Illustrator CS5 + Mac El Capitan = Crashing!

[rickmartin_art]

I am having an issue ever since installing El Capitan. When using Adobe Illustrator CS5, any time I attempt to use the Eyedropper tool, the program will crash as soon as I click on the object I'm trying to copy the color of.

I have noticed that I am able to use the eyedropper successfully ONLY when copying the color of a SOLID color object. If I attempt to copy the color of an object with a gradient-fill, or copy a color from an embedded image/photo, the crash is immediate.

The issue is happening on both my Macbook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) and my iMac (24-inch, Early 2008).

PLEASE help. I am very reliant on using Adobe Illustrator for my job.

Any advice will help, or if you are experiencing the same (or similar) issue let me know so I can avoid anything that will cause the crash!

[Vidar_Nordboe]

Hi!

My daughter has pretty much the same rig as you, and use CS5 for work, also her Photoshop CS5 crashed on the first run after El Capitan installation.

We got her CS5 up and running again by the use of the instructions in below - this included removing preferences, and reinstalling from source files (which she had on optical disk)

Good luck

Solution 5: Reinstall Photoshop

An unexpected and unrecoverable problem has occurred | Mac OS

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/unexpected-unrecoverable-problem-occurr.html

[erinheld13]

I've been having the same problem. So frustrating. Who knew upgrading the OS would have a negative effect on legacy software? I'm hoping to go back to Yosemite until I can update my software or the bugs in El Capitan are resolved.

[Larry G. Schneider]

Apple hasn't cared about legacy software since 10.6 or earlier. Personally I'm still running 10.7/8 on my machines and don't care to update until the computers die.

[Anandaxp]

This is actually a disgusting situation to be. I don't think any adobe representatives read these forums.. I updated to el capitan as it was the natural thing to stay secure and fast. but Apple doesn't give a dam n Adobe could say "meh! we have discontinued CS5, so don't bring it over here"... I get the picture now.

Hey Adobe, CS5 was the best thing you did, you could have stopped there and started to improve it, yet you fire new releases n keep going on.... I'm wishing there should be compeitive products here... Affinity is the next best thing that's gonna be....

I have no option but to waste my time and get back to Yosemite? great!

[paulg83959037]

Illustrator CS5 + Mac El Capitan = NOT Crashing!

Had this problem and saw this thread.

Also played around with Illustrator and perhaps others can confirm, but try

1. opening up a new blank document — not a template,

2. set units to mm rather than using the default pixel size and use say A4 sizes 210 x 297mm

3. save the document

4. create a square and colour A

5. create a second square and colour B

6. select the dropper and click on square A — square B changes colour without crashing the programme...

By doing this the default size also changes to what you want to set instead of losing it when the programme crashes on exit.

Given this, my feeling is that the degraded version of Java that you have to download and install from Apple to allow CS5 to run on El Capitan is doing something odd to older files.

Perhaps a perspicacious 5 year old can provide us with the answer for this one?

Cheers,

Quinlan

[slagletron]

Apparently a lot of issues are because Java 6 isn't allowed to run on El Capitan.

This video shows you how to get Java 6 working on El Capitan.

It's super easy

Java SE 6 El Capitan - CS6 Not working on El Capitan - YouTube

I hope it helps!!!

[jim.agitprop]

Same problem here when using the eyedropper on any object in CS5.5

[jasonrjrobinson]

Bit of a hack‌... But if you highlight an object in the chosen colour you want and make into a swatch... Then change objects and apply from the swatch... Not ideal but it doesn't crash...

[motmill]

A bit of a workaround for those that can't be bothered with the OSX reinstall.

Lil bit annoying but better than nothing,  you just have to change the way you use the eyedropper...

1. Use the Direct Selection (White) Arrow to select the object you are taking the colour from

2. Eyedrop the colour from the object,

3. Hold down the option key and the eyedropper will switch to disperse function

4. Disperse the colour to the desired object

Doesn't crash for me using that way anyway...

[tmacllc]

Thanks for the info. I will be trying this.

It is a bit tough to remember it will crash since using the eyedropper comes so naturally.

[Bryan191]

I tried going to eyedropper options (double click button) and deselected everything (in both Eyedropper Picks Up & Applies) apart from color, seems to work now without crashing.

[Bryan191]

I also have CS5 and upgraded to El Capitan, naively thinking that Apple and Adobe would have simple things like this sorted out. Thought I needed to upgrade OS to keep iMac working up to spec. Wish I hadn't.

[Bryan191]

Sorry, it worked on test file, but not on others, so I'll have to wait and see if Apple fix it in an OS upgrade

[paulg83959037]

Hi B191,

just tried this out now too and seemed to work.

however, selecting something off the document area such as the background, and colour elsewhere

which causes it to crash...

still, a little bit of progress if you remember to limit where you pick up the colour from, well done.

[laburke]

Sometimes the choice whether to upgrade our OS is, for all intents and purposes, made for us when we buy a new computer. I just got a new iMac and Illustrator CS5 is crashing on me when I try to save. I haven't exhausted all the options as far as troubleshooting goes, but I'm hoping I can get it to run because I don't want to go with CC yet either. I bought CS5 not long before CC was introduced and am not ready to pay again so soon.

