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?

[ohnorobeeoh]

I'm in the same situation. I followed all suggestions above but no change in results. Standard and Beta releases of Photoshop and Illustrator freeze on launch. Acitivity viewer shows at that point they start "grabbing" 2gb chunks of memory every couple of seconds until the computer locks up and shuts down.

[ohnorobeeoh]

UPDATE - I missed ONE Beta app. Deleted that and now the standard/current release Adobe apps work. Hope that helps somebody.

[Hector32543877evkd]

Thanks! its seems the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool works for me! 

[aichaelbeloui]

My CC suite is all up to date. I am on A Mac Studio M2 Max, operationg on Sonoma 14.6

Illustrator won't launch. I tried all of the following options: 

- Uninstalled it and re installed it

- Installed the previous version

 - Rebooted my Mac

- Used the Adobe Cleaner tool following the instructions. 

Nothing worked, and now even InDesign and Photoshop Won't launch. 

Is anyone having the same issue? Any help will be welcome. 

Thank you

[Monika Gause]

The cleaner tool needs to be used after uninstalling.

Do you have any Adobe beta versions installed? Uninstall them.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @aichaelbeloui,

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you're experiencing. I'd like to confirm if the issue started after installing the latest release. If so, other users have reported a similar issue, and we have found that completely reinstalling the application, as suggested by Monika, helps resolve it. Please try the following steps and let us know your observations:

1. Close all Adobe applications.
2. Remove Illustrator using the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool: https://adobe.ly/3LZDS68.
3. Reinstall Illustrator using the Creative Cloud Desktop application: https://adobe.ly/3LX80PC.
4. Relaunch Illustrator.

Thank you for your patience, and I hope this helps!

Regards,
Anubhav

[ryanmbyrne]

I tried this several times. Did not work.

[Monika Gause]

Do you have any Adobe beta apps installed? If so, uninstall them.

[ghdrodrigues]

Thanks, it worked here. I uninstalled everything and installed everything again

[aichaelbeloui]

It worked, thank you ! 

[markm76483456]

Hi; please help: I'm trying to launch my apps today but Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign won't launch - they just hang on the loading page. Creative Cloud app does run but can't launch them either. I've tried rebooting and restarting. I'm on Mac Studio M1 Max, 64gb, Sonoma 14.4.1 

If I have to wipe all of Adobe off and start again, can anyone help in telling me which preference folders I need to keep to keep my prefs, brushes, plug-ins etc. please?

[Monika Gause]

Did you install or update any Adobe Betas yesterday?
If so, uninstall them. Reboot. Does that work?

If not, then you can try if resetting the preferences works.

If not you have to uninstall, run the Adobe cleaner tool and reinstall. https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

This is a destructive process. If you first want to get some custom brushes and stuff out of your system, here are the locations: https://www.vektorgarten.de/illustrator-settings.html 

[markm76483456]

Thank you; I didn't manually update any Betas but I have seen that thread in the Photoshop section now- I'll try that first and see if it works. 

[markm76483456]

Thank you- it was the Beta apps which were preventing all other apps from opening- I'm back up and running now.

[GINGALLEY]

Uninstalling all Beta apps worked for me too!

[ToddHouser]

YES, uninstall all Adobe Betas. Restart your machine, and see... after 318 other attempts to fix, that worked for me.

[Gagandeep30533193py1k]

Everything worked yesterday, but Illustrator and Photoshop stopped opening on my Mac today. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling different versions, but still no luck.

[Monika Gause]

Do you have any Adobe beta apps installed? Particularly anything video?
Can you uninstall all the betas, reboot and then try again?

If you do not want to install al betas, please start with Media Encoder, Premiere, After Effects.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Gagandeep30533193py1k,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind confirming if you have any beta Adobe apps installed on your computer? If yes, kindly try the following steps, as Monika suggested, to check if they help:

- Close all Adobe applications
- Uninstall any installed Beta apps from Creative Cloud (https://adobe.ly/3AiBbu0)
- Relaunch Illustrator

If the problem persists, try removing Illustrator using the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool (https://adobe.ly/3WHiwQh) and then reinstalling and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Anubhav

[Dviate]

I was having literally the same issue and this trick worked for me. Literally the applications that were installed "twice" (both stable release and the beta release) on my MacBook Pro running Sonoma 14.6.1 were crashing during startup, but after uninstalling the beta version of each application (Photoshop, Illustrator) it works great like it did before.

This said, will there come a fix for this? The betas are always nice to play with, especially previewing new options is always cool :)...

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Dviate,

Thanks for confirming that the suggestions helped resolve the problem. Our team is currently investigating the problem and you should be able to access your beta Adobe apps soon.

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks,
Anubhav

[haneadino]

No Illustrator program work for me today????

Can anybody help??????

[Monika Gause]

Do you have any Adobe beta apps installed? If so, try and uninstall them.

[haneadino]

Hi @Monika Gause 

As you see from my printscreen, - all my Illustrator don't work? it has been so all the day long. I have shut down my computer and restarted it several times today - but nothing helps.
Unfortunately I don't have Illustrator Beta. It's not in my Aps on Create Cloud?? - but I have all other programs in Beta versions, but just not Illustrator?

[Monika Gause]

It's the beta versions that are causing this. So if you have any beta of any Adobe app installed, uninstall it.

For many people uninstalling the betas already helps. But some people also needed to uninstall their Adobe apps, run the Adobe Cleaner tool and then reinstall. I see that you have Illustrator 2022 there. You will not be able to reinstall it.