App freezes when battery is low

[studioliquorice]

Illustrator freezes when the battery on my MacOS laptop gets low. However, it freezes in such a way that MacOS doesn't realize that the app is frozen. I have to go into Force Quit Applications and quit it manually. It's so annoying, I lose work all the time and I got so many "recovered" files on my laptop now it's insane... 

[Monika Gause]

I cannot replicate that on my laptop. Going into low battery happens pretty frequently, but Illustrator doesn't crash.

The simple solution would be to just not let your laptop go into low battery. It's bad for the equipment anyway. And then maybe have your Macbook checked if there isn't anything else happening.

[studioliquorice]

Thanks for the reply Monika. I'm pretty sure it's not the laptop. I saw someone else post a similar thread on a different forum but they didn't find a solution either. 

[Monika Gause]

Have been in low battery at least twice since my last answer and Illustrator still didn't crash.

You might want to contact Customer Care and have them take a look into it.

https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html 

[emmac87911583]

It's not you - I've been experiencing it for the last coupld of months at least with my M1 . Autosave is very glitchy when it happens too, to the point where I have lost a good couple of hours of work when the battery drains to a low level when asleep (I open my mac and low and behold illustrator has crashed without realising its crashed autosave sometimes ignores open files). In response to Monica, Its unrealistic to always have your battery fully charged when you have a laptop, you need flexibility, its very easy to get sucked into creative work and forget everythign else (surely thats the whole point of the low power prompt - it just comes too late for illustrator) There's definately a glitch to resolve here.

[Monika Gause]

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@emmac87911583  schrieb:

 In response to Monica, 

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In response to you: as I already wrote: low battery is like my second nature. I'm having that all the time - including when I'm teaching. Illustrator has never crashed on that occasion. 

So it's either depending on the system - on my M1 I do not have Sonoma or it's something else interfering that I do not have installed.

[waycreative · Accepted solution]

I have had this issue since a few updates ago -- am on the latest update and still have the issue. When my battery gets to red, Illustrator stops responding but doesn't show up as (not responding). I have to force quit and pray everything is recovered after. Even when files are recovered, my images are missing and I have to go in and replace. This is very frustrating, and I know I am not the only one experiencing it.

[studioliquorice]

It's so frustrating. Haven't really found a solution yet other than not letting my battery get too low but sometimes it just happens when you're in the flow. 

[enozkan]

This has been happening to me, too.  My untested guess is that it has to do with (some of) the new arn64 version/M? chips.  I have an M1 Mac where this reliably happens when the battery goes to 2%.  Illustrator cannot recover and the only way to get it back is to quit.

[JackFlakes]

this is driving me insane. M1 Max Macbook Pro even with 64gb of memory this happens completely reliably any time the computer runs out of power or gets below 5-10% battery. no amount of time waited will get the app to respond.

[Agustina5C23]

Has anyone found a solution on this? I need helppp

[waycreative]

I have the same problem… would love to know if there’s a fix!

Sarah Presson

[enozkan]

This was a big problem, but with one of the latest updates, it seems to be resolved. Illustrator 2025 (v. 29.1 currently) does not freeze upon very low battery on Sequoia 15.1 on an M1 MacBook Pro, in my hands.

[megan_0088]

I have had this issue since about 5 updates ago -- have tried many approaches to fixing it but none have worked. It is incredibly frustrating to be losing work that is on autosave. when I manually quit and reopen, it seems to pick files to recover at random and even then it will be an older version of the file. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for what it recovers and what it doesn't, and if auto-save is on, there should be no reason data is being lost! I have called and written about this and still no fix -- 

[Monika Gause]

Do not ever rely on the File recovery function as your only safety measure.

It is not autosave. If the computer crashes while it is saving, the file is likely toast.

I've been using Illustrator with low battery for years. For me it's kind of normal to get a low battery warning but I've never lost a file because of it. Same goes for students I'm teaching.

[megan_0088]

I save my files aside from autosave but its set to sae every minute so that should be reliable. This is an issue many people have reported experiencing, so while I'm glad your battery can get low without you losing work, the same isn't true for me and others in this thread.

It's been happening for a long time, and it's frustrating to not have reassurance that there will be a fix. 

[Monika Gause]

Obviously this is not happening to everyone. 

In order to even think of a fix, the engineers need to be able to reproduce it.

Please report it to https://illustrator.uservoice.com That is the place to reach out to the engineers.

[megan_0088]

I have reported it multiple times to them, thank you.

If you yourself are not having this issue and you do not have a fix for it, then what is your reason for being in this discussion? You are not being helpful or saying anything meaningful to the people in here trying to get support. Is your goal to deny that we are having an issue? We're all here saying we are experiencing the same thing, nobody claimed "everyone" was experiencing it.

I am a Senior Designer in a small agency and rely on these programs for my livelihood - I am in an online community meant to raise flags and chat with others who are experiencing the same thing -- if you can't help with that or offer meaningful input, I recommend spending your time doing something that is more worthwhile.