In an ideal world, we'd all upgrade as soon as a new OS or software has worked out the bugs and things would progress smoothly. But many of us are just cobbling things together as best we can because we don't have that kind of money.

Just my thoughts.

[rcraighead]

laburke,

Good thoughts and I share them completely. I have put off buying a new computer because I don't have the money and I really like CS5. In a way Adobe is alienating their customers because their old software is so good there is little reason to upgrade. I think that is clearly one of the driving factors pushing Adobe's decision to "rent" software.

I noticed CS5 was introduced in 2005. Ten years is a long time in computer terms, but the upgrade cost/benefit curve has steadily leveled off since Illustrator 1.0 was introduced in 1987.

I hope you get CS5 working. And I hope my computer keeps working a few more months/years so I can keep enjoying the old, tried and true, PAID FOR, software.

[Bryan191]

I think CS5 was released in 2010, which is not that long ago, and I'm sure many thousands around the world are still happily using it (or trying to). Looking forward to Apple's next Capitan update which will surely resolve these important niggles.

[Mykill G]

‌ although this may not help out everyone, I have it up and running on my El Capitan iMac. When saving, if I leave it set to the default save location, in my case "Documents", it saves without a crash. The second I try to change the same location using the drop-down menu, it crashes.

As I have stated on other forum posts, I absolutely need CS5 to perform my job. I work as a designer for screenprint, and I am always supplied with client made ink drawings that must be vectorized for print. Although the new image trace feature works great if you want to turn a photo into a 500,000 path full-color vector, it simply does not trace with the same kind of precision on black and white line art that the old version did.

this is a near daily task for me. I have sent emails and posted in the forums begging adobe to allow me to buy a new license for CS 5.1 illustrator. And every time, I get the exact same response… Silence.  And although I do not typically condone such things, Adobe, there are other ways to get your software, and if you will not allow me to give you money for it… I know that was a little off topic, but maybe somebody will finally listen.

anyway, hopefully this will help out a couple people having the crash on save issue, and hopefully Apple will provide a fix to this issue, because I send a report every single time it crashes on me.

on a sidenote, I am using talk to text on my phone for this, so hopefully it doesn't butcher my words and grammar too badly

[laburke]

Thank you for the tip, Mykill! I will see if that works for me.

I'm in the same boat as you, and I'm sure we're not the only ones. Let's pray that Bryan191 is right and we will catch a break with the next update.

[Mykill G]

just wondering if you got a chance to test it out. It's still working for me, I just wish I could pick where I save. At least it saves though. Please let me know if this worked out for you...

[laburke]

Oh, yes, I did. After more testing, for me it's not where it saves that is the issue, but it only seems to crash upon exiting the program. Other than that, it's working fine. So I guess I will count my blessings.

[Mykill G]

hmmmm.... I wonder why it's acting differently on different systems. Would you mind posting the specs on your system and see if maybe we can start tracking the problem, or at least see if certain problems are specific to certain systems? I'm not in front of my system right now, but I will post my specs when I get back home.

I can tell you though that it is a brand-new, late 20,15 27 inch retina iMac, with the latest El Capitan updates. Illustrator was installed not buy a creative suite installer, but by an individual illustrator trial installer. I'll get you the full specs once I'm back. Anyone else having specific issues, please feel free to add your specific problem and your system specs and maybe we can start figuring out what issues are occurring on what systems. Thanks

[laburke]

I've got the same iMac as you (new, late 2015, 27-inch, retina 5K for anyone keeping track), El Capitan 10.11.1. I installed directly from my CS5 disks, except that I'm using Photoshop CC. Along with Illustrator, InDesign also crashes on quit, Dreamweaver does not, haven't tried all the other ones that I use little or not at all.

[Mykill G]

As previously stated, I need the Live Trace feature from AI CS5.1 for my job. The new Image Trace doesn't cut if for hand-drawn black&white line art.

PLEASE, Apple/Adobe, find a fix for this...

Illustrator CS 5.1, version 15.1.0

My issues:

Eyedropper:

Using eyedropper tool causes app crash if attempting to grab color from Linked image, but not Embedded image.

Save/Save As:

Save As will crash application if attempting to change default Save location (Documents),

but will not crash and will allow save if keeping default save location.

Quit:

When using Illustrator > Quit Illustrator, application will crash.

My Specs:

El Capitan, 10.11.1

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)

Processor: 4 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory: 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3

Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB

Model Identifier: iMac17,1

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 4 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 8 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Boot ROM Version: IM171.0105.B04

SMC Version (system): 2.34f2

Can post crash data, but since it's such a huge amount of data, let me know what specific parts of the crash report are needed/necessary

[laburke]

Oops, DreamWeaver DOES crash on quit as well, although not every time. And Illustrator also crashes if I scroll through my fonts too fast.

The rest of my specs (I don't have the choice to edit my above post):

3.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor

Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz

8GB memory

3TB Fusion Drive

AMD Radeon R9 M395 with 2GB video memory

Retina 5K 5120-by-2880 P3 display