Illustrator CS5 .ai files won't open

[DSchu85]

Everything is working fine with opening .psd files in photoshop.  Everything was fine a few days ago opening .ai files with Illustrator.  Now I can't open any .ai files most of the time.  My computer will start up Illustrator but no file will load.  Occasionally,  the files I tried to open will all open and load at once after a reboot.  But after the reboot, the files will not open again.  I uninstalled Illustrator and reinstalled, however, this has not fixed the problem.  I'm also having trouble exiting out of Illustrator, it won't let me close the program at times. I'm using a Macbook Pro with the Lion OS.  Any ideas of what to do?

[Mylenium]

Have you attempted to reinstall? Sounds like something got damaged... On Windows this could be caused by security tools, but since you're on a Mac, that doesn't apply. Also check your Timemachine settings. People sometimes have weird stuff happening because of it.

Mylenium

[Kurt Gold]

He told that he already reinstalled the programme. Nonetheless, these kinds of questions simply cannot be answered here for sure as there may be countless configurations unaccessible to any forum participant.

[Mike_Gondek]

Reset your illustrator prefs, run disk utility to fix premissions, and select a new or different printer (it does affect Illustrator, usually on save though)

[Manish-Sharma]

The information provided is not complete ...

We need the following information:

1) What exactly happen when you open the file, does it give any error messge

2) is it happening with one file or couple of files

3) Where are these files saved on teh local computer , server or external drive

4)You are opening up the file by double clicking on it or from file>open

[DSchu85]

I have a Macbook Pro with the Lion OS.  I used Preferential Treatment and located a corrupt uninstall file for my Epson printer.  I removed the corrupt file and everything was working fine for two days.  Now, it is back to not letting me open .ai files again.  I have a secondary admin profile on my mac and I have no issues creating new .ai files and opening them.  Perhaps my primary profile is corrupt?

I have run disk utility to repair permissions, I did reset my Illustrator preferences, and I have uninstalled my printer (temporarily).  None of these suggestions have worked.

1.  I get no error messages.  Illustrator opens but the file/files will not. 

2.  It happens with all my files.   Sometimes when I reboot and try again I can open the file.  All the other previous files I tried to open will open all at once with it as well.

3.  My files are local on my macbook.

4.  I usually doube-click to open files.  I have tried both ways and niether work.

[cpattersonv1]

I have this same problem on my Windows box (Vista x64, CS5), with a twist.

I can open 1 AI file, then nothing else for the Illustrator session until I quit Illustrator and restart. Illustrator acts okay, it looks like it is going to open something then I'm left with an empty Illustrator app (or with the 1 file I had open already). I couldn't open anything until I deleted prefs for Illustrator (this was after an appcrash). I've reinstalled, wiped my fonts and reloaded them, wiped out some of the saved font lists. Illustrator still won't open AI files. I'm running Suitcase. It's got to be something to do with PDF handling and some sort of shared thing with Acrobat or a font library. Those should be the only things still existing since I've reinstalled.

I installed a plug-in a couple of weeks ago to try to open SVG files. (got it from the Adobe site) That's the only change I made, but that should affect opening native AI files though...

I did get a bunch of Adobe updates a couple of weeks ago but didn't bother to see what they were.

Temp drive has 64gb available. 64gb RAM.

[cpattersonv1]

On my Windows Box, I re-deleted my prefs (out of curiosity) zipped the old prefs, then deleted the files (in case I needed to restore something). When I reopened Illustrator, I opened my first file (no problem). Then my second this time, rather than nothing happening, I received an AppCrash error for BIB.DLL shortly after the message (can't open illustration). I close AI, then open the file that gave me the "can't open illustration" error. After a little research for the BIB.DLL it looks like it might be a corrupt font. This is something different from any Mac problem because of the different ways the two systems handle fonts.

On the Mac if I were running into the same error it would more than likely be something related to permissions if it started happening on its own or a corrupt typeface. If your printer driver was corrupted, then maybe there is an underlying hardware issue (drive about to fail) or software issue (corrupt driver, OS, etc). Disk Utility repair permissions doesn't fix everything. You might want to run an app like Onyx or something that will go over your permissions in greater detail (Disk Warrior perhaps).

If that doesn't work I would one-by-one remove different settings, remove all non-essential fonts, and go forward to see what's causing the issue. If a reinstall didn't fix it, then it's something not removed by the reinstall like a pref, a fontlst, or a corrupt typeface.

Prefs on the Mac can reside in more than one location. There is a good reference on here:

How to Delete Illustrator Prefs on a Mac | eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/how_12113098_delete-illustrator-prefs-mac.html#ixzz1p1SDYmw4

[KokoBlue]

I'm having an issue with being able to view some ai files on my desktop and only seeing the AI icon with other ai files on my desktop,  What is up with that?  All my preferences are exactly the same!  I have Mac 0S X and adobe cloud ...  I just don't understand what is going on or how to fix this!

[Larry G. Schneider]

In order to be viewed with a preview for the icon, the file has to be saved as a PDF-compatible AI file. The preview is generated from the PDF section of the file.

[sarahsallysarahsally]

DSchu85 - Did your problem ever get resolved? If so, how? I am having very similar issues with Illus. CS5 right now. I'm on a MacBook Pro, Lion 10.7.5. I can't get my ai files to open by any means. I disabled all my fonts in Fontbook, nothing. I've reinstalled AI but to no avail. I reset preferences, nothing. I ran disk utility and it told me my HD was OK. I repaired disk permissions but still nothing.

[carolinet8455360]

Did anyone figure this out? I am on a Mac running into the same issues.

[Monika Gause]

carolinet8455360 schrieb:

Did anyone figure this out? I am on a Mac running into the same issues.

Which issues exactly? Error messages?

There are some steps described in this thread - did you try any of this? And what happened then?

Also: Are you using Illustrator CS5? On which system exactly?

This thread is 4 years old. Are you really sure your issue is the same? If not: please create your own thread in order to not mess up this.