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je51col
Participant
November 11, 2024
Question

Illustrator 2024 or 2025 won't open

  • November 11, 2024
  • 5 replies
  • 3779 views

i am hoping for some help - i have (up to date) adobe CC through work - our mac technician has just left so there is no support if you are a mac user and because of adobe being a work account I cant do a live chat with adobe as our admistrator needs to do it.

 I am on a new mac book air 13 inch, 16gb memory, Moc os 14.6.1, Apple M3 chip. All other adobe programmes work fine (PS and INd mainly used) but illustrator wont even load...it gets to the start up screen and just stops, then has to force quit. IT have done all the usual - uninstall and re-intall, remove older versions, shut down, restart, log out, log in etc. and also re-set the mac book air. The lap top is a month old and when i first got it, illustrator 24 was working and then just stopped and neither version will work now. Can any one make any suggestions as to how to fix this? i teach graphic design so need illustrator to work fairly urgently.  Many thanks. 

    5 replies

    H
    Hasan Albari
    Participant
    November 6, 2025

    I had the same problem and I solved it. I disabled the Wacom driver, and Illustrator started working again. I saw this tip here on the forum. Works for me, and think all Wacom users have this problem. Thank you

    K
    kgablegic
    Participant
    August 20, 2025

    i have a illustrator smart object in photoshop and when i double click to open it back in illustrator i get a this error message, whats the fix

    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Anubhav MCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    August 20, 2025

    Hello @kgablegic,

    I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Would you mind confirming the exact version of the OS/Illustrator/Photoshop installed, and if this started happening after a recent update, so we can better assist you?

    Also, try running Illustrator under a different administrator account (macOS) and share your observations.

    Looking forward to hearing from you.

    Anubhav

    M
    MessyZetty
    Participant
    December 5, 2024

    Im experiencing the same thing.
    It was working a few days ago.
    tried everything, unistall reinstall, older versions, remove prefferences, restart etc.

    Nothing.
    I need it for work.
    This is so bad.
    Had issues with Indesign too and had to revert to an older version.
    For the premium software in our space this is so bad.

     

      Anubhav M
      Community Manager
      Anubhav MCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      December 6, 2024

      Hello @MessyZetty,

      I'm sorry to hear you're having the same trouble with Illustrator on your computer. Would you mind confirming the OS version installed and sharing screenshots of the error message (if any) so I can better assist you?


      Looking forward to hearing from you.

       

      Anubhav

      P
      preeta_4266
      Inspiring
      January 12, 2025

      I am having the same issues. OS is Windows 11. The software just freezes when I try opening any of my files. I uninstalled and reinstalled the software, restarted my PC, and removed all previous preferences. Nothing works! I am facing this problem since Dec, when I updated Illustrator to the latest version. 

       

        W
        wizzy2525
        Participant
        November 21, 2024

        I keep having this same issue as well. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing the latest version of Illustrator and even older versions, and nothing seems to be working. It only happens sometimes– it was working yesterday, but today I cannot even open Illustrator without the spinning wheel and it becoming unresponsive.

          Anubhav M
          Community Manager
          Anubhav MCommunity Manager
          Community Manager
          November 21, 2024

          Hello @Alisa30664751arn6,

          I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Would you mind confirming the exact version of the OS installed and a screen recording of the problem so I can better assist you?

          Also, try running Illustrator under Safe Mode (Windows / macOS) and share your observations.

          Looking forward to hearing from you.

           

          Anubhav

          Anshul_Saini
          Community Manager
          Anshul_SainiCommunity Manager
          Community Manager
          November 11, 2024

          Hi @je51col,

           

          Sorry to hear about the trouble with Illustrator. Could you share a screen recording showing the crash? This can help us understand exactly when and how it’s happening. Also, do you get any crash reports or error messages when Illustrator stops responding?

           

          One other thing that might help is resetting your Illustrator preferences. Sometimes, corrupted preferences can cause issues. You can follow these steps to reset them: Troubleshoot Preference Issues.

           

          Let us know if resetting the preferences helps or if you see the crash reporter. Looking forward to helping you get this resolved!

           

          Best,

          Anshul Saini

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