Using Illustrator 30.8.2, how do i force open a file in outline mode?

Hi ​@roberte98616291,

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Harshika

​@roberte98616291 It truly sounds like that drop shadow is definitely corrupted or maybe Illustrator is having a reading problem with a transparency or raster effect. 

Try this, instead of opening the file in Illustrator, ‘Place’ the file in Illustrator. I used to do this with ‘funky’ files, and have flattened the transparency as well.

Also you can even try opening the Illustrator file in Acrobat and re-save the file under a different name but as a PDF, and then open the new file in Illustrator. 

Hopefully one of these tricks works! 

I don’t think there is a way to make Illustrator open files in outline view by default. How large is the file in terms of megabytes (or gigabytes)? Is it a file with large format content?

If you haven’t already tried, it might be worth going into Preferences (Ctrl+K) and experimenting with some settings. I’d try disabling anti-aliased artwork under the General tab and maybe switching between GPU Preview and CPU Preview. Try disabling Real Time Drawing as well. It’s possible those settings might make enough of a difference to allow the file to open. Obviously I’d close any other applications running in the background. Web browsers can be a real memory hog.

If none of those steps work you might try importing the Illustrator file using the Place command, particularly if it was saved with the PDF compatibility default enabled. If it is brought in as a linked file various portions of it might be able to be recovered using the Flatten Transparency command.