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Answered

Illustrator 2020 keeps crashing on macOS Catalina

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
December 23, 2019
23 replies
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So, I just got my new 16" Macbook, i9 processor with 64gb Ram.

Only problem is that Ilustrator now keeps crashing. I don't have any issues with my old 2015 Macbook, or my iMac 5K, only with my new 16" Macbook. Only Illustrator crashes, and it happens at least 4-5 times during a day. No pattern. Latest version of Illustrator and lates version of MacOS.

I finally found a solution. It was another user who wrote me a message with a solution that at least worked for me.

I haven't had a crash in 2 days now.

Preference > Performance > uncheck "GPU Performance"

Performance

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Srishti Bali

Hi all,

We understand how frustrating crashes can be. We have consolidated the most popular solutions that help in fixing these issues and also, how you can recover unsaved documents after a crash. Please check this help article for more details.

If you still need help, feel free to reach out, we'd be happy to help.

Regards,

Srishti

merkinno1234

Participating Frequently

Ugh, so we had been nearly 2 weeks without any crashes until they started up again. Designer had noticed that the shortcuts preference file was getting reset whenever AI crashed, and mentioned she had imported those preferences after the last clean install. So we tried removing the preferences and having her work without them starting 12/8... and we were crash free until last Friday when the program crashed 3 times in a single work day.

She is the only one out of the 15 licenses who is having issues, and her computer is not even the newest, nor is it the only one we ordered at the time from Apple, so I cannot fathom what is going on.

The only clue I have was that I looked up the error code she got in the crash report ("EXC_BAD_ACCESS"), and it seems to come up as a memory access issue. But AI has full disk access and I cannot locate any other details without access to developer software/knowledge, so posting that here in case there are some developers following along.

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS

Exception Codes: EXC_I836_GPFLT

Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Segmentation fault: 11

Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xb

Terminating Process: exc handler [74058]

Going to try making a new user account and starting from scatch there, see if that makes a difference.

dgotschall1

Inspiring

So since installing the latest full version (not beta) of AI 25.2.1 it's been gloriosly crash free for weeks now! 🙂

I know I've jinxed myself just by posting that, but hopefully it stays working (and with GPU performance turned on!).

Good luck to all!

Gerrys3238206

Inspiring

Seems I am not alone been pulling my hair out over multiple crashes and weird error messages: like "not enough memory to complete that task". Granted this current work involves plenty of gradients and if I could use it brushed strokes but never had a such a continual number of crusades ever since first using AI back 5 years ago.

My machine isn't as powerful as many (and yes Monika I am not a professional but I use this software everyday) and no it's not my livelihood but yes it has become far worse four crashes in just over two days lost everything. Now just can't use brushes on strokes without the spinning beach ball for every click of the mouse. Shut down every other peripheral software to no avail. Seems Monika even the professionals are getting fed up. Nice to know I am not alone. I am using 25.3 version!

I

Indyboosler

Known Participant

"

I finally found a solution. It was another user who wrote me a message with a solution that at least worked for me.

I haven't had a crash in 2 days now.

Preference > Performance > uncheck "GPU Performance"

Turning off a feature that I paid to be able to use is NOT a solution. The fact is Adobe has known about this issue for over a year now pertaining to the 16" MacBook pro, and instead of fixing it they exported the bug so it does it on all Macs - ie they made it WORSE!

I

Indyboosler

Known Participant

And literally 5 minutes after that post anohter crash. This app is causing more work than I'm getting done.

dgotschall1

Inspiring

Thanks Indybooster. Yeah, many of us have tried that "turn off GPU" suggestion, but sadly didn't work for us either (and made the program unusably slow). The thing that worked for me for...a few weeks actually...was to trash my Illustrator preferences and then rebuild my work space from scratch. The instructions for how to do that on the Adobe Support site aren't correct (surprise) so I had to Google search how to do it. BUT it's recently started crashing on me again. I'm using version 24.3. I tried many of the Beta versions but when they would crash it would totally reset my program so I had to rebuild my workspace/palletes every time, which suuuuuucked. So I'm back on the regular non-beta version. I read that version 25 was suppose to fix this, but in my experinece it crashed more. I'm not certain there is a fix at this point, and honestly would be willing to punt my MacBook Pro 16 if it fixed the issue (even tho this is Adobe's issue). Anyone know if this run more stabel on the new M1 chips? Or if PC's have this issue??

Bev A.

Participating Frequently

Just turned off the actual creative cloud app and was able to open Illustrator 2021 on my iMac Catalina. So far this is only answer that has worked for me since the upgrade. What a pain.

merkinno1234

Participating Frequently

Is this fix still working for you?

merkinno1234

Participating Frequently

Hi - I'd like to add my two cents because this issue is NOT limited to the MBP as everyone seems to think. I have a graphic designer in my department who is on a brand new 27" iMac, who is having this exact same issue. She tried updating to the latest AI a few weeks ago to no avail, then tried installing older version, also to no avail. Poor girl has AI crash multiple times a day, which means shes only being half as productive as she should be able to be.

