Illustrator CS3 won't fully start on OSX Sierra 10.12.5

Question

I had reinstalled from a fresh download of CS3 Design Standard after AI began telling me that my trial period had ended (I bought CS3 8 years ago). The reinstall cleared up that problem, but now AI refuses to start up fully.

I deleted the preferences file. Starting by double-clicking on the app, AI shows its Splash screen — but it's behind the foreground app, e.g. Finder. The splash goes away, and the app can't be switched to (made active with its name in upper left of screen) via, e.g., ctrl-tab or clicking on the Dock icon. No palettes appear. AI is using minimal CPU time per Activity Monitor. Can be quit from the Dock.

I tried moving out of the way all the contents of /Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS3 Settings/ and nothing changed. All those files were recreated though.

When I start by double-clicking on a .AI file, the file opens (behind the foreground app) but no palettes appear. AI still can't be made active. Can be quit from the Dock but obviously cmd-Q doesn't work because the app is not getting any of the input.

wrensauer · Accepted Answer

Hi Keith,It's generally not recommended that you run an older software version like CS3 on a newer OS like Sierra. Under our system requirements page for CS3, only up to OS X Leopard is officially supported. System requirements | Adobe IllustratorIt may prove difficult to get CS3 working 100% unless you install an older OS.Let us know if we can help with anything else!Best,Wren

desisn.com · Answer

Check the solution in this thread:

Illustrator CS3 crashes after Yosemite upgrade

Open System Preferences > Java
Wait for the Java Control Panel to load
Open Adobe Illustrator (while keeping the Java Control Panel window open)

The user has also posted a script (just add this code into Script Editor - preinstalled in OS X - and save as an application):

tell application "System Preferences"

activate

set current pane to pane "Java"

end tell

tell application "System Events"

repeat until exists process "Java Control Panel"

delay 1

end repeat

quit

end tell

delay 2

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

activate

end tell

tell application "System Preferences" to close every window

do shell script "killall java"

Putting this app in the dock automatically opens system prefs and the Java Control Panel and after that starts Illustrator and closes system preferences again. Works very well for me under 10.11 (El Capitan). Menu and everything works as it should.

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