Fonts changing in files when opened in Illustrator 29.5.1

[Lavish_coder1549]

I've experienced this twice now, both times in the last month. I design beer labels and I'll often open an older label and use it as the template for a new one. When I open the older file (an .AI file), it will load, and most of the live text will have switched to a different font arbitrarily. Some fonts switch to OTHER typefaces that exist in the same document, others switch to different weights of the same font, and still others switch to defaults like times and myriad.  Some of the switched fonts are stored locally, and others are served via Adobe Fonts. The file does this consistently even after I've restarted illustrator and restarted my computer. 

I've attached a screenshot of one of the files with its original fonts (from an outlined version for print), as well as a shot with the changed fonts.

Has anyone else experienced this?

System:

2022 Mac Studio M1 Max

MacOS Sonoma 14.6.1

Illustrator v 29.5.1

[corstiaanz34298854]

This is beyond me.

on June 12 (and I was not the first to address this major bug) I posted the following on illustrator.uservoice.com (via Creative cloud app/help/Ask the community):

In Adobe Illustrator version 29.5.1, the font Basic Sans (an Adobe font) is unexpectedly being replaced by Times New Roman without any warning.

Strangely, this font replacement does not occur throughout the entire document—some instances of Basic Sans remain unchanged.

Additionally, when previewing the file using Quick Look, the font appears correctly and is not replaced in the preview.

We are working on the latest Mac minis, and a colleague on a PC is experiencing the exact same issue. This affects our clients entire portfolio.

After reverting to Illustrator version 29.4, the problem no longer occurs.

This is (for us) a critical issue, as we supply these files to agencies and printing companies worldwide for local adaptation.

4 days (!) later I got a request:

Egor Chistyakov (Admin, Adobe Illustrator) commented  ·  June 16, 2025 10:17 PM  ·  Report

Corstiaan, can you please package the document and share it with the team, along with font used (if possible)? Send it over to sharewithai@adobe.com

I discussed this with my client and they agreed to share the files so I did, on Juny 17. 

On July 9 I sent Egor an email asking if there was any news on this subject

Haven’t heard a thing from Adobe… oh wait we did get invoiced for July and August, no bug in the invoicing system!

Why haven’t you reached out immediately, when you could not replicate this?

How is it possible that we can replicate this on our Macs, 

on our clients Macs (not in our network) 

and on a PC (also outside our local network)?

[Doug A Roberts]

What is the uservoice link?

[corstiaanz34298854]

Hi Doug,

I didn’t mean to put a link there—I was just citing where I first posted,

best regards,

Corstiaan

[Doug A Roberts]

It would be useful for others in this thread if you included a link to the Uservoice issue.

[corstiaanz34298854]

This is the link to the thread where I first posted (via the creative cloud app/help/ask the community) :

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/49871712-fonts-...

[Doug A Roberts]

I have also seen this report with more detailed steps to reproduce:

Illustrator randomly substitutes fonts even though they are installed (works fine in older versions)...

[thebronxdaddy]

I want to show you one screenshot hoping it will help you in debugging this. This file was save with 29.7.1. I reverted back to 29.0 now. Even if I open with 29.0, the problem still exists. But I noticed something funny. As you can see when I move the cursor on the text, eventhough the fonts are displayed incorrectly (very wide), the underline that indicates the cursor over shows the correct width of the original fonts. This means Illustrator still recognizes the original fonts but just displays the wrong one. I hope this helps in some way.

[daring_individual08441]

Hello, The font issue with Illustrator has not been resolved yet, and we are now into October. Every document I open has this issue of "missing fonts" although all of the fonts are installed in Adobe Fonts. I have tried to install the earlier version of  Illustrator via Creative Cloud and it won't let me. This needs to be fixed. It is unfortunate that an issue this widespread was not identified before the new version of the app was released.

[k9tag]

Anubhav M  ==>  Users are still reporting the random font substitution bug in Illustrator on the Mac and on the PC, in versons 29.5.x, 29.6.x,  and 29.7.x,  from all over the world, with translations even required to read the posts from users in Spain and Japan for example.... and the Adobe team can not replicate the issue in San Jose after a couple of months worth of worldwide input?  I think that I can speak for the world when I say that's quite unfathomable.  How about this: fly three or four of us out to San Jose and put us up at the Westin for a few days, and we can bring the Illustrator random font substitution bug to you at Adobe headquarters with our multiple windows laptops and Macbook Pros.  You will then be able to replicate the issue in spades on your end, and just maybe find a solution. 

[Leyva]

Well said my friend!




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[Miriam Mabel3677316339wf]

I´ve had the same issue for a month now, and I´ve changed manually the fonts but it keeps changing enverytime i open my file. How can i solve this problem?

[Randy_111]

Try going back to 29.4, it seems to be last bug free version before this mess started.

[JodyRadzik]

Downgrade to version 29.4.

[kiml66753721]

It's still happening in 29.4 for me

[kiml66753721]

I am having the same issue in version 29.7.1

[k9tag]

Downgrade to 29.4 and your Illustrator life will be back to flowers and unicorns.  Any version beyond that is hosed until they fix the devastating random font substitution bug, which they have thus far been unable to fix for at least two months and counting.

[JodyRadzik]

Don't worry, I suspect they have their artificial intelligence working really hard on it. 🙄

[kiml66753721]

I downgraded to 29.4 and it is still happening with files that didn't have this issue before, not just the ones I opened in 29.7

[raviraj_8074]

I created a mailer in Illustrator with around 10–12 artboards and exported everything perfectly with the correct fonts. When I reopened the same file after two days to make changes, all the fonts had changed automatically, some text had disappeared, and the layout no longer matched my earlier exported JPGs. The fonts were installed and displaying correctly at the time of the first export, so the issue only appeared after reopening the saved file. I’ve attached the before/after GIF to show the difference.

[JodyRadzik]

Welcome to the nightmare that is using Adobe Illustrator now. This issue has plagued hundreds of designers worldwide for the past few months without any satisfactory resolution.

[Graffikker-67]

It's quite unbelievable that Adobe are unable to fix such a devastating fault in Illustrator, and even moreso that they are "we are unable to replicate the issue on our end".

[martin25141082gjhg]

If you delete the latest updates and reopen the file in 29.4 it often resets?

Thes is a major problem for an industry that has propped up Adobe for many years.

And Adobe are so incompadent thay continue to promote the updates after 29.4 despite the fact that the program is broken?

Adobe please dedicate some time and money to this!

[Alexander Rott]

This is still an issue??! I rolled back to 29.4 and haven't checked this thread for a while. 

[kiml66753721]

Unfortunately, yes. Adobe responded on 8/18 that they're still working on it 😞

[fluke-d]

Still happens in 29.8.0 - just did a screen capture opening a file – save as to desktop and then reopening the newly saved version. Fonts are changed and tracking displayed incorrectly.