gradient works fine as well.

iMac
Illustrator 23.0.1
macOS High Sierra 10.13.6

Why I can't use gradient onto text? Either I have to curve it or I have to take and extra layer from appearance panel..!! I wish I could directly pic the gradient.

No so much of as an idea as a rendering bug, the idea would be to fix it.
Gradient stroke & fill can no longer be seen when applied to editable type.
Versions CC2018 will not render the Gradient stroke & fill, just renders as black.

If we could apply gradients to live text the same way you would a shape, that would be great. I'm not sure why after all these years, this still is a missing feature.

With type object selected, you can add a new Fill from Appearance panel and apply the gradient on that fill.

-******

why cant i add gradient to a font ?