Inspiring

Answered

Cant load or extremly laggy cloud files - on illustrator 30.0+ (2026) (Open Cloud Documents panel)

Forum|Forum|3 days ago
October 7, 2026
18 replies
97 views

Hi, am I the only one, that have troubles with cloud documents in apps past few days? If I want to open anything from my cloud (either home screen - your files or open - open cloud documents and then the cloud documents panel) If I want to scroll my files loading is extremely slow, scrolling is extremely laggy and only 5-6 rows will load at a time, hovering freeze the whole panel, opening anything is almost impossible, cant search through search bar (1 minute per one letter will appear and even if I hit enter nothing will happen. Even cancel or local documents button (bottom ones) are frozen, only macs close button (small red circle) on the panel works at this point. I tried so many things, latest version, version before, uninstalling, restarting, stopping content synchronizer, deleting old airobin files, clearing cache - nothing. Photoshop is same. Only thing that works is Illustrator 2025 anything 29.0+ then it works like a champ, no lag extremely quick, search is instant. Also its normal through creative cloud app.

I have Macbook M1 pro, 32gb ram, Tahoe 26.7.1

Correct answer Michal235827356jdf

I am writing to add a quick update and and some new evidence. Also I have open ticket for this issue from technical support. Its definitely not anything local - its server-side!

As it appears this is a wider server-side issue and not an isolated local problem. Another user from the community forums has just reached out to me reporting the exact same behavior.

To recap what points to a backend/server-side bug:

The Trigger: It typically happens after working with heavy files containing complex effects or lots of elements (such as heavy raster effects in Illustrator saved to the cloud).

The Symptom / Loop: The issue persists even on web interfaces and even mobile/different computer), causing severe lagging and infinite loops, which strongly suggests a server-side failure during thumbnail generation or caching in the 2026 versions. 2025 versions and CC app itself is okay.

Deleting local files or doing local troubleshooting does not resolve it.

Temporary fix: If anyone experiencing this you need to install 2025 versions of apps - it seems that there is different thumbnail management system, that doesnt do this! (Illustrator 29.x, Photoshop (26.x) or open your cloud files through creative cloud app itself. These use old thumbnail management system. I hope this “fix” is just temporary and you should contact Adobe support and let them know!

M

Michal235827356jdfAuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

I am writing to add a quick update and and some new evidence. Also I have open ticket for this issue from technical support. Its definitely not anything local - its server-side!

As it appears this is a wider server-side issue and not an isolated local problem. Another user from the community forums has just reached out to me reporting the exact same behavior.

To recap what points to a backend/server-side bug:

The Trigger: It typically happens after working with heavy files containing complex effects or lots of elements (such as heavy raster effects in Illustrator saved to the cloud).

The Symptom / Loop: The issue persists even on web interfaces and even mobile/different computer), causing severe lagging and infinite loops, which strongly suggests a server-side failure during thumbnail generation or caching in the 2026 versions. 2025 versions and CC app itself is okay.

Deleting local files or doing local troubleshooting does not resolve it.

Temporary fix: If anyone experiencing this you need to install 2025 versions of apps - it seems that there is different thumbnail management system, that doesnt do this! (Illustrator 29.x, Photoshop (26.x) or open your cloud files through creative cloud app itself. These use old thumbnail management system. I hope this “fix” is just temporary and you should contact Adobe support and let them know!

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Michal235827356jdf @Jake249401717jz2

I’m sorry to hear about your experience. Would you mind trying the following steps and checking if it helps:

Close all Adobe applications
Remove the Creative Cloud Desktop application, CCLibrary, and CoreSync using the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool (https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html)
Reinstall the Creative Cloud Desktop application (https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/creative-cloud-desktop-app-download.html)
Relaunch Illustrator

If the problem persists, try running Illustrator under a different administrator account (Windows / macOS) and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

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Michal235827356jdfAuthor

Inspiring

I replied, but mentione one of adobe websites and I think that it wasnt approved because of that. I wrote lenghty reply and set it ascorrect answer and you should see this. I think we will see more and more people with this issue. Htere is already other reply with same issue

J

Jake249401717jz2

Participant

Hi Michal, I am currently experiencing the exact same issue. I’ve been using Photoshop for the past year daily and never had any issue, I pay for adobes 1TB cloud storage and and never had any problems accessing my files until a few days ago. It’s just so slow and laggy, it’s unusable at the moment. As soon as I click the search bar it’s like that whole section freezes, but I am still able to create new documents. This makes me think the issue is related to Adobe's cloud file library rather than Photoshop itself.

I’ve updated my Photoshop to the latest version, no difference. Then installed a couple older versions and the issue is still there.

Hopefully Adobe can look into this, as it's seriously disrupting my daily workflow.

