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BemBem
Participating Frequently
September 3, 2026
Question

Illustrator 30.8.x completely freezes during normal use on Windows 11

  • September 3, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 13 views

I’m experiencing severe, eventually complete freezes in Illustrator 30.8.1 on Windows 11. The freeze occurs during normal operations (e.g. selecting objects or changing stroke colours), not necessarily while using fonts.

Configuration:

* Windows 11, build 26200
* Intel i7-13700KF
* 64 GB RAM
* RTX 3060 12 GB (Studio Driver v616.56)
* Illustrator 30.8.1.
* FontBase 2026.5.23
* ~2,600 activated fonts

I have already tried the usual troubleshooting steps, including resetting Illustrator preferences, disabling GPU acceleration, clearing relevant caches, testing different display/scaling settings, and testing with FontBase closed. The issue persisted.

I captured several full user dumps while Illustrator was completely frozen (approximately 6-7 Gb each). All show the UI thread stuck in:

ntdll!NtEnumerateValueKey
KERNELBASE!BaseRegEnumValueOld
KERNELBASE!RegEnumValueW
advapi32!RegEnumValueWStub
CoolType.dll
Illustrator.exe

The registry key being enumerated was:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts

The latest dump was taken with FontBase completely closed (I even tried with deactivating all the fonts after FB exit), so FontBase itself is not required for the freeze.

Only solution to a problem that took me two days to solve:
I have now downgraded to Illustrator 30.6, with the same FontBase setup and ~2,600 activated fonts. So far, 30.6 is running normally and everything works as it should.
Btw, I can’t fully confirm, but I had an impression that even 30.7 started being slow, but never freezing or halting for some time like this. Definitely huge problems started with 30.8 and 30.8.1.

Has anyone else experienced similar freezes with Illustrator 30.8.x, particularly on Windows 11?

    4 replies

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    September 3, 2026

    Hi @BemBem,


    Thanks for the detailed report and dump analysis, and sorry you've had to spend so much time troubleshooting this.

    Since the dumps point toward font handling, could you please temporarily reduce the number of active fonts and retest Illustrator 30.8.1? You can refer to Adobe's performance optimization guidance here:
    https://adobe.ly/4xvN9ZW

    Please also try clearing the Windows font cache, restart the system, and retest. Ref:
    https://adobe.ly/3UyBhI5

    If the issue persists, please test 30.8.1 from a new Windows administrator account to help isolate any user-specific font/registry configuration:
    https://adobe.ly/4gusNKE

    It would also be helpful to test in Windows Safe Mode to rule out third-party interference:
    https://adobe.ly/4qWwInc

    For now, please continue using 30.6 as a workaround if it remains stable. If 30.8.1 still freezes after these tests, please share the results so we can investigate further.


    Thanks again for the detailed diagnostic information.

    Abhishek

    BemBemAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    September 3, 2026

    Thanks, Abhishek.

    I understand the reasoning behind testing with fewer active fonts, but I don't think this is the right direction in this case. I have used Illustrator with a very large number of active fonts for many years, including older versions, without these freezes. Illustrator 30.6 is also currently running normally with the same FontBase setup and ~2,600 active fonts.

    This seems like a significant A/B result, since the Illustrator version is the only major variable I changed. I would therefore be reluctant to reduce the number of fonts simply to make 30.8.1 usable, as that could mask a regression in 30.8.x (for 30.7 I cannot confirm because I didn't use it enough).

    The fact that the dumps consistently show the UI thread stuck in CoolType while enumerating the Windows Fonts registry also seems relevant here.

    I’ll continue testing 30.6 for now, but I’d be interested to know whether there were any changes in 30.8.x related to font enumeration or CoolType.

    Harshika Verma
    Community Manager
    Harshika VermaCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    September 3, 2026

    Hi BemBem,

    Thanks for sharing the details, and we understand your concern about this issue.

    To help us narrow this down further, could you please test Illustrator 30.8.1 from a newly created Windows user account, as shared above by Abhishek, and let us know if the freezing still occurs there?

    Also, does the issue occur across multiple Illustrator files, including newly created documents, or only with specific files? If it appears to be file-specific, would it be possible for you to share a sample file with us via private message so we can try to reproduce the behavior on our end?

    Thank you for continuing to test this with us. We will try our best to help you further.

     

    Thanks,

    Harshika

     

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