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Daniel Cash
Daniel Cash
Inspiring
January 15, 2026
Question

Illustrator 30.1 won't open and getting the spinning beachball on macOS Tahoe

  • January 15, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 171 views

This morning I found that Illustrator 30.1 will not open. I get the spinning beachball of death and have to force quit the application.

 

I have restarted the computer and made sure all updates have been applied. I also reset the preferences as suggested in another discussion.

 

Macbook Pro 2023

macOS Tahoe 26.2

Illustrator 30.1

Creative Cloud 6.8.0.821

 

Hoping for a quick fix as this program is central to all the work I need to do everyday.

    2 replies

    Daniel Cash
    Daniel CashAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 23, 2026

    UPDATE AGAIN: A week later and I'm having the same issue. Instead of working on my clients' projects I'm left with a program that won't open. I have tried the remedies that worked earlier to no affect. I have a meeting with a client in 20 minutes but can't open any files. For a professional level product this level of instability is unacceptable.

    Harshika Verma
    Community Manager
    Harshika VermaCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    January 23, 2026

    Hi Daniel Cash,

     

    We understand how frustrating it could be, and we are sorry for the trouble you're experiencing while opening Illustrator. Would you mind trying the suggestions shared in this help article (https://adobe.ly/4b9L5i2) and checking if it helps?

    Also, kindly submit the crash report using your Adobe email address and share it here for quick tracking. Please check the steps in this article: (https://adobe.ly/4rdZT40).

     

    We will try our best to help.

     

    Thanks,

    Harshika

    Daniel Cash
    Daniel CashAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 23, 2026

    Thank you for your response. I have done all of these steps several times (reinstall, cleaner, system requirements, OS updates). I am still unable to get Illustrator open.

     

    There is no crash report from Illustrator. It just stops responding and I have to force quit and no report is generated.

    Daniel Cash
    Daniel CashAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 15, 2026

    Update: On the reccomendation of Adobe Angel and my personal hero, Vladimir Petkovic (@vladimirpetkovic on Threads), I logged out of the CC app and restarted my computer. Now Illustrator is working again!

     

    Thanks, Vladimir! (Adobe, give the man a raise!)

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