Illustrator can't finish previewing; not a memory issue

[Dan_J_McKechnie]

Just installed Illustrator CC and I am trying to work on a simple illustration but it has switched itself to outline mode and will not return to pixel or overprint preview. It gives the error "Can't finish previewing. Could not complete the requested operation." The common cause of this problem is lack of memory or insufficient scratch disk space, but my computer has 8GB of very fast RAM and my scratch disks are mostly empty and multiple terabytes each. My document is fairly simple; I am making speedo and tachometer gauges for my car, so the illustration is simply lines, guides, and a small amount of type on a single artboard, and one low-resolution .jpg I am using as a template. One thread I found suggested that TrueType fonts can cause a problem for Illustrator so I changed all the type to an OpenType font to no avail. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Specs:

Windows 8 Pro

Intel Core i3 at 3.35Ghz

8GB DDR3 1600 RAM

GeForce 560 GTX

Illustrator CC installed on 2TB, 7200RPM drive; this drive is also my primary scratch disk

Secondary scratch disk is a 1.5TB USB3.0 external

System drive is a 128GB SSD so I do not want to use it as a scratch disk

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

I am not certain that waas such a wise move to install the app on anyything other than the startup disk.

You have plentyof room on the SSD drive to install all the applications you want. and then use the second internal drive as the rimary scratch and the external drive as you secondary as you have.

Why did you install AI on a non system disk?

[Dan_J_McKechnie]

I've had uncomfortable brushes with full system drives in past, and Win8 used nearly half of my SSD. I also dislike having things scattered about, which will necessarily happen if I fill the system drive. Why should it matter that Illustrator is installed somewhere else?

Additional note: I was able to work with this illustration for nearly two straight hours before it decided to lock itself into outline mode, not sure if that tells you anything.

[z284pwr]

Windows 8 shouldn't take up even close to half of a 128GB SSD unless it's loaded with bloatware being a Dell/HP/etc. install which should get reformatted first thing to remove.

I've had more bad than good luck installing Adobe programs on a separate drive.  Illustrator will always perform better on an SSD than a HDD.  That alone should be reason enough to keep it on a system drive.  Surely you can spare 5-10 GB to get Illustrator on a fast drive, if not, you should really consider making room

[Dan_J_McKechnie]

Well, it does. Virgin Win8 install in a home-built machine on a brand-new SSD; no bloatware of any sort, and I have expressly avoided installing anything that wasn't already there on the system drive. Nontheless, 54GB of 111GB used, and I'm hesitant to use any more. I realize there is room but there shortly will not be if I have to install every Adobe app I regularly use there. Is there any way to make it play nice? It is extremely aggravating to be unable to use the software for which I am paying in the way that is most convenient for me.

[Larry G. Schneider]

Where's you user profile?

[Dan_J_McKechnie]

C:\Users\Dan\etc etc

[Larry G. Schneider]

There's one of the problems. AI likes to access the stuff in your user profile and has to access it to write the new versions of the preferences on quit. It's easily confused when stuff isn't where it's supposed to be.

[Dan_J_McKechnie]

Is there a way to redirect it and/or tell it not to do that?

[Larry G. Schneider]

You might be able to create symbolic links but I don't have a great deal of information on exactly how on a Windows setup. I've worked on a Mac for 25 years.

[Dan_J_McKechnie]

I'll try that, thanks.

[Dan_J_McKechnie]

The entire Adobe folder on my system drive is symlinked to the actual install location on I:, so apparently that does not work.

[Dan_J_McKechnie]

Attempted to clean uninstall and reinstall on the system drive, same error. Anyone from Adobe want to fill me in on why the product I'm paying for is functionally broken?

[Larry G. Schneider]

Move the Illustrator installation to the same drive as the system folder.

[Mike_Gondek]

Restart your computer, did that make this go faster?

You most likley have a conlficting process that corrupts your memory. By restarting you flush our your ram and only startup items are loaded. If you still have the problem after restart you should look at your process manager, and kill any process that looks suspicous, that is getting loaded on startup.

[Dan_J_McKechnie]

I did restart expressly to try that with no luck.

[Dan_J_McKechnie]

Solved: it was a text element causing a problem in that document.

[z284pwr]

What font was it?  The InDesign folks have be battling crashing issues with Fonts since CC was released.  Hopefully this isn't going to start popping up with Illustrator as well.

[sararose-pwly]

I know this thread is long outdated, but I have this problem fairly regularly lately and it's driving me crazy. Do you remember anything about the text element that was causing the problem?

[Phoenix15]

this is an ongoing problem with memory/graphics cards that adobe still hasn't fixed. there's plenty of topics on here about illustrator switching to outline mode because it says there isn't enough memory. it's a fault with illustrator, adobe need to sort..

[sararose-pwly]

Ugh, that's so frustrating. Usually it's not a huuuge deal, because I can just save everything and close/reopen illustrator and I'm able to switch back to preview. It's more annoying than anything. but it does break my flow and concentration a bit. Occasionally though, Illustrator crashes immediately after I close the error message, and I lose the last 10-15 minutes of work, and that is much more damaging to my productivity. 😞

[Raghuveer_Singh]

Hi All,

Are you still facing this issue with AI CC 19.2.1 ? If yes & will it be possible for you to help us to isolate this further.

Then can you please drop an email to rbhunwal@adobe.com

Thanks & Regards,

Raghuveer Singh

Illustrator Team

[Phoenix15]

most people are having this issue with 19.2.1 - you must be aware of this. this has been happening for months and adobe should have resolved it by now..

[A.E. Hellstorm]

I experience the same problem in 2020. Any advice on how to solve it? Thanks.

[Monika Gause]

"I experience the same problem in 2020. Any advice on how to solve it? Thanks."

Please tell us what exactly you are experiencing. Which hardware specifications? Which system? How large is your file and what is in it? When was your last computer restart?

And you also want to create a new thread, because it's incredibly hard to discuss in old threads or even find your new post (which is not your fault).