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Question

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

Forum|Forum|20 days ago
September 3, 2026
9 replies
195 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?

J

jes98

Participant

On MacOS Golden Gate 27.0 and Illustrator 30.8.1, 30.6 and 30.4 (stopped testing other versions of illustrator after that, and yes I have completely uninstalled Illustrator and all settings before installing older versions) I am unable to even properly launch Illustrator. The application opens, but then immediately goes into an “Application Not Responding” state, freezes and never leaves that state.

I believe this happened after updating to the latest MacOS version. That is the only change that has happened for me. Unlike the user BemBem I only have 400 fonts using the default Mac Fontbook, so I don’t believe the amount of fonts is the issue but rather a problem reading fonts or something else entirely. Currently I am unable to work because of this issue …

[UPDATE] After ~15 minutes Illustrator (the application itself, not a file and currently I’m using version 30.4, though as mentioned, version 30.8.1 and 30.6 behaved exactly the same) managed to load. Something is not working correctly with the latest MacOS version.

[UPDATE 2] I had Claude analyse some log files, and it looks like a Wacom driver is hanging. Illustrator awaits a response from the Wacom driver, which never comes. So it looks like this is a problem on my local machine.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @jes98

Thanks for sharing your detailed observations. We have received similar reports from users about the Wacom drivers not working properly with macOS 27.0. You can try checking for updates to the driver or temporarily removing it to see if it helps resolve the problem.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

J

jes98

Participant

I removed the Wacom driver, and now everything works fine.

R

Rachilli

Inspiring

Similar issues on Mac (Tahoe 26.6.2- up to date)

Activity monitor from opening Illustrator 30.8.1, not a file, just the program

I had issues with fonts in the previous version and updated to fix that, but now my mac is working over time just opening Illustrator. I can’t have multiple Adobe programs open at once, and Illustrator often freezes or crashes. Hoping there’s a patch/update/fix soon.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Rachilli

I’m sorry to hear you’re having similar trouble with Illustrator. Would you mind trying the suggestions shared in this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/optimize-illustrator-performance.html) and let us know if they help?

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

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

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

B

BemBemAuthor

Participating Frequently

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

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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