On applying tracking via Properties panel, Illustrator issues like Tracking of complete paragraph changes, Bounding Box gets invisible
MacOS, multiple versions, multiple hardware configs
Illustrator CC2018 & 2019
This has been reported on a number of other posts, but seems to keep being reposted as new entries, rather than upvoted.
Since CC2018 the ability to adjust tracking in Illustrator has been broken. This appeared to begin with the introduction of the Properties Panel in CC2018, but the issues extend to the 'normal/traditional' Character Panel as well.
When adjusting tracking on a single letter or group of letters, the program will glitch and the adjustment value shown in the panel will not reflect the value being incremented. Moreover, deselecting and reselecting the type will show randomly different values - sometimes the value applied to one character will be reported as applied to an entire word/paragraph, sometime the program will change the default value across the entire application. It is no longer possible to adjust tracking, and a restart of the application is the only recourse, however the problem repeats - after making a few more tracking adjustments it glitches again in the same way and can no longer be used.
This has also been accompanied by selection bounding boxes disappearing across the program - again restarting is the only way to correct - and most problematic of all: upon saving, the file will often suddenly revert to an earlier state, completely losing all changes made.
This problem has been exhibited in exactly the same manner across multiple systems, running different OS versions and using different Adobe CC accounts. The problem has been occurring since at least CC2018, and is still occurring in the recent CC2019 (or whatever it's called) update. Currently it is impossible to use Illustrator for any kind of typographic work.
Tim Newcombe
shared this idea
AdminAvinash Singh Kotwal
(Principal Product Manager, Adobe Illustrator)
responded
I am happy to share that we have fixed this bug in our latest release – 23.0.6 which is available worldwide now.
Going forward, our goal is to fix as many top User-Voice bugs as possible and as frequently as possible. Given the nature of the fixes, some of the bugs will take a longer time to fix, but we are on it.
You can update to the latest release using Creative Cloud desktop App: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/creative-cloud-updates.html
Thank you for all the feedback. Keep it coming!
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Anonymous
commented
I have experienced this same problem, and then when I cmd-z or try to save with cmd-s it will revert multiple steps back, sometimes doing away with new layers and discarding work that can't be recovered. I have to restart program, or sometimes restart computer to get a decent period of working time before it starts acting up again.
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Cara Combs
commented
I am still experiencing this same issue!! I've updated to CC 23.0.1 which I thought was supposed to have fixed all of the Type issues. The Tracking is useless after about 3 adjustments. It tries to apply the changes to text in other text boxes.
This is a major glitch and I agree with Tim that it makes it impossible to do any amount of typographic work in Illustrator.
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Andrew D.
commented
I would like to add that I've reached out to Adobe support about this issue before with no response. Also, I've had this issue on multiple computers and tried uninstalling/reinstalling twice (once deleting all date, once without). Problem still persists. Some other glitches that occur when the character palette stops working, is random objects will become grouped. And command Z does not do anything. So a restart of the application is required. PLEASE get this figured out as soon as possible as I'm sure there are others out there like me that have client deadlines to meet.
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Loren
commented
Tracking on the character panel will sometimes freeze at a number and all text will appear at that number. Trying to update it has no effect and will bounce back to appearing at the same tracking number.
For example, say I have a text box with tracking set to 20, and another with it set to 25. If I have the text in the 20 box selected and try to change it to 10 it might work normally, but then if the problem pops up when I go to the 25 box to try and update it, when selecting this text it will also say it is 10. If I type in 25, or any other number, the tracking won't change and clicking away and then back will show 10 again. At this point, highlighting text anywhere in the document appears at the same number and none of it can be changed until restarting Illustrator.
I have been noticing this in the character panel within the properties panel only, and it's happened with tracking 3 times since updating to 22.1. I haven't noticed this happening with any other text characteristics but it's possible it isn't isolated to tracking. Next time it happens I'll try to remember to see if it is frozen in the actual character panel as well.