Participant

Question

(Mac) Illustrator freeze on Startup with 29.7.1 Update

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
August 17, 2025
3 replies
949 views

Hello all! I've recently updated to 29.7.1 in Illustrator yet when opening, it freezes when reaching the gray hub screen (right after the package splash art popup). No options appear, just a blank screen and a spinning loading mouse wheel. What's worse is now going back to my older version (28.7.9) yield the same results. A frozen gray hub screen.

The main Adobe software I use (Photoshop and InDesign) do not experience this issue with their most recent update and Illustrator used to work on my system as of a few weeks ago, so I'm unsure how this occured...

System Specs: Macbook Pro 2021 w/ M1 MAX chip

I've look around on the discussion boards here and tried these methods to no success:

- Restarted computer (tried and true)
- Reinstalling app through Creative Cloud

- Tried older versions (28.4.1 & 28)
- Used the Creative Cloud Cleaner on Illustrator, then on all Adobe Software
- Manually removed Illustrator Preferences
- Repaired and reinstalled Creative Cloud through the Uninstaller
- "Cleaned" computer through CCleaner

Anyone else experiencing this issue or know of any solutions?

Bug

A

Alison5C81

Participant

I am experiencing the same issuse just with Illustrator and did everything you did listed above. I'd updated my MacOS to Tahoe on my MacBook Pro then update Illustrator, and still doesn't work. Is there a conflick with MacOS and Illustrator?

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Alison5C81,

Thanks for confirming. We have received reports of users having trouble with older Wacom drivers. Could you try manually reinstalling the Wacom device drivers (if any) (https://adobe.ly/42JlJlR) and let us know if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

GDHQ

Participant

thanks, i had same issue and removed wacom from mac, working completely fine

E

Ethereal_Lightning6196

Participant

I have the same exact issues and my IT team cant figure it out, so I reinstalled the previous version and that works fine, so it is definitely the update causing the problem - do better Illustrator!

A

ahoFuzeAuthor

Participant

From what I tested, it -sometimes- works in when running it in Safe Mode. However it's still a gamble whether it will actually run: Out of the 6 times I restarted the application, only once was I able to actually open a project.

Also, could you tell me what version you're currently running on? For some reason, this freezing issue impacts not only the newest update but now my previous versions (28.7.9 & 28.0). I ahven't tested others, but I'm willing to try!

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Adam34666245bmi2,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Could you share more details, like whether Illustrator crashes on launch or gets stuck on the loading screen? If it's the latter, could you share a screenshot of where the process freezes, so I can better assist you?

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

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

J

joely.tafanalo

Participant

Hi @ahoFuze i'm sorry to read bout your issues. Illustrator is «an old lady» and sometimes requires special care 😉

Did you try to install/open AI on a separate/new/fresh User on your Mac? If yo, does it work there?
Also it would be interesting to see, if Beta/Prerelease versions run well or not? Thanks.

A

ahoFuzeAuthor

Participant

Yes & no. I don't have a secondary Apple machine, but I do have access to Window machine and it seems to work fine on it. So just seems isolated to Macs or just my machine ƪ(‾ε‾“)ʃ

Also tried with the beta, but no success.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded