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satisfied_wanderlustcd39
Participant
October 23, 2026
Answered

An older version of Illustrator keeps installing itself everyday. I uninstall it everyday and it re-installs the old version the next day.

An older version of Illustrator keeps installing itself everyday. I uninstall it everyday and it re-installs the old version the next day. This has been happening for about 3 months now. I don't know what to do to solve it. Normally having another version wouldn't bother me but the older version is the one that takes priority when launching an illustrator file, i.e., ".ai" or ".eps" formats by double clicking on them. Please help.

      Tariq Ahmad DarCorrect answer
      Community Manager
      October 23, 2026

      Hi @satisfied_wanderlustcd39,

       

      Three months of daily reinstalls and losing control of which Illustrator opens your files each time you double-click is a real workflow problem. Here's what's going on.

      This isn't normal Creative Cloud auto-update behavior. Auto-update only ever moves an app forward to a newer version; it never reinstalls an older version over a newer one. For version 28.3 to keep coming back every day after you remove it, something on your machine has to be actively redeploying it on a recurring basis, that doesn't happen on its own.

      This kind of pattern usually shows up when a machine is IT-managed, for example, if your company's IT team pushes software through a management tool or policy that still assigns the older version to your device. That would explain both the daily reinstall and why it keeps resetting your default app for .ai/.eps files, since each reinstall re-registers itself as the default handler for those file types.

      A couple of questions to help narrow this down:

      • Is your machine managed by your company's IT department (i.e., can you install/uninstall software freely, or does IT control what's installed)?

      • Does your IT team use any kind of remote software deployment or device management tool on your laptop?

      • Do you know if your Illustrator license was assigned to you through an Admin Console seat managed by your company, or is it tied directly to your own Adobe ID?

      In the meantime, here's how to fix the file-association issue each time it happens, per Adobe's file-association troubleshooting article:

      "When multiple versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, or any other Creative Cloud applications are installed on a computer, uninstalling the earlier versions after installing the new versions breaks file type associations for the new versions."

      Windows steps: Control Panel > Default Programs > Associate a File Type > select .ai > Change Program > browse to your Illustrator 30.8.2 install path > ensure "Always use the selected program" is checked. Repeat for .eps.

      This will need to be redone each time 28.3 reinstalls until we find and stop the cause of the reinstall.

       

      Thanks,
      Tariq

      View reply

      5 replies

      satisfied_wanderlustcd39Author
      Participant
      October 23, 2026

      .

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      leo.r
      Community Expert
      leo.rCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 23, 2026

      Can you specify what version exactly is being installed? Also, what’s your operating system version?

      Normally, this shouldn’t happen. 

      Translate
      satisfied_wanderlustcd39Author
      Participant
      October 23, 2026

      I have Windows 11 OS in my system. The resilient version that keeps installing itself is 28.3 But I’m not completely sure about the number after the decimal, as it’s currently uninstalled and I don’t see it in my app list anymore. It will be back tomorrow anyways. I can confirm then.

      The current version I have running is 30.8.2 which I believe is the latest version of illustrator. I use an enterprise license bought by the company that I work for.

      Translate
      Community Manager
      Tariq Ahmad DarCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
      Community Manager
      October 23, 2026

      Hi @satisfied_wanderlustcd39,

       

      Three months of daily reinstalls and losing control of which Illustrator opens your files each time you double-click is a real workflow problem. Here's what's going on.

      This isn't normal Creative Cloud auto-update behavior. Auto-update only ever moves an app forward to a newer version; it never reinstalls an older version over a newer one. For version 28.3 to keep coming back every day after you remove it, something on your machine has to be actively redeploying it on a recurring basis, that doesn't happen on its own.

      This kind of pattern usually shows up when a machine is IT-managed, for example, if your company's IT team pushes software through a management tool or policy that still assigns the older version to your device. That would explain both the daily reinstall and why it keeps resetting your default app for .ai/.eps files, since each reinstall re-registers itself as the default handler for those file types.

      A couple of questions to help narrow this down:

      • Is your machine managed by your company's IT department (i.e., can you install/uninstall software freely, or does IT control what's installed)?

      • Does your IT team use any kind of remote software deployment or device management tool on your laptop?

      • Do you know if your Illustrator license was assigned to you through an Admin Console seat managed by your company, or is it tied directly to your own Adobe ID?

      In the meantime, here's how to fix the file-association issue each time it happens, per Adobe's file-association troubleshooting article:

      "When multiple versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, or any other Creative Cloud applications are installed on a computer, uninstalling the earlier versions after installing the new versions breaks file type associations for the new versions."

      Windows steps: Control Panel > Default Programs > Associate a File Type > select .ai > Change Program > browse to your Illustrator 30.8.2 install path > ensure "Always use the selected program" is checked. Repeat for .eps.

      This will need to be redone each time 28.3 reinstalls until we find and stop the cause of the reinstall.

       

      Thanks,
      Tariq

      Translate
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