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Michal235827356jdfAuthor

Inspiring

Hi, thats interesting, I found multiple indicators and I think I can make educated guess. But first of all, dont worry, install Photoshop 2025 (anything 26.x) - you can do that in creative cloud app itself go to apps tab, click three dots right upper corner and find other versions (exact words may differentiate, I am not english speaker and my apps are in czech) or you can open files through creative cloud app itself - its working there. My 1st question is, did you work on any crazy file, with lots of edits, layers something like that? Because I think this happened to me after Ive put raster effects on lots of small particles in Illustrator - those effects are raster effects and it tried to make so many pixels that it ate 50gb+ of my local disk. After this file it started happening (file saved in cloud). 2nd question, does it lag if you go to assets(dot)adobe(dot)com ? - that was my biggest clue its not local and any fixes wont work because its not local its server-side. My theory is adobe changed how they generate thumbnails in 2026 versions and it tries to generate higher resolution thumbnail, but with crazy big file, it either got corupted in some way, or just its so heavy for the thumbnail generator that it tries it, doesnt work because not enough memory can be alocated to that, then tries again, and again and again, and you are in a never ending loop - thats why first few second, cloud library kind of works but it get worse each second. Kind of a memory leak thing. I had 3 “calls” with technical support (not a call they see you screen and you chat) they always trying local fixes at first, but 3rd one finally got what I was saying and recognized the problem and opened ticket to technicians for me. The main point was pointing that its doing even in browser on web and even on my phone - then they finally recognize its not anything local. They did log collecting, I think that they just need to get rid of of old thumbnail cache and stop the looped process. I deleted those files on my end and still nothing.

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Jake249401717jz2

Participant

Thanks for the help!

I've just installed Photoshop 2025 (version 26) like you suggested and it's working perfectly! Searching through my cloud files is instant, all the thumbnails load and there's no lag at all. I tried opening version 27.11 again and it's still just as bad, incredibly slow and none of the thumbnails load.

Yes I did recently work on a pretty demanding file. It was a 9000 × 4000px design where I used Generative Fill over 50 times, creating a new layer for each edit. So your theory could definitely make sense I tried saving that file locally and deleting it from the cloud but unfortunately it hasn't made any difference.

I also tried accessing my files through assets.adobe.com and had the exact same issue, even in Incognito mode. So it definitely seems like something on Adobe's end.

To be honest, I've never really liked the new cloud file browser in version 27 anyway. You can't open multiple files at once when searching anymore and when saving a document you can't see the thumbnails of your existing files like you could in version 26. It's just made things more annoying to use.

At least version 26 is working perfectly for now, so I'll stick with that until they hopefully fix whatever is going on.

Thanks again for the suggestion! Let me know if you hear anything back from Adobe.

E

elegant_Enchantmentaaec

Participant

Since cloud documents work fine in Illustrator 2025 and the Creative Cloud app, this sounds more like an issue with the newer Adobe versions than your Mac's performance. You've already tried most of the usual fixes, so I wouldn't waste more time reinstalling.

One thing worth testing is turning off GPU Performance in Illustrator's preferences and checking whether the cloud documents panel behaves differently. You could also try a fresh macOS user account to rule out a corrupted Adobe preference or user profile.

If the problem continues in both Illustrator and Photoshop, I'd report it to Adobe with the exact version numbers. It could be a bug affecting cloud document loading in the newer releases. For now, sticking with Illustrator 2025 seems like the most practical workaround.

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Michal235827356jdfAuthor

Inspiring

Thank you for reply, I already had session with Adobe technical support. They made ticket to look at the backend of my cloud database. Its definitely not anything local. I found out that the same issue is when I open cloud files through web (even if I log with my phone) so it must be server-side. My theory is, that one file was somewhat corupted and causing memory leak = when cloud tries to make thumbnail, it loops and tries again, and again, and so many times until it crashes.

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elegant_Enchantmentaaec

Participant

welcome.🙂

Monika Gause

Community Expert

You can check Adobe’s services status here: https://status.adobe.com

Is your Creative Cloud app updated?

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Michal235827356jdfAuthor

Inspiring

Yes I wrote it all, I tried many versions, I am always on latest, but after problems I tried the one before, then 30.0 - still and then 29.x and it works (then tried going back, uninstalling, and installing - I really tried all the basic troubleshoot) - so I dont think its status thing, why would 2025 illustrator work if servers were down.

justlearnskills

Community Expert

I am working on a MacBook Pro M5 Max 64gigs of RAM, Tahoe (sorry, don’t want to upgrade to Golden Gate just yet!), and my cloud files works fine. I would probably clear suggest clear your history, cache and cookies of your web browser and restart your Mac as well. Sometimes the simplest things fixes these weird anomalies!

m

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