Illustrator not working on new Apple Mac Pro M1 Chip

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
April 3, 2021
1 reply
5089 views

Hi all, I know there a lots of questions like this out here but I still haven't figured out on how to make Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop work on a Macbook with the M1 Chip.

Indesign and Lightroom both works fine for me, but Illustrator and Photoshop won't even launch. I tried uninstalling and installing the apps new, I am on the latest apple update (Big Sur 11.2.3), restarted computer etc. but the two apps still won't launch.

Any idea what else I can try?

Correct answer ZooN_

Hi @Jana90 !

As far as I know you cannot download Rosetta 2 directly from Apple as it is more of a framework that gets installed automatically on-the-fly once you try and run an app with only Intel binary code available in it (you still need to click on the Install button in the pop-up dialog).

An easy way to check if you have Rosetta 2 installed is to see if you have any apps that are Intel only. If they run fine, then you definitely have Rosetta 2 installed on your system.

(You can check the application kind in the info panel; Intel apps run on Rosetta 2 and Universal apps contain both Intel and native M1 binaries.)

Having said that, the latest version of Photoshop should still launch on your Mac as it is already a Universal 2 binary, ie. it doesn't need Rosetta 2 at all to launch.

Have you tried using the Adobe Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool? It is very thorough but it will reset all your Adobe apps settings so only do it if you're happy to start from scratch. I know it solved most of the issues I have had with Illustrator.

As for the official support channels, you can try on helpx.adobe.com and there is a chat window at the bottom right corner of the page.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Z

ZooN_

Inspiring

Hi Jana!

I am using both Illustrator and Photoshop on an M1 MacBook Air and both applications work fine. Illustrator runs via Apple's dynamic binary translator called Rosetta 2 and Photoshop runs natively on the new Macs with the M1 chip since version 22.3.

I know this is not much help but I wanted to assure you there are no hardware incompatibily issues that could prevent those software from launching. Have you tried reaching out to the official support pages for help?

J

Jana90Author

Participant

Hi @ZooN_

thank you for your answer! That's really weird then that these apps won't work on my new M1 Macbook. Do you know if there is any way to check if Rosetta has actually been installed? I remember when I opened Illustrator the first time, that I got a popup saying it needs to be installed but I don't really remember that I went through an installation process and also can't find it anywhere on my laptop. I also can't find any link to downlaod Rosetta directly

And do you happen to have the links to the official support pages where I can ask for more help? I thought this here was the official support forum haha

W

WANNABUN

Participating Frequently

Hello @WANNABUN,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind sharing some more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator and a screen recording of the problem (https://adobe.ly/45DWL7T), so we can investigate this further?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

Hi Anubhav, I have only just seen your response.
I originally reported the GPU issue in 2022 (running the native silicon version of AI on an M1 Apple Studio).
Every time there is an update I have been hopeful that the bug will be fixed, as I create many high-end packaging artworks for print that require overprints of multiple colours and finishes.
Running the latest AI 2025 (29.0) now on an M2 Ultra Apple Studio (connected to a new Apple Studio Display), the problem has still not been resolved.
If 'Overprint Preview' is applied, any selected apend point defaults to the 'User Interface' colour rather than its layer colour.
This is using 'View using GPU'.
The view cannot be switched to 'View using CPU' while 'Overprint Preview' is applied (to switch from GPU to CPU 'Overprint Preview' has to be toggled off first).
'View using CPU' by default displays append points in the 'User Interface' colour with or without 'Overprint Preview' being applied.

Before suggesting the default 'try switching it off and on again' uninstall/reinstall of all apps and the OS, please can you confirm in your labs/office if this issue still replicates on an Apple Studio running the native silicon version of Illustrator. Or what set up you have that can run a native silicon version ofIllustrator without this bug.

It is frustrating to have to revert to older versions of software to simply view the colour of a layer clearly, a feature that had worked previously to the release of the Apple Silicon native versions.
One of your colleagues told me in 2022/23 that the problem was due to a problem working with Apple and the silicon chip.
I struggle to understand why 2 years later again, the problem still exists for software that used to lead the design and production industry.
If some of Illustrator's features no longer work with the latest Apple hardware, perhaps it would be better to make this clear to potential customers before they invest in either.
I was informed by Adobe that the only way to overcome the speed issues with Illustrator 2020 was to upgrade my hardware and OS, and having done so have experienced a more detrimental workflow/usability with the latest version of Illustrator.

I look forward to your response and the resolution of this problem.

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