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Problems with placed images in Illustrator 2026

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
February 11, 2026
34 replies
1141 views

This is getting ridiculous. It has gotten worse with every update. From version 30.1 it has constantly corrupted the save preview with any placed images. Even placing photoshop files does not work. The placed image will either be completely out of place or just will not show up in the preview unless you embed the image. Place the .AI file in Indesign? Nope, the image isn't there. You have to manually embed it every time which, besides being an annoying extra step, it just bloats the file size. I am also getting “there is not enough memory” errors when placing small photoshop files.

I have reset the Illustrator preferences and that did not help.

Please stop adding all kinds of useless features and get this program stabilized and reliable again.

performance

Correct answer Anubhav M

Hello everyone,

The product team has fixed this with the latest release of Illustrator. Kindly update Illustrator using the Creative Cloud Desktop app (https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/apps/manage-apps/creative-cloud-apps/update-creative-cloud-apps-automatically.html) and let us know how it goes.

Anubhav

Note: Marking correct for visibility.

P

piotrl14770097

Participant

26/08/2026 update 30.8 - GPU preview completely corrupts placed AI file with gradients, gradient meshes and feather effects, while CPU preview works correctly but sluggish and not AA.

Additionally moving while moving anything without live drawing option, bounding boxes, guides and anything relevant disappears and all placed images turn into outline preview mode (bounding box, crossed out) making it impossible to align anything.

NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada, CUDA 12.8, 573.44 drivers

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @piotrl14770097

I’m sorry to hear about your experience. Could you please share the following information to be able to help you with this scenario:

1. AiSniffer file:
- Close all Adobe applications.
- Navigate to the Illustrator Preferences folder and copy the AiSniffer file to the desktop from this location:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 30 Settings\en_US\x64\

2. For the System Report, kindly follow these steps:
- Please press Windows Key + the letter "R" on your keyboard to bring up the Run command window
- Type "msinfo32" in the Open field and left-click OK
- While viewing the Microsoft System Information summary, go to File, then choose Save (Please do not use Export)
- Save your MSINFO32 report as "msinfo32.nfo" on your desktop to easily locate it after. It can take up to a minute to generate a report.

3. A sample AI file

Kindly upload the files to Google Drive/Dropbox/etc. and share a public link here or via DM so that we can investigate this further.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

M

mattr95818645

Participant

I am having this issue with Illustrator 2026 Version 30.7

Linked images are not linked. They show up in Illustrator but when that file is placed in InDesign the linked images just show up blank. The Illustrator link palet shows the missing image as ZERO bytes.

Even the Finder thumbnail does not show the linked images.

Beyond frustrating. I have gone back to Illustrator 2025 version 29.8.10. Hopefully that works.

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BrianFirth3373658Author

Participating Frequently

OMG just updated to 30.7. STILL NOT FIXED!!!! Come on Adobe.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @BrianFirth3373658

I’m sorry to hear you’re still having trouble with this. Would it be possible for you to have a debug session with us? If yes, please send me your Adobe ID, country and time zone, phone number with country code, and preferred dates and times between Monday and Friday in a private message.

To send a private message, click my profile picture and use the Send message button.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

Anubhav M

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hello everyone,

The product team has fixed this with the latest release of Illustrator. Kindly update Illustrator using the Creative Cloud Desktop app (https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/apps/manage-apps/creative-cloud-apps/update-creative-cloud-apps-automatically.html) and let us know how it goes.

Anubhav

Note: Marking correct for visibility.

B

BrianFirth3373658Author

Participating Frequently

The issue has not been fixed. I am on Illustrator version 30.5.1 that came out at least 17 days ago. There are no new updates available.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @BrianFirth3373658,

Thank you for the update, and I'm sorry to hear that you're still experiencing this issue.

I wanted to let you know that a similar issue was previously identified and fixed by the product team. For reference, please see this UserVoice report:
Files saved are missing images when imported into Photoshop, InDesign, other apps

Since you're reporting similar behavior on Illustrator 30.5.1, I have logged a new bug and shared the details with the product team for further investigation.

To help us better understand and reproduce the issue, could you please share either a screen recording or screenshots demonstrating the problem? Ideally, the recording should show the artwork displaying correctly in Illustrator and then incorrectly in Finder, Photoshop, InDesign, or any other application where the issue appears.

