I was just having this problem, thought it was because I tried tracing an image with a white background instead of transparent. Turns out it wasn’t working because I didn’t input a preset amount of colors for the image I wanted to trace.

1. Click on image you want to trace
2. Go to properties panel for that image
3. Under “Quick Actions” click “Image Trace” and select the amount of colors from the dropdown.

This is ok if you’re doing one or two photos. If you need to trace many photos do this instead:

1. Select Window from dropdown options at the top of screen
2. Select “Image Trace” a new window should stay open on your screen
3. Select image you want to trace
4. Select amount of colors from dropdown next to “Preset”
5. Select “Trace”

I hope this helps someone!

This was from a while ago, but I found a workaround. Put a black background behind the white image, export it as an image, and place the image back into Illustrator, and the image trace should work on that image.

Happening for me with CC 27.4 64 bit. I updated to 274.1 but I get the same white box.

When I try to use the Image trace function in Ai - I get a PARM error and then when I click OK it just turns my image white.

I am using version 27.3.1

I found out that if the artwork is white, that causes the issue for me. In photoshop: Make artwork black by turning off visibility of background, CTRL + Click layer window to select pixels, and SHIFT + F5 to fill. I chose black, copy + paste from photoshop, check "ignore white" On advanced options in trace bar. Trace. That's what worked for me.

I have the same problem.

Same thing here. Adobe updates the software every other week but they never seem to really FIX anything. Getting annoying.

They claim it's not a universal issue, so no, no fix.

anyone find a solution to this ?

trace does not trace. comes up with a [cant] code. then a white screen. just got the trial to see how I like it.. have a few days left. any help ?

@Bryony -- thank you for the advice!
@Ashutosh -- please accept MY apologies for ignoring your April reply. I will contact you next time it happens!

I just had this. If it's because you have a white image on a transparent background - invert it to black and then try. It worked for me.

I'm having same problem. Love how this 'What can we fix' page isn't making an attempt to fix it

Same here :(

I'm having these issues and its so annoying. Is there a fix for this?

Is there a fix to this yet? I have the same issue

I am having the same problem

me too. tried with PNG, JPEG, Embedded, Unembedded, rasterized. rebooted, doesn't work, nothing but a square visible in OULINE view

Me too