Illustrator 2025 terribly lagging

[jazmina_3483]

Dear Community,

I’m encountering a critical issue with Adobe Illustrator on my Apple M3 Pro running macOS Sequoia (36GB memory). For the past two days, even basic actions like selecting objects have been extremely slow and laggy, regardless of file size.

I’m running the latest Illustrator version (29.1) and have not installed any window management apps like Magnet.

I would greatly appreciate any advice or solutions you can provide to resolve this issue.

Thank you very much for your help!

Best wishes,
Jaz

[Anubhav M]

Hello @jazmina_3483,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with Illustrator. Would you mind checking if Illustrator behaves this way with all files? Also, try running Illustrator under a different administrator account (macOS) and after rebooting under Safe Mode (macOS) and checking if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[jazmina_3483]

Dear Anubhav,

thank you for your answer.

Yes, it is happening with any file or any size. Even just coping a small part of an image into a new empty file is not possible.

I just tried another completely new user, and also after rebooting under Safe Mode, but it has not helped.

I just do a simple selection of the background with the mouse and now it is even worse: Illustrator becomes all at once not reponsive. I cannot use it at all.

How can I fix this?

Best wishes,

Jaz

[Anubhav M]

Hello @jazmina_3483,

Thanks for sharing the details. Could you confirm the folder location of where the file is stored (internal/external/network drive or a cloud-synced folder like Google Drive/Dropbox/iCloud)?

Also, please share a screen recording of your entire workflow and the workflow so I can try and replicate this on my end.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[jazmina_3483]

Hi,

I have tried both local location (desktop) and files in adobe cloud, as well. I encounter the same problem in both locations. I have uploaded an example of each.

As uyou can see, I am unable to do simple tasks or save.

Best wishes,

Jaz

[Anubhav M]

Hello @jazmina_3483,

I've sent you a DM. Kindly check.

Anubhav

[Hanimator]

I am havingthe same issue. Files that were not a problem on the last install, really lag. Even files with very little file sizes chug slowly. It's making my workflow very slow. Also difficult to use. I save all my files locally.

[Hanimator]

Sorry, I forgot to mention...I'm working on a very powerful gaming PC. With added memory.So it shouldn't be an issue. I'm sure we used to be able to alocate more memory to certain adobe apps? But can't now.

Kind regards Hannah

[Monika Gause]

Sorry, I forgot to mention...I'm working on a very powerful gaming PC. With added memory.So it shouldn't be an issue. I'm sure we used to be able to alocate more memory to certain adobe apps? But can't now.

Kind regards Hannah

By @Hanimator

Please tell us the software and hardware specifications.

[Hanimator]

MSI raider GE77 HX laptop 64 bit, nvidia geforce RTX 3070Ti laptop GPU graphics card, 16gb ram, windows 11? Brand new.

Anything I missed?

I'm not using any big pixel graphics at the moment, just making svg  icons. Even with big pixel graphics, it never used to be an issue with this powerful a pc. I'm looking at the task manager and not using much gpu or memory.

regards Hanimator

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Hanimator,

I'm sorry to learn about the issues you're experiencing with Illustrator's performance. Could you please verify if Illustrator is updated to the newest version? Additionally, consider doing a clean reinstallation of the GPU drivers (Intel / NVIDIA / AMD) and adjusting the Graphics Preference to High-Performance for Illustrator (https://adobe.ly/4fNkHZR) and trying the recommendations in this help article (https://adobe.ly/426s4IG) and providing your feedback.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[Hanimator]

I tried the recommendations already but no luck. I'm notn having any issues with other adobe porgrams such as  After Effects and Animate and Photoshop (which are normally more gpu and ram hungry than illustrator)  so it isn't my gpu...

I've also uninstalled and reinstalled illustrator just in case it was that install... but no.

I have looked up how to adjust the Graphics Preference to High-Performance for Illustrator but had no luck finding out how so just assumed I couldnt do that anymore.  Will look more.

All this aside it shouldnt be doing it. It's a vector editing programme! and I'm using very simple pure geometry.

regards Hanimator

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Hanimator,

Thanks for sharing the details. Would you mind sharing a sample file you're having trouble with after uploading it to file-sharing service and a screen recording of your workflow and the problem, so I can try and replicate this on my end?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav