Illustrator Crashing Continuously, Can No Longer Use Program due to fault Wacom drivers

[lilindar]

My illustrator has been crashing continuously this January. I've combed help posts here in the forums and am still struggling. 

I used the creative cloud cleaner tool to completely remove all adobe programs and then I reinstalled creative cloud and illustrator. Illustrator is still crashing. 

The program is freezing up after I start to work, and just crashes. Maybe it's something to do with trying to back up on the creative cloud or??? Something??? I'm just saving to my computer. I'm not getting any error messages from illustrator before or after crashing. 

My computer has met all the system requirements previously. I am using Windows 10 64 bit. GPU is AMD Radeon HD 8670D. My computer is somewhat old now but until this January 2023, it was running all adobe products with absolutely no suffering at all. I have plenty of hard drive space, plenty of ram. 

I'm not sure what to do. Illustrator and creative cloud are update. GPU is old but updated. 

Do I just not get to use the new illustrator? Is there a way for me to download the previous version of illustrator? 

I'm desperate to just get work done again, but instead I've been fighting with Illustrator for many days. This this is expensive and very broken.

[Savenia Melinda]

I'm also having the same problem after updating to the latest update (updated it on January too). It keeps saying "can't finish previewing", "memory is not enough" even tho i just bought my laptop last November so the memory are still plenty. The file isn't big at all, i'm just using some texts and vectors. I'm using macbook pro m1.

It really disrupt my workflow and i have tight deadlines. It frustrated me a lot, I've paid for the subscription and i want to got a good value on it. I have to keep apologizing to my client cause i work slower than usual because of this issue.

I hope Adobe soon see this and do something about it.

[lilindar]

I'm not getting this error message, but I feel it's something similar to this. My ap will be processing some minor activity on a small file (like layers or paths) and will just freeze and crash. 

I can leave the ap open for a few hours and not do anything with it and it won't crash .... but as soon as I want to merge two paths, immediate crash. 

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @lilindar,

Thanks for reaching out and sharing the details. The error message "Can't finish previewing" generally happens when insufficient memory is available to render the file preview. 

Would you mind sharing the file in which this issue was happening here or via DM? We'll check on our end.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anshul Saini

[Monika Gause]

Do you have any special hardware connected, such as a graphic tablet? Does it work better without it?

Do you have any third party plugins? Are they compatible?

Did you already reset the preferences? https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/setting-preferences.html resetting them will erase your settings.

If nothing else works, you can contact Customer Care and have them tae a look into your system: https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @lilindar,

We are sorry to hear that you have been experiencing crashes with Illustrator. Would you mind trying the suggestions shared in this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/fix-crash-on-launch-issues.html) and checking if it helps?

Also, would you mind submitting the crash report by following the steps shared in this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/crash-next-steps.html)? While submitting the report, kindly use the same email account used here in the community so we can locate it quickly. It will help us find the cause and assist you accordingly.

Also, if you are using a Wacom tablet, would you mind uninstalling the latest driver and rolling back the Wacom driver to a previous version, such as 6.4.0-11 or 6.3.46-2, and sharing your observations?

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anshul Saini

[Bobby Henderson]

I've been having a lot of problems running the AI 27.2 build on my Alienware X17 notebook (Core i7 CPU, RTX-3070 GPU, 64MB of RAM, 120Hz UHD 17" display). Typically it runs for a less than half an hour, sometime far less, before the application window hangs and disappears. When I re-launch the application I have to re-build my slightly modified essentials classic workspace because it reverts back to initial install default. The same 27.2 build runs more stable (but not entirely stable) on my work desktop (Dell XPS 8940 with similar hardware as my Alienware X17). The 27.3 build (now in pre-release) seems to run more stable on my X17 notebook.

[N Zwetzig]

I am having tremendous difficulties with Adobe Illustrator since January 2023. It is crashing, seemingly at random, regardless of file, action or any other variable. It will run between 2-seconds and 20-minutes with crash to desktop every time.  No warning, error, or messages of any kind are present.  I have been troubleshooting for two weeks now and cannot resolve the issue.  Prior to January, the program, and all other CC programs worked flawlessly.  As of now, Illustrator is the only program known to be crashing.

I have tried all of the following techniques, unsuccessfully, several times, in attempts to solve the Illustrator crashing issue:

1. Ensure that your computer meets the minimum system requirements.
2. Update Illustrator to the latest version for improved product stability. Ensure that you restart your computer after the update.
3. Back up and reset your app preferences to ensure that none of them are corrupt.
4. Check the System Compatibility Report for outdated GPU driver issues. Update your GPU drivers now if you haven't yet.
5. Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner tool to perform a clean reinstall of Illustrator.
6.  Clear font cache (several times)
7.  Try previous versions of Illustrator
8.  Remove Plug-Ins, (I have NEVER used any plug-ins outside of what comes with the standard install)
9. Roll back Windows updates - not successful.
10.  Purchase NEW Wacom Intuos Pro M, PTH-660, Latest drivers as of 01/31/2023 - 3.8.10.52

My system info is as follows:

Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-12900K 3.19 GHz
Installed RAM 128 GB (128 GB usable)

GPU: Nvidia RTX A6000 48GB
Windows 10 Pro
Version 22H2 - KB5019275 (updated 01/31/2023)
Installed on ‎9/‎22/‎2022
OS build 19045.2546
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0

Product ID 00330-54222-16163-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch Pen support

The program will crash if working on any file, new or old.  Blank, or full of art. On the C drive, or any other drive.  I have toggled all syncing services.  I have toggled all settings and preferences systematically to find the solution and have failed every time.

