Illustrator 2024 won't load on PC after last 28.1 update 3 days ago

[ilonka65]

It has been working fine until this update: v 28.1

It doesn't get further than the black screen. After some reboots, I tried to run the diagnostic test. It just doesn't progress past "Diagnostic Test 1 Initializing..."

[Bobby Henderson]

Is your computer a Mac or PC (which OS version is running)? What kinds of hardware does your computer have (CPU, graphics board, amount of RAM, etc)? As a trouble shooting step you might want to make sure your computer's video card and other internal devices are up to date. Sometimes attached periphreals such as a Wacom tablet can cause crashes or other issues. It's important to make sure the drivers for any such devices are up to date. In some cases the current drivers can be buggy and you'll be forced to roll back to an earlier driver version. I was having to do that with a Wacom tablet early this year.

[ilonka65]

Hi Bobby

Its a PC Windows 10 Pro.
The graphics card: MSI AMD RX580.
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core Processor 3.40 GHz
Installed RAM: 16.0 GB
System type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
I've checked all drivers are up to date. I did see a notification for Wacom on my laptop (Mac), Illustrator is working fine there though. Thanks for your feedback!

[Bobby Henderson]

Your PC's hardware seems good enough to at least meet the minimum system requirements for Illustrator. My guess is something has been corrupted. Try resetting Illustrator's Preferences file by holding down Alt+Control+Shift when launching Illustrator. If that step doesn't work then you can try fully removing Illustrator using the CC Cleaner tool and then reinstalling it. If the black screen still persists the next step would be rolling back to a previous build of Illustrator. Older builds of Illustrator can be installed via the CC Desktop App.

[EricWedderspoon]

It's also happening to my co-worker and me. I've tried uninstalling and downgrading version-by-version and the problem persists. I've had limited success (the much older version opens after a couple of tries) by removing all of the workspaces from the presets folder except for "Essentials Classic." Not ideal but I had to get some work done on a file. Photoshop is now crashing when I'm going between the two programs as well. I'm unsure if it's a related problem but I sense it is since it wasn't happening prior to the Illustrator upgrade.

[Bobby Henderson]

Have you tried using the CC Cleaner tool to fully remove all instances of Adobe applications before re-installing Illustrator and Photoshop?

It's also very important to be sure a computer's hardware is at least a little ways beyond the minimum system requirements. For example the current version of Adobe Illustrator probably isn't going to work well on an older PC with only 8GB of RAM. A computer with more modest hardware should not be running a lot of applications at the same time either. An open web browser (such as Google Chrome) can hog a lot of system RAM.

Are any other applications not made by Adobe crashing? Sometimes crashes can point to a faulty update to the operating system. I've had to use Windows' System Restore feature to roll back a bad update on more than one occasion. In the worst cases I've performed a factory reset on the PC to effectively re-install the OS clean.

Hardware issues, such as a hard disc on the verge of failure can cause crashes. It's important to make back-ups of any valuable data that might be stored on the computer's boot hard disc.

[FadzliAzmi]

i'm also getting frequent freezing and everything. sigh...

[Starfleet_007]

I am suddenly have issues.  I have installed every version from 27.9.1 to 28.2 and illustrator is locking up hard.  It can't even complete a diagnostic.  I have CC cleaned this PC multiple times to no avail to save illustrator.  If I do get past the splash screen, the main screen then freezes.  After 3 failed diagnostics, I got the attached image.  I have tried all the processes they offer.

My Work Rig:

Intel i5-10500 CPU @ 3.10GHz
32.0 GB RAM
Windows 10 Pro - 22H2
OS build 19045.3930
NVIDIA T600 4 GB GDDR6
NVIDIA Graphics Driver 537.42

[dlc1265]

I am having the same issue as well, tried reverting to older versions to no avail as well.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @dlc1265,

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues with Illustrator. Would you mind trying the steps outlined in this help article: https://adobe.ly/3vvPUzX? Let us know if it resolves the issue.

If the problem persists, could you please confirm your Illustrator version, operating system, and system details (CPU, GPU & RAM)? Additionally, sharing a screenshot of where Illustrator is getting stuck or explaining the exact behavior after launching Illustrator would be helpful for further troubleshooting.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Best regards,

Anshul Saini