Downloading illustrator on iMac 15.1 And MacOS 11.7.10

Hello,

I’m encountering a compatibility block when trying to install Adobe Illustrator via Creative Cloud and would like clarification on supported options for legacy systems.

System details:

• iMac 15,1 (Late 2014 / Early 2015, Intel)

• macOS 11.7.10 (Big Sur, latest security update)

• Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (active)

• Creative Cloud Desktop App: latest available for macOS 11

Issue:
In the Creative Cloud desktop app, Adobe Illustrator is listed as “Not compatible with this operating system” and cannot be installed.
The “Other versions” / “Previous versions” option does not show any installable Illustrator versions.

Context:
I understand that current Illustrator releases require macOS 13 or newer.
However, Adobe Illustrator 2021 (version 25.x) was officially compatible with macOS 11 Big Sur at the time of release.

Questions:

1. Is Illustrator 2021 (25.x) still available for installation on macOS 11 through Creative Cloud, either normally or via manual enablement by Adobe Support?

2. Has Adobe fully deprecated Illustrator availability for systems limited to macOS 11, regardless of historical compatibility?

3. Is the “Not compatible” message caused purely by OS version checks, or by additional hardware / GPU requirements for older Intel iMacs?

I’m looking for an official statement on whether Illustrator 2021 can still be accessed on Big Sur, or if Illustrator is now entirely unavailable for this hardware/OS combination.

Thank you for any clarification.