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Illustrator is crashing nonstop

Forum|Forum|2 months ago
April 19, 2026
8 replies
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Hi all, two days ago my Illustrator started crashing nonstop and I have not been able to resolve it. I have tried tech support for my computer, uninstalling and reinstalling the program, reverting back to a previous version, using Creative Cloud Cleaner, resetting preferences and just about every possible fix I have found online and I am at such a loss.

This is happening with files of any size. It crashes if I place or edit the size of a shape, edit text, copy and paste things, move around the toolbars to accommodate my workflow. It basically crashes after I try doing anything in any size file, both new and old files. Sometimes I’ll get an error message saying it needs to close and sometimes it just freezes and closes. Sometimes it lets me work for ten minutes tops before crashing again. It’s completely unusable. I work with an Asus Proart and Windows if that’s any help, so it’s not an issue of the system not meeting the requirements since the laptop is quite literally made to handle design programs. What else can I try?

Correct answer Colin.studio

I have found the cause of the crashing, windows 11 security update (KB5083769). I uninstalled that and now my illustrator is running fine again.

N

Nicholas Rumbelow

Participating Frequently

Processor: i9-14900K, 3200 Mhz, 24 Cores, 32 Logical Processors
Installed Physical Memory (RAM): 128 Gb
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (studio driver) – 12Gb of GDDR7
800+Gb available SSD

This is just so very depressing. What's happened to Adobe? I’ve been such a big fan since Photoshop 3.0 in 1994, and you enabled me to have a wonderful career, but 32 years later I can no longer champion my once-favourite any more.

I used to adore Illustrator, but over the last few months I've come to hate it very deeply, and no matter how (if) this is ever resolved, I will absolutely not use it for any new work, it would be professionally foolish to trust them. I'm not sure if Adobe's reputation will recover, because they seem to be inadvertently destroying mine and that of other artists, and alternatives are beckoning loudly.

This problem happens countless times every day, and I thought it was somehow my fault until I read these posts, and found that SO many people are experiencing the exact same issue, and the same feelings, and the replies all seem to be the same. So much of my time is now spent recovering and protecting my work, looking for and trying new solutions, and deadlines keep getting trashed.

I have a fairly hi-spec Windows 11 system, maxed-out at 128Gig RAM, way more than required. The only thing that has changed is Illustrator, so is the problem with Adobe or are we all collectively wrong? I've seen NVIDIA drivers being blamed, but surely Adobe would have checked that it works with the most popular graphics cards, and visa-versa?

I keep hoping a solution will be found, but it feels like my time with Illustrator is most definitely coming to an end. Reading the replies does not fill me with the confidence that it will ever be stable again. The perception is that the issue just gets passed back at the users, while Adobe develop more ways to charge more. I just cannot go on like this, all day, every day, over and over and over and over … it's over!

There's no rhythm to the crashes, each crash is different, sometimes it recovers, often it doesn't. Very often it completely shuts the whole system down, making open files vulnerable to being destroyed, especially PS. Sometimes it just randomly closes, but it's usually the freeform gradient, as that's my most-used tool.

I have spent the last couple of weeks trying so very many “solutions”, I even performed a clean re-installation of Windows. One tip suggested it's Bitdefender mistaking Illustrator's activity as suspicious, which doesn't make sense to me but I tried it anyway, just desperate to get back to my work.

The delays that this is causing is actually distressing, but my frustration has lost its enthusiasm and now it's just very, very sad, I'm losing a friend who costs me a lot of money, and who now asks for extra payments just for using some of the features (which I’ll never, ever use). That's not how friends treat each other.

How about making the AI features a separate app, and just leave a version of just good-old vectors with traditional functions and stability? Generating isn't illustrating, it's something else, I just want to draw my pretty pictures and enjoy the creative process, but it feels like a long time since it flows, it's not a positive experience, far from it, and despite all the new features, Illustrator is not value for money if it can’t be used.

R.I.P. Illustrator?
p.s. we miss you.

paulm83

Participant

Hi All

It seems this issue is being listed everywhere with no consistent fix? Illustrator is now up to crashing at least three times a day, ever since a previous update 4+ weeks ago. It was totally fine prior to then. The standard machine in use is Macbook Pro, 16gb ram, Mac OS 15.7.5 (24G624) M1 Pro. Illustrator version v30.4. I have restarted the machine multiple times, and checked the perfomance settings. We’ve lost a lot of time to this issue, and currently exploring other options outside illustrator as its simply not stable at the moment.

Is there any sign of a wider update fix for this coming?

All the best

Paul

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hi @paulm83,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, crashes mid-work are genuinely disruptive, and we'd like to help you isolate the cause as quickly as possible.

