Help! Illustrator 2021 Won't Load

[bogwood]

Since I updated to Illustrator 2021 (Mac), the program just freezes on the loading screen

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling using the Creative Cloud app twice and also tried the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool

Nothing has worked so far.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

[mikey_likes_it]

Installed Big Sur a few days ago and had no real issues with Illustrator. Was there a lag in the program loading, sure. But it always loaded up, until today. It just crashed and now it is frozen on loading. Multiple attempts to restart, remove prefs, uninstall Illustrator and reinstalling has not fixed it. It is frozen even after asking to run a diagnosis. It is just sitting there. HELP!!!! Please FIX asap.

[ZombiiCake]

yep. Same issues here. Illustrator worked fine up until this afternoon when I went to open my project. All of the sudden it Won't Respond and am forced to close. Literally can't do anything. I spent 6 hours today troubleshooting this issue and missed a business deadline thanks to it. Sigh

[ZombiiCake]

Where are the Adobe employees and why haven't they fixed this bug yet? Please hurry.

[Beauteous_Cosmos15D5]

Same problem for me too, i'm writing now but it's since Illustrator 2021 that gives me this annoying problem it's absurd that Adobe still hasn't solved it.

[Monika Gause]

Please contact Customer Care. They need to log into your system and check it out. https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html

This happens because of old stuff installed in your system. Customer Care can help isolate it.

[silviab24635235]

Not happening!
It worked for 3 weeks without any flaws until it stopped working basically from one second to the other. I have zero trust to let someone from Customer Care do any thing at my computer. The „old stuff“ that isn't a problem for CC 2020 running again right now and wasn't a problem for CC 2021 for 3 weeks is there for a reason. I have deadlines to meet and work to do.

[silviab24635235]

BTW I had to sign papers for confidentiality.

[ZombiiCake]

me too. HELP

[Monika Gause]

If you don't trust Customer Care, then get an expert of your own.

The thing is that a lot of people have been reporting issues and for the vast majority  Customer Care could solve the issue, by throwing out the remnants of whatever they previously had installed. Old Wacom drivers and things like that.

[silviab24635235]

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately I'm the only expert here. Everybody who needs help asks me. Where I live there are not many Mac eyperts at all and hire a remote working expert brings is not working because of the nondisclosure agreement I signed.

Is there a troubleshooting document from support who is updated frequently one could bookmark and read to find out about solved issues? I saw one when i started doing research about my problem. Unfortunately the solutions there (delete certain fonts and old Wacom drivers) did not help though I did what was suggested there.

[Monika Gause]

There no knownedgebase page for this issue.Only thing you could do is search for the threads that cover the issue and see if they contain things you didn't try yet.

Or do a clean install of Mac OS.

[ZombiiCake]

I spent the last 24hours troubleshooting this issue. Everything worked great up until yesterday afternoon which like everyone elses stories it suddenly "stopped responding" as if for no reason. I can't even so much as click on one thing before it quits responding and I'm left to force close. I worked on a project prior to this issue arrising for nearly 3 hours straight and unfortunately lost half of the work I did as well as missed a business deadline lastnight because I simply could not finish my work. I'm in a "chat" with adobe atm, but the employee who I was connected with has yet to engage...

[bogwood]

I have to say that my experience with Adobe Customer Care has not been great. My rep was super slow -- trying to diagnose the issue over several hours. He requested screen sharing, but seemed unfamiliar with the Mac OS and was struggling to do basic tasks. Then he wanted me to give him root access (which I felt uneasy about doing). After several hours I just gave up.

Oddly, for me Photoshop 2021 works fine -- as does Premiere and Audition and After Effects. Just Illustrator 2021 is a mess. And, of course, I cleaned out any possibly-problematic fonts and removed all traces of Wacom software (using Clean My Mac X).

I wishe Adobe had better customer support. Since I am paying them every month, I expect that.

[ZombiiCake]

I agree.

Im on with customer support AGAIN. About to share my screen. Hahaha Lets see how this goes...

[mikey_likes_it]