It has ben (at least) two weeks since I've been able to work in Adobe Illustrator.  I am prepared at this point to do a complete wipe and Windows OS reinstall on my (new and very powerful) machine.  It is extremely discouraging to be experiencing these crash issues while working with the latest and greatest hardware.

PLEASE HELP!

[kevin stohlmeyer]

Hi @N Zwetzig specific to your issue - do you have the Gaming driver or Studio driver installed? Use the Studio driver if available.

[Anshul_Saini · Accepted solution]

Hi @N Zwetzig @Bobby Henderson,

We are sorry to hear about your experience. Due to the latest Wacom driver, there have been a lot of crashes with Illustrator. This has been a reported issue by multiple users in recent weeks. The product team is aware of this and currently working on a fix.

In the meantime, some users have reported success by rolling back the Wacom driver to a previous version, such as 6.3.46-2, or you can also try the latest Driver, v6.4.1-3 as well and share your observation with us.

Would you be willing to give that a try?

Please let us know if that helps.

Thanks,

Anshul Saini

[N Zwetzig]

Thank you for the suggestions,

1.) Nvidia RTX A6000 driver version is:  528.24  -  I am unaware of a "gaming" driver for this series of gpu.)

2.) Wacom driver rollback to: 6.4.0-11  -  This appears to have improved or solved the crashing issue.  I have not spent enough time in Illstrator yet to confirm, but so far stability is much improved and I was able to finish my work. 

Note:  I was forced to go purchase a NEW Wacom Intuos Pro in order to use this driver.  My older Wacom Intuos Pro hardware was only running properly on the latest, most current driver 6.4.1-3. The older hardware wasn't working on previous driver versions.  I've been using Wacom Intuos tablets for about 15 years.  Several times now, I've needed to upgrade the physical hardware in order to resolve software issues.  Very strange... I'd say I'm on my 4th or 5th Intuos tablet in that time... Overall, not bad cost amortization at all, but still strange they seem to be bricked by software updates.

I will update with Illustrator stability report following a full day's work.  Again, so far so good, with no crashes reported since the new Wacom tablet hardware and Wacom driver rollback to 6.4.0-11.

[Anshul_Saini]

Sure! Please keep monitoring and let us know how it goes, @N Zwetzig. If it crashes, try rolling back the Wacom driver to v6.3,.46-2, which is stable, as confirmed by many users & our product team.

Thanks,

Anshul Saini

[DeAnna2023]

Hi, I previously rolled back to wacom driver 6.4.0-11 according to @Tikya on Solved: Wacom tablet use crashes Illustrator? - Adobe Support Community - 13526589

Has anyone tested the current wacom driver 6.4.1-3 for Windows with the updated Illustrator 27.3.1?

[lilindar]

I also have wondered if the issue with the wacom driver is resolved? I'm so destroyed by work, all I can do is enter safe mode to get work done. I don't have time to fight with this expensive program being janky. I would love to hear news of this being solved.

[Bobby Henderson]

The current Wacom tablet driver for Windows (6.4.1-3), dated 1/24/2023, is buggy. It causes Adobe Illustrator to crash -usually by making the application window hang and then disappear. The odd thing is if I run the Wacom driver loggin utility I can't make it crash while that is running. Wacom released a newer driver for Mac OSX (dated 2/28/23). It might be more reliable.

While I'm sure Wacom will probably get this crash issue with Adobe Illustrator fixed, I don't have much confidence they will do anything about the absolutley horrible situation on the Windows OS involving Windows Ink. There is no way how I can over-stress how utterly terrible Windows Ink is when involved with a Wacom graphics tablet. Wacom needs to find a way how to get the graphics tablet to work FULLY (with pressure sensitive operations enabled) and Windows Ink totally barred from operation. I hate hate hate Windows Ink. 

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @DeAnna2023 @lilindar @Bobby Henderson,

I understand how frustrating it can be to deal with software crashes, especially when it impacts your work. I wanted to let you all know that we have been actively working to resolve the issue with Wacom tablets crashing Adobe

Illustrator, and we have made progress in identifying some scenarios of the problem. We have stopped the crash from happening on launch due to faulty Wacom drivers, but we can't fix it entirely as it relies on Wacom to fix this from their end. However, as Bobby mentioned, the latest Wacom driver version is buggy, and it can still cause the application to crash randomly while working. First, it will hang Illustrator and then close it, resulting in a crash.

We are working closely with Wacom to address this issue, but in the meantime, I would recommend sticking with the older, stable Wacom driver versions, such as 6.3.46-2 or 6.4.0-11, as they have been reported to work well with Illustrator. We will continue to keep you updated on any new developments and progress on this matter.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Best,

Anshul Saini

[lilindar]

I will try converting back to the old Wacom driver when I am soon at home again!

My illustrator crashing issues have continued - except for in safe mode. So I've been entering safe mode to be able to get work done. 

[Bobby Henderson]

If you're using a Windows-based PC I would recommend installing the driver from November 2022 (version 6.4.0-11). You can get the driver at: https://www.wacom.com/en-us/support/product-support/drivers
But be sure to click the "older versions" link under the "download" button on the page.