Additionally, if possible, please share the affected Illustrator file saved in Illustrator 30.5.1. For testing purposes, please package the file first via File > Package and then share the packaged folder.

If the file contains confidential content, feel free to send it to me via DM using a cloud-sharing service such as Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer, or a similar platform.

The screen recording/screenshots and packaged file will be extremely helpful in assisting the product team with their investigation.

Thank you in advance for your assistance, and I look forward to your response.

Thanks,
Abhishek

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BrianFirth3373658Author

Participating Frequently

2 Months later and several updates later and this issue persists. Still placed images in a new document do not save properly and you have to reopen each file and resave. Ridiculous.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @BrianFirth3373658

I’m sorry to hear you’re still having trouble with this. Our team has tried fixing this issue with the Illustrator 30.3 release. Would you mind opening your affected files and resaving them in the latest version of Illustrator to see if the problem persists?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

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BrianFirth3373658Author

Participating Frequently

I am actually on version Illustrator 30.4 on Mac Tahoe 26.5 now and the problem persists. Placed images in a NEW illustrator file save with preview completely displaced and must be reopened and resaved to correct. This has been ongoing since late in version 29 updates and has severely affected my workflow.

S

selfbuildtype

Inspiring

This the worst bug I’ve ever seen in Illustrator. This release is very prone to crashing also.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @selfbuildtype

I’m sorry to hear you’re having similar trouble with Illustrator. Could you please confirm the versions of the OS/Illustrator installed, and share a brief screen recording of your exact workflow and the problem so we can check this with the team?

For help with crashes, please try the suggestions shared in this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/fix-crash-on-launch-issues.html) and let us know how it goes.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

S

selfbuildtype

Inspiring

Bug is still present in Illustrator 30.3.0 under macOS Sequoia 15.7.4. Discovered in the previous version of Illustrator. No need for a screen recording, this bug is very easy to recreate as is evidenced by all the other posts here.

D

defaultht2t06b1rtot

Participant

Very annoying. Having the same issue here.

efficient_Radiance0D4C

Participant

I'm having the same problem. The program is completely buggy. Whether zooming in or changing a color in the toolbar, each two actions result in a different bug. It's a shame that they deliver a product like this.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @efficient_Radiance0D4C

I’m sorry to hear you’re having similar trouble with Illustrator. Could you please confirm the versions of the OS/Illustrator installed, and share a brief screen recording of your exact workflow and the problem so we can check this with the team?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

Mi3k3

Participant

I’m having the same problem here. Placed images in Illustrator show nicely in Illustrator but do not show in the finder preview and when I place the illustrator file in Photoshop. I’ve attached three screenshots: 1 Preview in Illustrator, 2 Preview in finder and 3 Preview in Photoshop. All the same file and non of the linked images in the Illustrator file are missing. As you can see the branch behind the pomegranate has suddenly disappeared. It happens at random which is super frustrating 😖. Sometimes it helps to resave the image with a new name but not always. Please fix this as it makes Illustrator unreliable and slows my workflow drastically as I have to double check if everything is there.

Mi3k3

Participant

For those who encounter the same problem. It looks like I’ve got a quick fix for this problem (albeit not optimal as you still have to check every illustration): in Illustrator select the linked image that doesn’t show in the preview and in the links panel click once on the ‘update link’ button. Nothing changes visually but when you save the file the image magically reappears in the preview and in photoshop.

For those wondering if the placed image was missing to begin with: no it was not.

Mi3k3

Participant

Another thing I just noticed. The colour profile of the missing placed images in Illustrator were Adobe RGB instead of the Illustrator sRGB profile. I changed the profile of the placed images to sRGB and they appeared again in the previews. Hopefully now for good as they kept disappearing after clicking on the ‘update link’ button.

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Christophe27368429rhrm

Participant

Hi,
Our entire studio is having the same issue on Illustrator 2026. Linked images may disappear on the PDF part that is saved in the .ai file.
The preview and the .ai file are showing two different things. The problem is that our workflow use the PDF file for ripping and therefore we have lots of issues with it !

Hope I can record it next time.

It could be as easy as, opening file, link an image, save and close. The ‘preview’ pdf is wrong so you open the .AI and the .AI is correct ...

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