None of the Align or Distribute tools seem to function in the latest beta releases. Selecting a group of objects and trying to evenly distribute them (vertically or horizontally) results in the objects being spread across the artboard, with the leftmost or topmost object aligned to the far left side or top edge of the artwork.

Mitch, you’ll love it :)

Egor that's a great tip, I love the Astute tools but hadn't used Vector First Aid. Thanks for commenting!

Yes, noticed that once or twice too.
An interesting bug, definitely should be fixed.
Meanwhile there are two things that can help you:

1. Try to use VectorFirstAid from AstuteGraphics to parse imported files and fix most of the clipping issues and other problems you probably even did not suspect about.

2. You don’t need to search for the clipping group in Layers manually if you have a child of it selected. You can use Group Selection tool (I have it bound to Shift+A, but it can be also called with holding Alt when Direct Selection is active) to click you object again — it will select the next parent group.

But yes, I think that a group without a clipping path should turn into a normal one too.

I have run into these wonky alignment issues for years!
Reading this post helped me know some things to look for to resolve them and understand what is happening. My workflow is similar to yours in that I also just select the masks and delete them because it's a lot faster and easier then releasing each of them.

I do see that Illustrator spots the Clip Group and converts it to a regular Group when the Align button is pressed.

I run into this issue a lot when editing PDFs that someone sends me. The art is usually filled with excessive clipping masks because of the file conversions. I usually just keep pressing Align until the art finally just snaps into proper place.

I'm not confident that Adobe with ever fix this, but I think someone with some basic scripting know-how could write a script that resolves the messy artwork.

You can reliably replicate this issue by putting three objects into a group with a larger object, creating a clip group with that larger object, then (using direct select) deleting the clip group mask, turning it into a normal group. The resulting group will no longer respond to alignment commands correctly - often spreading apart rather than center aligning.

I recognize the intended workflow is to release clipping mask in the layers panel, but in a complex document (especially while working with graphics placed from CC Library), it's much faster to delete the box around the clip group than to find the group in the layers panel.

I've seen this problem reported elsewhere, with fewer details included. Either this is a bug, or I'm requesting a feature–a more streamlined way to break clip groups.

Screenshots are labeled in order.

The align tools have completely changed how they work, and the distribute tools no longer work at all!

PLEASE FIX ASAP!

Illustrator 24.2.3 (64-bit), Windows 10

I also have had issues with both Align and Distribute objects. I see this problem goes back a while. I was enjoying the stability of CS4 before getting a new Mac and being forced into the expense and instability of your CC subscription. I am NOT happy with you, Adobe! Please worry less about features and more about stability and not breaking existing features that are important! BTW - I am indeed on Mac Catalina OS, not Windows... so apparently this issue is platform-independent.

my align tool now does not let me distrbute objects but aligns to a centre so its not my machine it the software.......

must be nice because mine still dont work half the time.... Adobe team is garbage

Hello, After the June 2020 update I align tool is working strong:
vertical always all objects go right side, whatever you click.
horizontal all objects go bottom
organize distance all objects bundle in center, both for vertical and horizontal.
What happened? Can s.o. explain how to avoid? Perhaps I didn't realize a new method?

I just had same issue and quickly solved it with Pui san's solution. Thanks!!

Thanks Benz! I just had the same issue with SVG

the solution is go to top of the menu bar > view > guide > clear guide

*this is because of grouping different layer without lock guide..!

THIS IS STILL AN ISSUE ON VERSION 24.0.2

Hi, I know this is closed, but just came across this issue on my end with CC 23.0.1. It turns out that for some reason the SVG I was using was making my center-aligntment got in completely opposite directions. I've used SVGs in the past many many times before, but not sure why this is happening now.

The easy fix was to just go deep into the grouping of that SVG to its most basic pieces, and just copy+paste all the pieces it out of the entire grouping. Then it will work fine.

Again, not sure what caused this, but this is a solution.

you keep saying you need to look at our computer yet you have checked mine 2 times already and keep telling me the issue is fixed.. you are just wasting our time...

its sad that they think its not an issue because they cant recreate the problem on their end yet tons of people have been complaining about the same thing... for years at that...

i have sent you a video already of this... last Friday the 26th

Thanks Anish, Just emailed you a video of it.