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darthlobster
darthlobster
Known Participant
March 3, 2026
Answered

Legacy saving (CS5) not working properly

  • March 3, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 129 views

In the last few weeks, saving a file in Legacy Format (CS5) isn´t working properly.

A Colleague of mine still uses CS5 and I often save files for him.

Nowadays, files appear "corrupt" or "from a newer version", despite being simple designs, without any of the new features.

Anyone else experiencing this? Any solves?

 

Thank you

    Correct answer Abhishek Rao

    Hi everyone,

     

    Thank you for reporting this and for sharing your findings.

    This is a known issue, and the product team has confirmed that it has been addressed in the latest Illustrator Beta 30.4, available through the Creative Cloud Desktop app. The fix is related to a recently reported UserVoice issue where files saved to older versions such as CS6 or lower were throwing errors when opened in those legacy versions.

    You can view the related UserVoice report here:
    https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/51015220

    If possible, please install Illustrator Beta 30.4 and test saving down to CS5 again to verify whether the issue is resolved on your end.

     

    Looking forward to your update after testing the beta.

    Abhishek

    3 replies

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    March 3, 2026

    Hi everyone,

     

    Thank you for reporting this and for sharing your findings.

    This is a known issue, and the product team has confirmed that it has been addressed in the latest Illustrator Beta 30.4, available through the Creative Cloud Desktop app. The fix is related to a recently reported UserVoice issue where files saved to older versions such as CS6 or lower were throwing errors when opened in those legacy versions.

    You can view the related UserVoice report here:
    https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/51015220

    If possible, please install Illustrator Beta 30.4 and test saving down to CS5 again to verify whether the issue is resolved on your end.

     

    Looking forward to your update after testing the beta.

    Abhishek

    darthlobster
    darthlobsterAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 3, 2026

    Thank you. I’ll try it

      B
      Community Expert
      Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 3, 2026

      I’m starting to suspect something has been changed in the latest version of Illustrator in regard to how it writes data when saving down to legacy file formats. The sign making application Flexi is now having problems importing Adobe Illustrator files in legacy formats (even old versions like Illustrator 8). The artwork is simple (no fancy fills, effects, etc). Sometimes error messages are displayed. In other cases the process of importing the file is causing the Flexi application to crash. This problem is affecting multiple versions of Flexi. The only solution to get around the problem is using EPS or PDF as export/import formats instead.

      B
      BMinick
      Participant
      March 4, 2026

      I reported this same issue a few weeks ago. My vendor who used CS5 was getting an offending error when trying to open my legacy saved files after I updated to v30.2. One of his employees who had not run the latest update and was still using v30.1 was able to open my legacy saved file, resave and he could then open in CS5. After consulting with Adobe Illustrator support, they recommended back installing to v30.1 or older and that they were working on a fix.

        Doug A Roberts
        Community Expert
        Doug A RobertsCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        March 3, 2026

        Do the files seem normal in your version after downsaving?

        If so it might need someone with CS5 access to test if this is a generic problem with a new version or something specific to your setup.

          darthlobster
          darthlobsterAuthor
          Known Participant
          March 3, 2026

          Yes, files stay fine after saving. 
          I’ve found a workaround: Placing the artwork in an Indesign file and saving as IDML. My colleague was able to export to PDF and then open it in Illustrator. But it is a hassle, and only works in small stuff.
          It leads to believe that this is mostly due to the save in Illustrator, as Indesign doesn’t seem to have the issue.

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