Known Participant

Question

Illustrator Crashes Constantly/Randomly

Forum|Forum|2 months ago
February 4, 2026
5 replies
222 views

On Windows 11 and Mac Tahoe.

In the average 8 hour day, Illustrator crashes on me 8-12 times. I lose about 30 minutes to an hour of work everyday. No specific error, sometimes I get the error report screen, sometimes not. Sometimes it recovers, sometimes not. I even have Astute Saviour installed to help stay on top of saving, but since Illustrator won’t auto save while a group is isolated to edit it, then I can be editing within a group for 15 minutes without an autosave, and then I just lose it all and have to start over. Constantly throughout the day. Why not let it save while in a group, why does it kick me out of the group when I save? This feels like an easy fix and more of a secure way to make sure autosaves actually happen.

I have grown to absolutely despise Illustrator.
Photoshop almost never crashes on me. And Illustrator crashes on both Mac and PC platforms.
I’ve gone through all suggested fixes, and it still just crashes...constantly. (update GFX, disable GFX performance , purge settings, reinstall, CC cleanup tool etc etc)

I’ve been using Adobe products for over 24 years now, and Illustrator is the worse it’s ever been stability wise. Like, do you have the B team on Illustrator, what is going on?

Maybe instead of putting all the effort into generative AI garbage, maybe put it into a stable build?

It’s a testament to how a software monopoly breeds laziness and incompetence.

Dee217967147h6k

Participant

I am also getting REALLY tired of Illustrator crashing, I have lost count on how many times I had to reboot today, I am starting to turn away work that has ANYTHING to do with ILLUSTRATOR!!!!

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Dee217967147h6k,

Sorry to hear about the frequent crashes, I understand how frustrating that can be, especially when it impacts your work. Could you please confirm the exact Illustrator version and OS details you’re using so I can check this further on my end?

Also, please let me know if the app crashes on launch or while working on a document, and whether it happens when using any specific tool or effect.

I checked for any submitted crash reports associated with your community email but couldn’t find any. If you do see the Adobe Crash Reporter, please submit the report and share the email used via DM so I can review the logs. You can refer to this guide: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/crash-next-steps.html?linkId=100000357094820

Additionally, could you confirm if you’re working with files stored on a network location, external drive, or cloud storage? If so, please try working locally and see if that makes a difference. Also, let me know if this happens with specific files or across all files.

You can also try isolating the issue using these guides and share your observations:
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/fix-crash-on-launch-issues.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/troubleshoot-file-issues.html

If the issue still persists, please try testing in Safe Mode to isolate any third-party applications that might be causing this:
Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234
macOS: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac

Let me know how it goes.

Abhishek

C

CocoTafoya

Participating Frequently

Same was happening to me. It would not only shut down illustrator, but my entire computer would shut down and restart - no auto save on my end either. It would also shut down Chrome randomly. The only fix was reinstalling 2025, and it has not happened since. I’d like to use the latest software (since I pay for it), but I don’t want to go through that again!

creative explorer

Community Expert

@CocoTafoya I 100% agree with you that if you are paying for the latest and greatest, you expect things to work!

m

creative explorer

Community Expert

@JthreeConcepts status update? Curious!

m

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

Aside from the trouble shooting measures that apply directly to Illustrator (resetting Preferences, reinstalling, etc.) if I have an application that is behaving badly I’ll also do some clean-up work on the computer’s operating system and optimize the boot disc. Windows is famous for letting all sorts of junk files build up.

It’s also possible for other applications and attached peripherals such as a graphics tablet to cause trouble with Illustrator. A couple or so years ago a bad tablet driver from Wacom would cause Illustrator to not just crash; the application window would just disappear. I had to roll back to an earlier driver. Check any other installed applications for updates. Even if the applications aren’t running they may have processes that are loaded in start up (there are ways to disable that).

J

JthreeConceptsAuthor

Known Participant

Since your comment I:

Disabled Wacom.
Purged Preferences

Nothing helped

Went in and unistalled every single peice of Adobe software, cleared folders.
Reinstalled.
Crashed today and lost an hour of work.

I explained what I had tried in the original post.

It crashes after I copy and paste something.
After I manually move an artboard
Holding space and moving screen around
Looking at something on screen without doing anything.

There is zero consistency to it.

I’m incredibly frustrated now. Just in the last 3 days I’ve lost hours of work in total.

creative explorer

Community Expert

@JthreeConcepts try clearing your Illustrator Preferences (maybe a corrupted preferences). If you open your Illustrator Preferences (Command K for the MAC) or Control K (for the PC) — there should be a button that says ‘reset preferences’ (can’t place an image for some weird reason!). Go ahead and click on that. It will reset everything back to it’s default just as you brand new Illustrator so any custom set-ups will be gone (save that if you do to save some time setting up)

And if you feel even adventours on a MAC, I would also select all the contents in the Preferences folder (Library-Preferences-Double click and select all, and hit delete). Empty the trash. And restart your MAC, it will generate new preferences for the whole MAC. I did that, OMG, it runs so much faster. I once had 17 gigs of data, down to 384kb!

m

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