I think Adobe needs to realize that it has been isolated to Illustrator v25.0 only. Like everyone else, the latest releases of Photoshop v22.0.1, InDesign v16.0, and Bridge v11.0 all work just fine. Moving down to Illustrator v24.3 seemed to help get everyone back to work. However, since this is a newer version, there is a question on the projects that we have been working on with v25.0 will open up without any hiccups with v24.3. I am testing that right now as I have an iMac running Big Sur with Illustrator v24.3 and have a Macbook Pro running Catalina with Illustrator v25.0. So far I don't have any problems running v25.0 on the Macbook Pro under Catalina. In addition, I am running Extensis Suitcase Fusion v21.2.1 on both machines under both operating systems. I have been in contact with them as they are hoping to release a version that is supported on Big Sur. But when Illustrator v25.0 on Big Sur just bombed on its own, just like everyone else here (about the same time) I was able to somehow get it to load up into Safe Mode (don't ask me how I did it because like everyone else, I have seen Illustrator just sit there on the load screen regardless of it trying to initialize or do one of its many Diagnostic tests). But I was only able to get it to open in Safe Mode a couple of times. When it did, Illustrator identified that it had a problem with the Suitcase Fusion plug-in. I have since disabled the plug-in just for Illustrator through Suitcase Fusion and still, Illustrator will not load, even to a diagnostic state. But Adobe needs to understand that the simultaneous moment that multiple users experienced an abrupt shutdown of Illustrator and it not loading with the acceptable wait time, that there is something much more than "old residual files" present. There shouldn't be any reason that an Adobe employee needs to be inside monkeying around user's machines. Just like when the Create Suite was the latest product line before CC, it needs to provide a Tool Cleaner program to rid of all these "old" files for us now. Or during the large push of CC 2021, the installer should remove all instances of CC 2019 and CC 2020. (I just looked in my Applications Folder and found those folders for those previous releases. I removed them.) Please find a fix ASAP for us that have moved to Big Sur and want to run the latest version of Illustrator beyond v25.0.

[mikey_likes_it]

I just tested the process of editing an AI file in Illustrator v25.0 and then opening it up in Illustrator v24.3. There doesn't seem to be any issues with the file opening with a legacy program. I edited the file on my Macbook Pro running Catalina and Illustrator v25.0 and then opened the file on my iMac running Big Sur and Illustrator v24.3. In addition, I have re-installed the Suitcase Fusion plug-in for Illustrator v24.3 and have no issues so far even though the iMac is on Big Sur.

[Monika Gause]

Users need to understand their systems better.

Apple has a history of cutting off old stuff. And when they do, you have to uninstall before updating the system. Otherwise the remnants will interfere. And mind you, I'm using Mac OS as well.

Alternative: don't update the system, but do a clean install.

Alternative: pay an expert to do it for you.

Adobe doesn't know what is installed in your system.

[silviab24635235]

So why then the CC2021 suite runs fine for 3 weeks on the same system it decides to run not anymore from one minute to the next when nothing has been changed or installed when I was working the whole day on my projects with out any problems just every day? And CC2020 runs just fine right now after downgrading.

[mikey_likes_it]

Monika. Sorry to be blunt, but your demeanor is not helpful to us. Your tone is condescending. If you work for Adobe, please let someone else help us.

[silviab24635235]

Thanks, I thought it's only me.

[Monika Gause]

This is a public forum.

People working for Adobe are marked as "Staff".

If you want help directly from Adobe, contact Customer Care.

[bogwood]

BTW, I'm not running the new OS. Still on Mojave (10.14.6)

[kunalex]

I hope Adobe does not have any idea of what I have or do on my computer. It's an app that I use to work and I pay for it, not a private inspector of my hdd. If they state that it works with the latest OS updates and stuff, it should work. Simple. Do not launch until you are 100%. That is why you have an alpha, beta period. I had many CC cases where the custom care staff did not know how to minimise a mac window or "where is my computer"..

Alternative - until i do a clean install, adobe will pause the payment for my subscription? even if it's a day.

Alternative - if I have to pay an expert to install AI, then they failed their mission

You should come with helpful insight to the problem, not random thrown thoughts. It is too late for "check power on", plug in your cable, reinstall fixes - it is a hard time out there right now with covid and everything and not being able to work in a optimized & constant way sucks. Big time.

And again, why is this greed to launch something that is not 100% viable for the whole community only to have an event ticked?

[johngettler1]

POSSIBLE SOLUTION IF YOU HAVE WACOM TABLET SOFTWARE INSTALLED:

I had a user in our company whose Illustrator 2021 running on Mojave 10.14.6 would get hung up at the Initialization step of launching.  No amount of removing fonts or resetting Illustrator preferences would fix it.

One thing that made her Mac unique from others in the company that did not have the issue, was that she had a Wacom Bamboo CTH-470 and the software to drive it that had been installed a few major versions of the OS ago.  Specifically what solved this for her Mac was we **opened the Wacom Utility from the Applications folder, then under the Tablet Software menu, clicked Remove, and then clicked Uninstall**.  Then Illustrator 2021 launched correctly. We had also noticed that the system preference control panel for "PenTablet.pref" was moved into the Incompatible Software folder on her boot hard drive after we upgraded her Mac from High Sierra to Mojave.

So try launching Illustrator after uninstalling any Wacom software.  If Illustrator is launching correctly, now decide if you still need to use your Wacom tablet.  If so, then try installing the newest Wacom software at the link below (Driver 6.3.41-2) and hope the newest version does not brake Illustrator 2021 again.

https://www.wacom.com/en-jp/support/product-support/drivers#latest

[mikey_likes_it]

Everyone needs to get Adobe's attention by posting here: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/filters/new?category_id=209...