Illustrator is crashing on M1 Mac (macOS Big Sur)

[Julian5FC2]

Hi,

I am using Illustrator on a new Macbook Pro with M1 apple silicon. While using the software it often starts to randomly freeze and after a few minutes everything works again. Sometimes the whole mac is frozen for several minutes and Illustrator crashes completely. Not seeing anyone eelse reproting the problem und no issue desiriped my adobe on the M1 side i was wondering what could be rhe reason for this problem. Thank you!

{Renamed by MOD}

[Neeko0D45]

My iCloud Drive has been unchecked and I've still had Illustrator issues. I will turn off the GPU Performance and see if that works. I'll be heavily using Illustrator today.

[Neeko0D45]

Just an update on what I am seeing. With GPU turned off, Illustrator will crash, but without frezing the entire operating system like it was before. It will just crash and close. Still not good, but at least I don't have to force restart. I will update again if I see anything else.

[Neeko0D45]

Another update: whole system just froze up again and had to force restart. GPU was turned off in Illustrator preferences. Turning off iCloud and turning off GPU Performance are not solutions for the system instability Illustator causes.  😞

[Doug A Roberts]

That is a shame. I'm sorry you had no joy.

[Neeko0D45]

It's okay. I'm going to test out reducing the "undo counts" from 100-50 and unchecking "Real-Time Drawing and Editing". We'll see what happens.

I am impressed with this computer, I just wish the Adobe progams would function. Every other program I've run has been smooth or runs even better than on my previous Macbook Pro.

[kevinellerton]

Facing same issues 😞 Did reducing the undo counts fix the problem? If not, were you able to find any solution?

[Hanne5C8A]

The same problem here, my solution was to download and install an older version and that runs pretty well. You should be able to find the older version in the install options CC will give you when you choose to install Illustrator. Good luck.

[Doug A Roberts]

You're using Illustrator version 24 on an M1 Mac without experiencing the problems reported here with version 25?

Can anyone else reading this please give this a go and confirm?

[Neeko0D45]

I'm not sure if I've found a solution, but my system was stable yesterday after tinkering with the performance settings in Illustrator. I was mainly saving out logo files yesterday, so not super heavy Illustrator work. I would love if another person with an M1 mac using Illustrator could also test this and see if they see less crashing.

Under Illustrator Preferences
Click "Performance"

Uncheck "GPU Performance"
Set "Undo Counts" to 50
Uncheck "Real-Time Drawing and Editing"

[Neeko0D45]

Still smooth sailing this morning, and I'm doing heavier design work. No system crashes yet.

[olafs15357834]

Hi,

I tested your performance solution on my mac M1 and it is working fine now.

Thank you!

[Neeko0D45]

Awesome! I've had 4 full hours of crash-free this morning. No lagging either.

[Yehuda5E9D]

I'm having the same problem!!

[Neeko0D45]

Can you try this and see if helps?

Under Illustrator Preferences
Click "Performance"

Uncheck "GPU Performance"
Set "Undo Counts" to 50
Uncheck "Real-Time Drawing and Editing"

[Yehuda5E9D]

Getting on that now!!

[Yehuda5E9D]

Ughhh I hate it without GPU Performance checked

[Yehuda5E9D]

Took the undo count down to 50....

I'll keep you posted

[Neeko0D45]

Yeah 😞
I think I restarted my computer at least 10 times yesterday until I unchecked everything. I haven't had to restart all day today. It's not as smooth, but it is letting me get work done.

[Neeko0D45]

And I'm not exactly sure which of the unchecked options it was that fixed it. Just don't have time to test it out. But if you narrow it down, please let us know.

[Yehuda5E9D]

Will do. So sad. It was working so freaking amazingly before everything crashed. Now I also have the real time editing unchecked too. Can't stomach unchecking the GPU performance tho 😕

[Yehuda5E9D]

Problem still happening. Guess I have to shut off GPU performance 😞

[Neeko0D45]

With just "GPU Performance" unchecked, it still crashed for me. I had to uncheck "Real-Time Drawing and Editing".

[Yehuda5E9D]

Interesting. I now have them all shut off and have had no crashes since.

[Neeko0D45]

Yeah, no crashes for me yesterday. It was amazing!

[Yehuda5E9D]

Same here! I can't wait until they update the app and I don't have to disable those features. It's gonna work so well 😭