[Critical Bug] Illustrator canvas disappears in both new and existing files

[Norfe3002]

Description

Illustrator has become unusable on my system — the issue affects both new and existing documents.

Problem Summary

• When I open Illustrator, the New Document dialog’s dropdown menus (Color Mode, Preset, etc.) often won’t open.

• If I manage to create a file (e.g., A4 CMYK), the artboard flashes briefly (≈1s) and then disappears.

• Opening existing .ai files shows the same behavior — Illustrator loads the workspace, but no artboard is visible and the UI dropdowns stop responding.

• GPU Performance is detected and enabled, but the canvas is blank or missing.

• The issue sometimes vanishes after rebooting, but always returns.

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System & Versions

• Windows 11 23H2

• Illustrator 2025 (v29.x) — also tested several older versions → same issue

• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti

• Driver: 32.0.15.8129

• No virtual adapters (OrayIddDriver removed)

• WebView2 reinstalled (Evergreen x64)

• Cache cleared:
  %AppData%\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 29 Settings\,
  %AppData%\Adobe\webview2\,
  %LocalAppData%\Adobe\webview2\

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Steps Tried (none fixed it)

1. Ran Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool and reinstalled everything.

2. Installed multiple Illustrator versions (same behavior).

3. Disabled all virtual GPUs.

4. Reset Illustrator preferences (Ctrl+Alt+Shift).

5. Cleared all cache folders and UXP data.

6. Forced DX11 mode:

   setx AI_FORCE_DX11 1

   → No effect.

7. Repaired / reinstalled WebView2 Runtime (no improvement).

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Expected

Artboard should display normally and dropdown menus should work in both new and existing files.

Actual

• Artboard flashes then disappears.

• UI dropdowns in the New Document window and toolbar menus stop responding.

• No crash dialog, only a blank workspace.

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Additional Info

• Attached: AdobeLogs.zip (created via Creative Cloud → Help → Create Log File).

• Ready to provide GPUSniffer.exe output or DxDiag if needed.

• The issue seems linked to WebView2 or GPU compositing initialization failure despite correct GPU detection.

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Questions

1. Is this a known WebView2/UXP rendering issue in Illustrator 2025?

2. Are there any registry flags or environment variables besides AI_FORCE_DX11 to fully reset rendering pipelines?

3. Could Adobe share the complete list of cache directories that should be purged for a clean reset?

4. Any way to manually rebind Illustrator to WebView2 or switch to a legacy UI engine?

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Norfe3002,

Thanks for the detailed breakdown and for sharing all your observations. Could you please try launching Illustrator with GPU Performance temporarily disabled from Preferences > Performance and let me know if the artboard becomes visible again?

Additionally, try renaming the CEP and UXP folders to refresh the interface components. Rename the CEP folder to CEP.old from this location:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe

If that doesn't help, rename the UXP folder to UXP.old from the following locations:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe

If the issue continues, please confirm whether your Windows display scaling is set above 100% or if you're using multiple monitors. Once you've tried these steps, please share your observations so I can check further.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

[Norfe3002]

Observations

• The issue disappears in Safe Mode → indicates conflict with a system component or background service.

• WebView2 Runtime (Evergreen x64) is correctly installed, but Illustrator behaves as if its embedded UI layer fails to initialize.

• Both the New Document dropdown menus and artboard rendering fail simultaneously — both depend on WebView2 (UXP interface).

• Therefore, this likely stems from WebView2 initialization or registry binding failure, not a GPU driver problem.

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Hypothesis

Illustrator’s artboard and UI components likely rely on Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime.
If WebView2 communication or registry binding fails, Illustrator still launches but displays a blank, unresponsive workspace.
Given that GPU detection and permissions are normal, the issue seems related to a WebView2 or UXP rendering pipeline conflict.

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Questions for the Adobe Engineering Team

1. Can you confirm whether Illustrator’s artboard/UI initialization depends on WebView2 Runtime?

2. Are there any known WebView2 registration or compatibility issues that could cause this blank canvas issue?

3. Besides AI_FORCE_DX11, are there any other environment variables or flags to reset the rendering pipeline?

4. Could WebView2 or a background process (security overlay, GPU telemetry, or system UI hook) interfere with Illustrator’s UI layer?

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System Information

• Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (Build 26100.6584)

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, driver 32.0.15.8129 (581.29)

• WebView2 Runtime: Evergreen x64 v141.x

• Three monitors, default DPI scaling 150%, 125%, and 100%; tested all at 100% with no improvement

• No virtual adapters or remote display drivers

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I’m happy to share Event Viewer logs, GPUSniffer output, or DxDiag reports if helpful.
Given that the issue is reproducible and isolated to this system, I believe it deserves escalation to the engineering or UXP team for further analysis.

Thank you again for your continued assistance and support.

Best regards,
Norfe

[Norfe3002]

Hi @Abhishek Rao,

Steps I’ve Completed

1. Renamed CEP and UXP folders under both Program Files and Program Files (x86) → No improvement.

2. Disabled GPU Performance under Preferences → Performance → No visible change; the canvas still disappears.

3. Display scaling tested:

   • My regular setup uses three monitors (one is a monitoring side screen).

   • Default scaling: 150%, 125%, and 100%.

   • I tested with all monitors set to 100% scaling → issue persists with no improvement.

4. Performed a full clean reinstallation using Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool:

   • Deleted all Adobe-related folders and registry entries.

   • Reinstalled Creative Cloud and Illustrator fresh.

5. Verified file permissions — local user and Administrators have Full Control over AppData\Roaming\Adobe.

6. Tested in Safe Mode:

   • Illustrator starts normally; artboard displays correctly.

   • “Save” and “Save As” dialogs appear blank (only “Save a Copy” works).

   • Files created in Safe Mode reopen as blank canvases in normal mode.

7. Tried older versions (v27.x, v28.x, v29.x) — all eventually show the same problem after some use; reinstalling doesn’t fix it.

8. Tested the same Adobe account on another Windows 11 laptop → works perfectly, proving it’s system-specific.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Norfe3002,

Thanks for the detailed update and for going through all those tests. Could you please try starting your system in a clean boot state and then launch Illustrator to see if the canvas loads correctly? This will help identify if any third-party startup service or driver might be causing the conflict.

You can follow the steps in this Microsoft article: How to perform a clean boot in Windows.

If possible, please also test Illustrator with only one primary monitor connected and share a short screen recording showing your workflow up to the point where the issue appears. 

Looking forward to your observation. 

Abhishek

[Norfe3002]

Hi @Abhishek Rao,

Thanks for your continued assistance.

I have already tested Illustrator under a Clean Boot environment following Microsoft’s official procedure.
However, the issue remains unresolved and could not be isolated through this method.

While performing a binary process isolation test, the behavior was highly inconsistent:

1. In some cases, enabling a specific group of third-party services caused the canvas to disappear again.But when I disabled those same processes individually, the issue did not revert to normal.
2. This suggests that the problem is not caused by a single service, but rather by interactions between multiple system components, possibly related to WebView2 or other UI rendering dependencies.

Interestingly, after further experimentation, I found one practical workaround:
when I disable the “Autosave Recovery” (Auto Save) feature in Illustrator’s preferences,
the canvas disappearance issue no longer occurs.

Thanks again for your time and support — I’m happy to provide logs or test specific builds if needed.

Best regards,
Norfe

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Norfe3002,

Thanks for all the detailed information you've shared. I've sent you a DM with the next steps and an action plan to help move this forward.

Please check your messages and follow the instructions there so we can assist you further.

Abhishek