Does it happen immediately after you set them or after a file is loaded back?

In Illustrator 2025, setting default units in Preferences always reverts to “pt”. Please fix this.

It never happened for me in previous versions, but in 29.7.1 it does happen randomly when changing keyboard increment setting.

All of these small and seemingly insignificant issues may appear to the developers as minor problems but for the day to day users they are a tangible and real issue that not only slows productivity down massively , it leaves users dangerously open to making mistakes on artwork builds.

When the units within the "Settings" (previously named Preferences in the drop down list but strangely still named preferences when the panel opens) is changed from points to mm, it does not hold onto the changed unit type between opening different documents or when restarting the software, instead it just reverts back to points for the keyboard increments when changed.
A very tiring process to have to keep going into.

That is weird... Never heard of it... Please record it if it happens again, yes. Thanks!

Yes, the former WAS what was happening and this morning, it's working fine. Maddening. Next time it happens, I will get video.

Just to clarify: when does it happen exactly? Do you choose 'Points' in Preferences > General and it immediately gets changed to 'Picas'? Or do you have to commit the changes first and then they change to picas when you open the dialog again? Or do these change on a new document creation (or an existing document opening)?
I can’t replicate it so far.

I'm not sure what's going on there, but the number of small issues is depressing. I have used Illustrator since the early 90s and enjoyed rock-solid performance for most of those many years.

I can't see where you responded to me but EVERY time I restart illustrator, I lose all preferences except hot keys (thank god). I lose unchecking the real time drawing (because that's annoying), I lose units, I lose like most of what I set up. It's awful.

This issue is back. I have this problem with the 2023 version. How hard is it to fix this? It's SUPER annoying to have to change all of my preferences on a program I use daily.

Chris, is this still an issue with the latest Ai?
If it is — can you describe the exact steps you use to create a new document? A video can also help the team to reproduce the problem.

I Second this

No, Craig, these settings are global and can’t be saved into a template, unfortunately.
And sadly they indeed revert to defaults every update.

I personally solve with a script by Oleg Krasnov I launch whenever I need to toggle units.
Once it is put into an action, you can launch it with a hit of the F-key.

Download it, rename to .jsx (UserVoice does not allow to attach JSX files directly, but allows text file), and comment back if it works for you. Edit the contents if you want to set different settings for grid and keyboard increments.

As for the shortcut — each major version gets put in its own signed folder (and some use several versions at once), and that’s why you have to update these. Neither OS or Illustrator itself can’t control shortcuts.

Hi - we use Illustrator at school for students mainly for LASER cutting. Despite using a template we provide to students, it appears that the UNITS keep changing and are somewhat random! I am referring to "Edit, Preferences, Units". In Australia, we use "general = millimetres"; Stroke=millimeters"; and "Type=Points".

Theis does not appear to be saved in the TEMPLATE - where is this saved and why is it so random (literally random across 100 students with he same app build.

I have also noticed if often defaults back to USA based preferences every update! Can this be locked?

Another issue on the same line is that we cannot save a shortcut on the task bar, as every time you release an update the link is broken. This also applies to the location templates are stored. This si such an issue we are seriously thinking about not doing auto updates as it breaks everything we set up.

Any update on this AI team? Why would a doc preset for Art or Print be in Points? Who uses points for document sizes? Anyone in the world? Why is this a default? And why no response?

Hello Adobe team and admin Egor Chistyakov,
Here is bug / feature request that you can merge. If you search default unit, you will see several differently worded requests that total over 55+. You should merge these into one request titled something like "Ability to set the default units for new documents"

Illustrator's default for Print doc is points...... but all print docs are either in inches or mm.

Do ANY users out there use points for anything other than fonts? What rationale was used to make points the default? Seems like an oversight or bug but if there is a reason, please let us know.

Bei mir ist dieser Bug auch wieder da.

Same here. This seems to be a recurring issue. I don't understand why Adobe is developing amazing new features but at the same time is incapable of getting the basics right.

Seems like the bug is back again! I have the same issue with the last 2 versions of Illustrator (currently 26). Very annoying