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mat-z
Known Participant
Nov 2, 2026 10:28 PM UTC
Question

Illustrator is a mess- too many problems to describe

I’m extremely frustrated with Adobe and ESPECIALLY with Illustrator. Most of the Adobe Apps (Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator) are buggy, and Illustrator is pretty much an unusable hot mess. I posted about this last week, but only got one reply, which was just a question for me. So what’s wrong with Illustrator? Here goes (you might want to go grab a snack first, this will take a while):

  1. Cursor changes randomly to circle with crosshair no matter what tool is selected. After that, no tool works and only closing the program clears the issue. However, upon reopening, the problem reappears usually within minutes. Uninstalling/reinstalling Illustrator (even when not saving preferences) does not help. Neither does using an older version of Illustrator (yes, I tried that, too.)
  2. You can only rarely open files from the home dashboard. Usually you just get a red circle/slash icon
  3. Copy/paste only works occasionally. I doesn’t matter if you try it through the keyboard shortcuts or through the menu. You can “copy” but “paste” remains grayed out.
  4. After creating a new file (and, oh yeah...it doesn’t always let you create a new file. A lot of times the “new file” dialog box is blank), the layers act like they are locked even when they aren’t.

Sorry to unload, but I pay Adobe plenty and I expect these apps to at least work some of the time. I run a tight ship on my PC...I rarely install plug-ins and I don’t have ANY plug ins or extensions running with Illustrator. I’m using a PC with Windows 11 (clean install...no bloatware) and I am religious about keeping my machine free of bloat and malware. Lest anyone accuse me of being lazy.

64 GB Ram, Ryzen 7 5800 processor- plenty of power and memory.

I rarely have issues with other non-Adobe apps (eg Microsoft Office, my pen tablet software, etc.)

 

 

    4 replies

    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Nov 3, 2026 10:25 AM UTC

    Since the problems that you describe are not ones that are widely reported by other users it sounds to me like there is something going on with your system. What exact version of Illustrator and operating system are you using? If either are not the most up to date versions try updating them. Are you using any third party plug-ins for either Illustrator or your OS? If so try disabling them and see if the problems persist.

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    mat-zAuthor
    Known Participant
    Nov 3, 2026 4:15 PM UTC

    Thank you for your reply. As I said in my message above, I don’t use any third-party plug-ins or extensions with Illustrator. In fact, I use very few of those kinds of things system-wide (remember I said I run a tight ship). I do use some plug-ins for Photoshop, but Photoshop, while sometimes buggy, generally runs acceptably and I’ve used the plug-ins for years with no major issues. Additionally, the problems started with the newest version of Illustrator (v. 30.8.2). I tried several older versions (different versions of 29) and had similar issues. My operating system, Windows 11 v. 26H2, is up-to-date.

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    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Anubhav MCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    Nov 3, 2026 4:30 PM UTC

    Hello @mat-z,

     

    Sorry to hear you’re hitting several issues at once in Illustrator. Let’s take them one at a time. Could you try the following and let us know how you get on?

    • Cursor changing randomly: Reboot into Safe Mode (Windows), launch Illustrator, and see whether it still happens.
    • Files not opening: Could you check whether this affects all files or only ones in certain locations, such as an internal, external or network drive, or a cloud-synced folder like Google Drive or Dropbox?
    • Blank screen: Close all Adobe apps, then rename the UXP folder to UXP.old at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\UXP (Windows), and relaunch Illustrator.

    Looking forward to hearing from you.

    Anubhav

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