Her computer specs are as follows:

27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
Processor: 3.8GHz 8-core 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
Memory: 32GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
Graphics: Radeon Pro 5500 XT with 8GB of GDDR6 memory
Storage: 2TB SSD storage

I'm going to update her to the latest AI version 25 (which I just updated to a few weeks back), and also grant AI full disk permissions, in hopes that this helps. The odd bit is that we have about ~10 iMacs and 2 MBPs in this department, most of them a bit older but a few that are even newer than hers. She is the ONLY one having issues. We did not set it up via a Time Machine backup, so it shouldn't be related to any of her settings (unless its related to her Adobe settings specifically IF she managed to copy those over from her old iMac)

Billy_By_The_Sea

Participating Frequently

Thank you for sharing, keep us posted.

merkinno1234

Participating Frequently

Sadly after a few days of no issues, Illustrator just crashed again about 20min ago. I had installed it without importing previous settings, and gave it full disk access. 2.5 work days issue free.

T

timotheous83

Participant

Adding my experience to this. I had a mid 2012 macbook that ran Ai pretty decently but decided it was finally time i upgraded to a retina display. I bought a brand new 13" Macbook Pro and Illustrator has been a nightmare for the last year. 5-10 crashes a day with hours of lost or partially recovered work. Im constantly taking screenshots of work for fear that something will crash when I save or while im making adjustments. It's ridiculous that Adobe has not fixed this or even acknowledged it. I discovered that turning off GPU can help but that is a poor solution.

I

Indyboosler

Known Participant

so, Version 25 was supposed to fix this issue with the 16" MacBook Pro. It has not.

I

Indyboosler

Known Participant

In fact no only is it not fixed but the entire Adobe Creative Cloud Suite is like a NASCAR crash fest on all my computers! Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, all crashing on both my Macs. So I went from one app crashing on one computer to 3 apps crashing on two computers - that's only a 600% increase.

cool_fritz

Inspiring

I'm just adding my voice to the chorus. Illustrator on the New 16" MBP is practically unusable. In all my years of using Adobe stuff I've never had such a horrible experience. Either I turn off GPU performance and get a janky work experience with fewer crashes, or I turn it on and get constant crashes. Looking at this thread this has been going on pushing a year and nothing has improved.

Illustrator 24.3 (but really all versions since I got the MBP)

Catalina 10.15.7

MBP 16

2.3 Ghz 8-core i9

32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB VRAM

1 TB Disk

No external monitors, no printers (wifi or otherwise), no external disks, nothing attached.

There's no rhyme or reason to the crashing. I might be working in Illustrator, or I might be in another program or the Finder when it crashes.

I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling (and nuking every file associated with Adobe scattered throughout the disk) and other tweaks beyond GPU checkbox (amount of Undo's, storage disk, other preferences, etc.). Nothing works. I guess the good news is it's not just my computer (judging by this and other threads), but the bad news is Adobe doesn't seem to be addressing the problem.

----------- MacBook Pro 16 | 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 | 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 (RAM) | AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB

dgotschall1

Inspiring

I concur. And despite Monika's insistance that we not pester the developers with issues LIKE THE PROGRAM CONSTANTLY CRASHING, I feel the more we try and raise the issue the better. No matter the forum, just incase someone pokes the right buttons to figure out what the issue is for the rest of us. 😛

Recently I downgraded to beta V24.3 (from beta v25 which worked no better - despite the documentation saying the issue with the GPU was fixed). It worked OK for a few days, then after a few crashes (primarly when the machine wakes up) I AGAIN lost all my preferences and settings. So, sick of setting those up everytime, I'm back to the regular (non-beta) version of Illustrator 2020. Which AT LEAST keeps my prefs after a crash. I am using the GPU performance, since without it the program is basically useless - and am just saving my work about every 30 seconds. I honestly dont' know if there is an answer to this GPU issue currently. I, like most people, am not running anything funky. Just the MBP 16 with 1gig HD, and 32G of RAM. No external drives, no wacky plug-ins, basically just the Adobe CS and assorted productive apps. I am plugged into a 32" 4k monitor, but let's hope that isn't above the bar of getting the program to work properly.

I agree, I've NEVER had issues like this with any other Adobe program on MBP.

Maybe the next full release will addresses this? Maybe...?

cool_fritz

Inspiring

I'm with you, documenting such a terrible flaw in a program that I pay a lot of money for (and I've shelled out a lot for it over the course of my 20+ years purchasing upgrades) seems resonable and needed. Anyone who says otherwise obviously has some other agenda. At a bare minimum it lets other poor saps like us know they aren't alone and it's not something they're doing wrong. It really is shameful that Adobe has let such a problem run rampant for so long.

----------- MacBook Pro 16 | 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 | 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 (RAM) | AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB

A

Andy Swift

Inspiring

I can confirm that the Illustrator 25 Beta addresses the problem of GPU-related crashes on the 16" Macbook Pro.

