This has been a reoccuring issue for me for months. The cursor is stuck on selection when I try any other tools. I'm mainly using paintbrush when this happens. This happens only sporadically but it's always a bummer.

Something that works sometimes is ensuring all opened projects saved. But this isn't always successful.

Details of your operating system: Windows 11 Home 22H2
The version of Adobe Illustrator (desktop): Illustrator v 27.3.1

I could upload a video but literally just imagine I've clicked on paintbrush but my cursor looks like a hand. lol

Thank you so much for helping because................. this keeps happening. I've updated it to the latest version and everything. It's hindering my progress. I mean I'd be so upset if I was pressed for time and I couldn't even use my program. I've tried resetting my laptop, too and it didn't work. It just decides not to work sometimes!

Recien instale el programa y al abrir no me deja utililzar ninguna herramienta mas que la "mano". Lo mismo sucede si intento usar versiones anteriores.

I'm also having this issue. No consistent rhyme or reason to it - I do not have dictation turned on. Sometimes restarting the app resets it, but not consistently. Is there a solve to this yet?

Thanks Jamie!

The cursor issue was driving me bonkers! I indeed had enabled dictation. Your solution worked perfectly. Back in business.

From ridiculous suggestions like "it's the keyboard" to stories of "just turn these options off", this problem seems to have been plaguing at LEAST AI for several years now. I mean sure, I'm willing to test anything to get the software to work but come on. I thought when 24 came out and suddenly I was not having the problem immediately (on a mac) that MAYBE somebody finally found the issue and resolved it. Nope. This is hopelessly ridiculous and wholly unacceptable given the prices we pay for this product. Solutions like shut down your browsers, turn off dictation...these do not SOLVE anything, they PATCH at best. How many of you don't have any browsers open and have NEVER turned on accessibility or dictation options and still have had the problems. How does adobe find this acceptable? Turn off virus protection has been my personal favorite. Come on. If technical support cannot reproduce then they are using unrealistic configurations and software on their test machines. For the record, I work in BOTH windows and mac environments...and the windows version, for me anyway, has never had this problem...but the mac is just hands down so much faster using any of the adobe products. Why oh why is there not a final solution on this...yet ?

I was also using on MacBook Pro and had the same issue. Took two months for tech support to email me back, by the time they did I found the answer online. I did the same thing as Jamie mentioned and the problem was resolved.

I was having this issue as well on my MacBook Pro. I ended up figuring out Illustrator is the culprit. I could use InDesign and Photoshop fine, but the second I opened Illustrator, my cursor seemed to stick as if I'm holding the mouse button down even when I'm not.

I did some more research while on hold with Adobe Illustrator Tech Support and found out that the voice Dictation functionality conflicts with Illustrator. I confirmed this with the Adobe Tech who answered my call as I was discovering the answer.

It immediately made sense to me since the issue only cropped up after I'd enabled the Dictation feature in System Prefs/Accessibility a few days ago.

Here's how I solved it:

Go to System Prefs/Accessibility
Scroll down in the left panel and select 'Dictation'
Uncheck everything

If everything is already unchecked:

Go to System Prefs/Keyboard
Click the 'Dictation' tab
Select 'Off' for Dictation. This disables any type of voice dictation system-wide.

There you go! I hope this helps!

Happening across CS for me, a restart fixes it for a few minutes. Only since accessing using Go To My PC now I'm working from home.

Still happens in October 2019. Illustrator is useless and restarting the app won't work. Sometimes works if I restart the Mac altogether, though that is not productive to do every time AI has a bad day...

Macbook Pro Mid 2015
macOS Mojave 10.14.6
Illustrator 23.1.1