Illustrator Cannot Find 'Documents' Folder Anymore

[npuersten]

I have been saving to a folder in my typical C:\users\xxxxx\Documents file path, however suddenly, Illustrator has completely lost access to that folder. Now anytime I try to export a file to that folder (where I have everything saved and have previously been able to save everything no problem) I get the popup error that AI  'Could not find this item. This is no longer located in C:Users\xxxxx.' referring to my Documents folder.

This folder is modifiable and accessable by every other program, file explorer, everything but Illustrator and I am so frustrated as the folder is obviously still there, and accessible by literally every other program on my PC. I have tried restarting my PC, restarting illustrator, logging out and logging back into my CC account, resetting Illustrator preferences, reinstalling Illustrator entirely. NOTHING will help illustrator to find the folder. There are no updates for AI available and up until an hour ago I was able to save into the folder without an issue.

I am at my wits end and I cannot think of anything else to try.

[npuersten · Accepted solution]

Problem fixed.

My firewall had suddenly started blocking Illustrator from accessing the Documents folder (for an unknown reason). Allowing Illustrator and the AIRobin.exe controlled folder access allowed the file to be saved again without an issue.