There are two parallel steps that usually move things forward:

Work through the crash troubleshooting guide - it covers the most common causes and fixes: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/fix-crash-on-launch-issues.html
Submit the crash report using your Adobe email address so the team can correlate it with your account, then share the crash report here for quick tracking. The steps are here: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/crash-next-steps.html

Please share what you observe and the crash report details once submitted. If any of this resolves the issue, kindly mark the helpful reply as the correct answer to help other users facing similar crashes.

Thanks for your patience as we work through this.

Anubhav

oliviasbrown

Participant

I’m having the exact same problem and so are all my work colleagues! Illustrator was working great 2 days ago and then all of a sudden it kept crashing, freezing when trying to save any illustrator file in any size. We all updated illustrator software, mac software and it still hasn’t helped! 2 of our macs after doing all the updates eventually are saving after a fair few hours from the updates but it takes forever to save and still crashes! Please help

Harshika Verma

Community Manager

Hi oliviasbrown,

We understand how frustrating this experience can be, and we appreciate you bringing it to our attention. We’ll do our best to investigate the issue.

To get started, could you please share a few more details about your setup, specifically your operating system and the version of Illustrator you’re using? Also, if you haven’t already, please submit the crash report, as it helps the product team identify the root cause more effectively.

In the meantime, we recommend trying the steps outlined in this article and letting us know if you notice any improvement.

Additionally, as you mentioned, the issue is affecting your colleagues as well. If you’re on a Teams or Enterprise plan, it would be helpful to connect with your admin and have them raise a support ticket through the Admin Console: https://adobe.ly/3Yr57fT
If you’re the admin, you can reach out directly here: https://adobe.ly/3Uowp5y

We’re here to support you through this, please keep us posted, and we’ll continue assisting you until the issue is resolved.

Thanks,
Harshika

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @natalia_gt @Colin.studio @InesJorge

I understand how frustrating it can be to encounter crashes in the middle of work. Would you mind trying the suggestions shared in this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/fix-crash-on-launch-issues.html) and checking if it helps? Also, kindly submit the crash report using your Adobe email address and share it here for quick tracking. Steps are shared here: (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/crash-next-steps.html). We appreciate your time and patience as we work to resolve this issue.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

natalia_gtAuthor

Participant

I tried all of that, nothing worked. Still crashing

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @natalia_gt

I’m sorry to hear the suggestions did not help. Please submit the crash report using your Adobe email address and share it here for quick tracking so we can investigate this further with the product team. Steps are shared here: (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/crash-next-steps.html).

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

The Asus ProArt is a touch-screen notebook, correct? I remember a similar problem a couple or so years ago involving a bad Wacom tablet driver. The Adobe Illustrator program window would vanish around a minute after launching the application. I had to use an older Wacom graphics tablet driver for a few months until Wacom rolled out an update for their Windows driver that finally addressed the issue.

I would check for any firmware updates for the Asus ProArt notebook. If everything is current it might be necessary to roll back to an earlier version (if that’s possible). I’m wondering if there were any updates to the notebook hardware or the operating system that coincided with the Illustrator crashes that have been happening.

natalia_gtAuthor

Participant

Yes it’s a touchscreen! I’m pretty sure the issues started after a system update though I can’t say with 100% certainty whether it was a Windows update or a ProArt specific update. I checked if I could go back to the previous Windows update but wasn’t able to but I’ll check on the ProArt side of the updates, thanks!

Everything else works fine on my computer, no other program is crashing which is very odd so I wonder if that update has something that’s only messing with Illustrator?

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

When I was dealing with the Wacom graphics tablet driver issue Illustrator was the only app I knew of being affected. Aside from driver updates it might be worth checking the notebook’s touch screen settings to see if Windows Ink Workspace is enabled. I usually keep that setting disabled on my graphics tablet setup. Windows Ink does some very annoying things that make me quickly lose my temper.

InesJorge

Participant

Same Same. It’s been a pain and impossible to work. Just kept loosing working ours on the last 2 weeks.

Colin.studio

Inspiring

I am having the same issue. I have been sending my crash reports to adobe anytime it lets me, but I’m not convinced that anyone reads those.
I’m working on a Dell XPS 15 9520 with Windows 11. I have updated illustrator to the latest version and all my computer drivers are up to date. I’ve tried reinstalling, resetting preferences, deleting cache, and its still randomly crashing throughout the day.

Colin.studio

Inspiring

i went back through all my past install folders of illustrator and deleted all caches, plugins, scripts and preferences and now my illustrator seems stable. Also reinstalled Illustrator 30.2 instead of the newest one.

Edit: It’s still crashing

natalia_gtAuthor

Participant

Yep, I tried all the same things and it seemed to work for a few minutes longer but I’m lucky if I get to work 10 minutes without a crash. It’s usually less than 5 minutes

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Which system and hardware is it?

Do you have any third party plugin installed?

Do you have a Wacom driver installed?

Do you have font management installed?

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