Illustrator CS6 Will not drop down font menu

[Commercialvoice]

No changes made to system (Windows latest version 10).  CS6 Master installed.  All of a sudden Illustrator (64bit) will NOT drop down the fonts list.  New file or old file...I can no longer cause the drop down list of fonts to populate.  I CAN directly type a font and it will populate, but I can no longer scroll and choose a font.

I completely uninstalled Illustrator, restarted the computer and then installed again...no good.

How can I fix this?

[Bill Silbert · Accepted solution]

Windows 10 is constantly updating itself. CS6 is not supported for Windows 10. If you have been working with it up to now then you should consider that lucky. I've seen this problem presented a few times recently and it seems to coincide with the latest (automatic) updates that have been released for Windows 10. I'm betting that it is the updates to the OS which are affecting your CS6. The most probable solutions are to either roll back your operating system to pre-Windows 10 (future updates will only make things worse) or get a subscription to Creative Cloud and update to the latest version of Illustrator.

It should also be pointed out that the automatic updating for Windows 10 does not seem to have any official way of turning it off. Microsoft has also announced that from now on their OS will always be called Windows 10 but as it keeps updating itself the OS will eventually bear little resemblance to its original release.

[Joe25865933bvky]

Aug 2022  -This is ALSO occurring in the 25.6 CLOUD version I just downloaded

thinking my 12 yr old CS6 CD install onto a WIN 10 computer was the problem.

Tried many fixes and appears there is no resolution..

Waitng for ADOBE agent call back in 24 hrs...

[phwilkinson]

I am discovering this same issue right now. The weird thing is that the list shows up in Photoshop CS6, but not Illustrator CS6. Other than typing in the name of the font directly, the only scroll I can do is hitting the UP-Arrow and DOWN-Arrow keys. It's better than nothing for now.

[Commercialvoice]

Correct, Photoshop is fine with us too.  Disappointing to say the least.  We have 34 workstations with the latest CC Master installed on those but this particular workstation has some extremely customized settings making the upgrade to what we have on the other 34 stations NOT feasible as the prevision responded suggested. We are really in search of a solution to the problem and hopefully someone will be able to offer a solution soon.

[Monika Gause]

Illutrator CS6 is not compatible with Windows 10. Issues might come and go with each update.

[debbyh31802919]

Hi - I have used CS6 on my Windows 10 computer for two years with no problems. Haven't done a Windows update for a few weeks. The font menu stopped working while I was in the middle of designing a file. Photoshop and InDesign both work, but suddenly not Illustrator. Not seeing any solution here . . .

[Norio Kawamura]

There was a similar problem reported in Japan.

There is a report that it was resolved by uninstalling about 10 fonts.

[Glen Charles Rowell]

What fonts? I updated Windows and the font dropdowns don't work here either. The top option or sidebar...

[Glen Charles Rowell]

Which Adobe worker or programmer in Microsoft did this and why? Which fonts cause the problem? Why is a program made with such low level checking procedures and why isn't there a ticketed public bug reporting system? How is it even possible for a drop-down to stop working? Why wasn't this fixed in the cumulative update? Is it time to just move to freeware?

[Yusrina]

yes, I delete a few fonts, then the problem resolved. Thanks

[barbarabowwow]

Same issue here. Any other possible solutions?

[Monika Gause]

Wait for the next update. Or roll back.

[ptl4evr]

It may be part of WIN10 however, after days of frustration found the fix. It is some fonts that causing the issue. Either it can load two many fonts (I had about 2500) in the fonts directory or there are corrupted fonts (or Type 1 fonts PSF) in the fonts directory. I have deleted all the fonts in the Windows Fonts directory and added back only the default fonts, Illustrator CS6 font drop down start working. Then I copy back (install) all fonts I had from the backup, the font drop down stop working. Then I deleted about half of the fonts from the Windows fonts director, here you go... fonts drop down start working. I have repeatedly test to simulated issue and clearly see it's directly connected to Fonts. Finally, I have cleaned up lots of fonts that I do not needed from the Windows Fonts directory, and got the Illustrator to work like before. Try this and see yourself.

[yetilicious]

ptl4evr​ I have the same issue as you. How many extra fonts were you able to install before the bug kicked in? I have over 2000 fonts and will start weeding through them tonight.

[ptl4evr]

Right now I have about 600 fonts. May be it will take more before it crashes.

[joeyb7823]

Do  you have any clue around which font it may have been? Maybe what letter range the font may have started with? I have this same issue, and I think I can narrow it down to recently installed fonts, but  I can't remember which ones were recently installed.  If I have that info maybe it will be easier...Thanks in advance if you can remember!

[yetilicious]

ptl4evr joeyb7823 I moved all the unnecessary font that I would never use to a separate folder. I went from 2500-ish fonts down to about maybe 600 and the drop down started working again. Some day I might go and slowly add fonts back if I need them.

[C&S Networking]

OK folks, this has NOTHING to do with windows updates....  I've been running CS6 on Windows 10 pro 64 for 4+ years now and it's not failed me until this issue.

The problem recently started happening to me and i have been reading threads for a couple of weeks now and I am convinced that a bogus font or 'glyph within a specific font' is preventing the pulldown menu from displaying...

Armed with this information, i decided to tackle this from a "recently installed font" perspective... 

Here's what i did...

1. Closed Illustrator
2. Opened the Fonts explorer by typing "Win key + R" (for "RUN"), and typed FONTS and pressed enter.
3. changed the default view from "Large" to "Details".
4. Sorted by date installed.
5. copied the last 90 day's worth of recently installed fonts to a backup folder on the desktop.
6. deleted the last 90 day's worth of recently installed fonts (Shift + Delete to bypass recycle bin).
7. open Illustrator
8. open or start new project
9. check your pulldown font menu....  Mine is now working.

If you feel adventurous, you can start installing your backup fonts 1 at a time, then open Illustrator to see if it broke.  Once you find the offensive font, you can delete it from your system and everything should be just fine...

I hope this helps and hope that engineers quite taking the "we don't support that because MS sucks" approach... shameful behavior to encourage you to spend $$$ you don't' have to...

Enjoy!

[Monika Gause]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/C%26S+Networking  schrieb

I hope this helps and hope that engineers quite taking the "we don't support that because MS sucks" approach...

No engineer answered in this thread. Not even staff.

An no one said anything shameful about Windows either. The only problem is with a system that's too new for that version. It has never been tested and will never be tested (the same goes for Mac OS btw and you will read the exact same remarks about CS 6 on Mac OS Sierra and up).

Basically what was working for you might or might not work for everyone else.

[C&S Networking]

So????

Oh, you're welcome for the vetted solution....

Glad to know that its more important to give me hell about my statement, rather than a polite Thank You for finding, testing, and publishing a solution.....

gheez.....

[keran9899]

HI, i would like to ask , after i delete the font, how to install back the font?

[Monika Gause]

keran9899  schrieb

HI, i would like to ask , after i delete the font, how to install back the font?

Usually after you have downloaded a font to your computer, just double click the file. Your system will then tell you what to do with it.

[C&S Networking]

Hello Keran9899,

I have found that using a font manager that allows you to use a font without necessarily having to install the font is the best way to address this bug, unless you want to upgrade from CS6 to CC19.

Happy Line Art!

[joeyb7823]

C&S Networking, how did you sort fonts by install date? I had tried to do that a while back but couldn't find any info on how to, which I thought should have been an easy thing to do. This happened to me again, so I have to go back and delete out a font again but cant remember what I've installed recently.