Illustrator Mac 2024 freezes on launch, won't start

[tunghoy]

It was running fine, then randomly stopped launching. When I try, it gets to the point of checking and initializing, then freezes. Always a different item that it's initializing when it freezes. What I have tried:

• Uninstalled from CC desktop and from Finder, reinstalled over and over and over.
• Used the Cleanup tool to remove Illustrator and CC desktop
• Deleted font cache using Terminal
• No 3rd party plugins or anything else to remove, no scripts to launch
• Removed Illustrator caches
• Removed beta version
• Rebooted several times

System info:

• M2 with 16 gb
• Sonoma 14.4.1
• System Monitor shows 9 gb free before trying to launch
• Monitor shows 12 gb used when launch attempt is in progress
• 95 gb disk available, trash is empty, iCloud is nearly full
• Other CC apps are installed but not running

Searching here shows this has been an issue for years. Any suggestions before I give up and start using something else?

[Monika Gause]

Update Sonoma to the latest version first. That one seems to work at least for a lot of people.

Check out what Mike and Anubhav wrote in here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/illustrator-2022-black-homescreen-and-no-add-...

If nothing else works, please try and contact Customer Care. They can login to your system. But that will only work during the week.

https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html 

[tunghoy]

Thanks. Upgraded Sonoma to 14.6 but it makes no difference. Illustrator still freezes upon launch and the OS throws a message that it's out of application memory.

What kills me is this debilitating bug isn't unique to my machine and it isn't recent. It's known and unaddressed. Adobe has become the Boeing of the software industry.

[Monika Gause]

What else is running on the computer?

Do you have a Window manager? Such as Rectangle or Magnet?

Do you have an additional monitor?

Do you have the software Display Pilot?

16 GB of memory is not a lot actually.

[tunghoy]

None of that is installed and I closed all other running applications even though that shouldn't be necessary. And 16 gb is more than enough for Illustrator. Heck, I used to run it on my Intel Mac with 8 gb. And this machine has no problem running Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Acrobat and Camtasia, all resource hogs. It's not like Illustrator is slow. I just didn't start.

I finally fixed this issue with the nuclear option, which I wanted to avoid: I scrubbed this machine clean of everything Adobe. Even the full blast of the cleanup tool didn't remove everything. There was still detritus in the Applications folder and app launcher I had to remove manually. Then I reinstalled the CC desktop, and from there installed AI (and also Photoshop). Finally working, after too much time fighting with it. Now I have to re-install all the other stuff.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @tunghoy,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience, and I'm glad to hear that you were able to resolve the problem. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks,
Anubhav

[zorrillamonsoon]

I'm having this same issue right now. I have 128gb of ram, 8tb of storage... m3 max pro... adobe needs to fix this bs. I think adobe products still run on rosetta... this is the most frustrating, insensible crap I have ever experienced. hoping updating to the latest OS works for me even though it didn't seem to work for you. 😭😭😭

[Monika Gause]

---

@zorrillamonsoon  schrieb:

I'm having this same issue right now. I have 128gb of ram, 8tb of storage... m3 max pro... adobe needs to fix this bs. I think adobe products still run on rosetta... this is the most frustrating, insensible crap I have ever experienced. hoping updating to the latest OS works for me even though it didn't seem to work for you. 😭😭😭

---

Did you recently install or update one of the Adobe Beta apps? If so, can you try and uninstall it?

If not: can you try and reset the preferences?

If that does not help, unfortunately you need to uninstall, run the Adobe Cleaner tool and reinstall. That helped a couple of people today.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

If you have custom brushes etc, first  bring them into a safe and dry place. They can be found in these locations:  https://www.vektorgarten.de/illustrator-settings.html 

[thebzaforums]

Same. 2023 MacBook Pro, M2 chip, 16gb memory, running Sonoma 14.6. Illustrator freezes upon launch when reaching different stages of initialization. Maddening.

[Hoze]

Finally I was able to open by removing all BETA apps, I had After Effects & Media Encoder beta. then I also installed Illustrator beta when Illustrator 2024 was not working and tried opening but it would get stuck at initialization and not launch (Same as Illustrator 2024). Finally after removing all BETA applications Illustrator 2024 launched. Phew

[JBorges]

Thanks a lot, that works here also!!!! Thanks!!!

[1suky1]

Jesus Christ Adobe.... This comment needs to be pinned.

I had the same exact issue but on Windows, and it also happened to Photoshop. I had AE Beta installed and after removing it the problem is fixed.

Also somehow, AE and PR worked fine... 

[George322551441z0u]

removing the Beta apps did the magic - WELL DONE - PROBLEM FIX

[MediocreCreative]

Tried just about everything before finding this comment. Uninstalling Media Encoder Beta was finally what worked.

[ROB5EDC]

THIS WORKED!!!!! Uninstall those Beta software and it should work.
Thanks for all the suggestions and helpful comments community 😄

[jg46087376]

It works. Unbelivable.
Where is your cape?
Adobe, this guy should recive free lifetime access to your products.

[Luis5E6E]

I had the same issue, tried everything until this solution right here fixed it all. I removed the beta apps and that was it. Thanks a lot for sharing!

[antonym_component]

Success here also. I am never insalling Beta apps again.

[nolanhelly]

After hours of trying to resolve this bizzare issue, this solution worked!! Thank god

[Pablo36919479k0ts]

Worked for me thank you so much!

[Bright Fantail]

Absolutely saved me.  Thankyou!  Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop were dead on my 32Gb M1 Max.   I had Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects and Media Encoder Beta apps.   REMOVED them (even though they were the only ones that were working) and now Photoshop and everything else works! 

[TitusAndronicus]

Removing ALL Beta versions including Media Encoder also worked for me. Thankfully did this before using the nuclear option. 

[RonPaul2016]

Removing all Beta Apps worked. M2 Max Studio, AI would not load, uninstalled, reinstalled, tried older versions...finally found this comment. I could have lost a client.

Thanks for NOTHING ADOBE! Infinity be lookin Really Good these days! 

[mapabarragan]

Thank you so much! I was on the verge of despair since yesterday! I've been trying everything for two days—installing, uninstalling, deleting preferences, and so on. Nothing worked. I'm so relieved that it finally worked now!

[Andrew N14]

Can confirm I looked through this thread for solutions and the one that worked for me was removing all BETA apps. My MacOS was completely up to date, I had uninstalled and reinstalled Illustrator, but for some reason the BETA apps were causing the problem. For me, the hickup was happening with the plugins. After uninstalling all BETA apps, Illustrator opened in 2 seconds.