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Known Participant
June 19, 2024
Question

Clicking Help > Search in Mac menu bar in Illustrator results in spinning ball

  • June 19, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 571 views

I get a spinning ball for 10-20 seconds every time I click the Help > Search feature on MacOS Sonoma + Illustrator 28.5.  MacBook Air M2 24GB memory.

2 replies

Michael Chow
Inspiring
June 30, 2024

@ojak I am assumming that you have already tried (or if you haven't) install the latest update to Illustrator. I just recently did a few minutes ago myself. If that still doesn't work, because Spotlight is the macOS search function and sometimes it can get out of sync with Adobe's applications. Reindexing Spotlight could help Illustrator work better with the search function. Personally, I have removed Adobe Illustrator from the Privacy Tab altogether, and it works fine for me this way, but for some, I know (my partner) has Adobe Illustrator in the Privacy Tab

  • Click on the Apple icon (top left corner)
  • Select System Preferences.
  • Click Spotlight.
  • Click the Privacy tab.
  • Drag and drop your Illustrator application icon out of the Privacy list (this temporarily excludes Illustrator from Spotlight search).
  • Close System Preferences.
  • Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal).
  • Type the following command and press Enter: sudo mds -i /Applications/Adobe Illustrator.app (enter your password when prompted). This will rebuild the Spotlight index for Illustrator.
  • Once the indexing is complete, open System Preferences again and go back to Spotlight Privacy.
  • Drag and drop the Illustrator application icon back into the Privacy list (this re-enables Spotlight search for Illustrator).



 

ojakAuthor
Known Participant
July 21, 2024

Yes, latest version.  This happens on multiple machines.  I'm guessing there's some sort of Adobe indexing bug.

Anubhav M
Community Manager
Community Manager
June 30, 2024

Hello @ojak,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind trying to run Illustrator under Safe Mode (Windows / macOS) and checking if it helps?

Also, try running Illustrator under a different administrator account (Windows / macOS) and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

Thanks,

Anubhav

ojakAuthor
Known Participant
August 9, 2024

How do you boot into Safe Mode on macOS.  The instructions at https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/safe-mode-illustrator-diagnostic-startup-tests.html are simply awful -- they assume a crash occurred, and in my case there's no crash...

 

@Anubhav M  Do you want me Force Quit Illustrator, or use a CLI flag to boot into Safe Mode?

 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 9, 2024

It's about booting your computer in Safe Mode and then launching Illustrator. 

HereIt is for Mac OS https://support.apple.com/de-de/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac#:~:text=A%20Mac%20is%20completely%20shut,click%20Continue%20in%20Safe%20Mode