Once you have subscribed to the beta program at adobeprerelease.com, go to:

https://www.adobeprerelease.com/beta/85A6F544-2705-49BD-8314-DD549C6A1713#

It is possible to install version 25 alongside the regular release and have both working correctly. You'll need to set up your preferences all over again for the beta version.

I used version 25 briefly with the latest beta of Big Sur and it seemed to work correctly.

dgotschall1

Inspiring

Sadly, I'm not finding your same success with the V25 Beta build of Illustrator, as after 2 hours of work, it crashed AND forgot all my settings. When I try to import my settings (from a previous version of Illustrator) it says it's not a settings file. Good times.

WELP...guess I'll punt back to V24.3 and see how long that runs before crashing. This is with the GPU performance turned back on (which make ALL the difference). Using the CPU to render is like working on a 10 year old machine.

Adobe, any help here? Or should we just all continue to radomdly flip switches in the dark hoping for the best.

dgotschall1

Inspiring

So, after reverting to V24.3, THE PROGRAM CRASHED IN UNDER 2 MINUTES.

....you can't make this stuff up...

Srishti Bali

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hi all,

We understand how frustrating crashes can be. We have consolidated the most popular solutions that help in fixing these issues and also, how you can recover unsaved documents after a crash. Please check this help article for more details.

If you still need help, feel free to reach out, we'd be happy to help.

Regards,

Srishti

Billy_By_The_Sea

Participating Frequently

Hi Srishti,

I really don't feel the understanding. These threads have been open for quite sometime, this is not a "correct answer". Nobody from Adobe is addressing the idea that something is wrong with the new OS, Adobe and the 16" MacBook Pro. None of the solutions offered in the article are working for so many of us. More "frustrating" is reading about more solutions that require the user to solve Adobe issues, only to find we have lost more work hours to this rabbit hole.

All Adobe products "unexpededly" crash on my brand new 16" MacBook Pro.

Thank you for all you are doing,

B

A

Andy Swift

Inspiring

Have you tried the Metal Beta version? I would really like to know if it crashes for someone else… for me it's been really stable.

K

kilianp29643731

Participating Frequently

Hello everybody.
After over a year of crashes, since I bought the 16'', for the first time, for now 6 days, despite leaving CPU-performance enabled (turning it off solved the problem of crashing, but made Illustrator as slow as a snail), Illustrator is stable.

What did I do: I chatted with customer care, who didn’t have a clue about the issue. During the chat he found this thread and told me to do what is described here. Which I had already done 100 times before. Then asked me wheter I wanted to install a pre-release of Illustrator (Version 24.3), which I did. Additionally I (again) switched off "Automatic Graphics Switching" in the system preferences. As I said, I had tried that several times before, but the update of Illustrator (combined with switching off AGS) makes my Illustrator run smoothly, no crashes since 6 days. Even though I nearly never turn off my computer, switch monitors constantly, use large files (up to 600 mb with embedded images, yes, I know it’s stupid, thank you, and yes, I know and use InDesign).

Here you find the pre-release for Mac:

https://download.adobeprerelease.com/85A6F544-2705-49BD-8314-DD549C6A1713/1597234649/AdobeIllustrator24_HD.dmg?programID=85A6F544-2705-49BD-8314-DD549C6A1713&assetID=8964246C-8421-4887-B42B-7CABE0C0C36A&_=1598447680078

I really can’t believe it. Keep the fingers crossed. If it starts crashing again, I will notify you.

dgotschall1

Inspiring

That's awesome! Looks like in that link you need join the pre-release program for Illustrator (which I just did), so I'll try downloading 24.3. So this version allows you to use the GPU preview inside of Illustrator? I'm using version 24.2 currently (with CPU preview) which seems more stable, but much much slower.

Thanks!

K

kilianp29643731

Participating Frequently

Yes, I can activate CPU preview (command-E), but Illustrator gets really slow then (which is alright, because I don’t need the preview constantly in my workflow). So again: GPU performance enabled, CPU preview disabled.

I will now try to turn Automatic Graphics Switching (System Preferences) back on, so the computer is not too loud and the battery life doesn’t suffer. I will keep you posted on that, too. Hope it works.

By the way, I need the GPU, because I’m working on a 27'' 5K monitor.

K

kcgmark

Participating Frequently

Another MBP 16 DAILY CRASH issue ... now with Illustrator. I don't want to troubleshoot the problem. Or turn this off or that off. NO. I paid a lot of money for this computer. I pay an obscene amount of extortion money to Adobe. Don't make me fix it.

YOU FIX IT. That's what we pay for... IT TO WORK. Honestly this is becoming the norm and it's outrageous. Open files. Illustrator crashes. Wake computer Illustrator crashes.

Dictation service?? The fact that you would even bring up the idea of changing the dictation service to stop Illustrator from crashing... you should be embarrassed. What a JOKE. Another nail in the coffin.