Illustrator Stuck on loading screen on Windows 10

[Eyetooth.Design]

I keep having a recurring issue in Windows 10, where Illustrator freezes/hangs on the loading screen for ages and then the app simply becomes totaly unresponsive.

This has been happening for ages now, so has affected the last few versions of Illustrator.  The issue is sporadic, so is hard to replicate sometimes, but it happens at least every few days so is getting really annoying.

When I use ctrl-alt-delete to open the task manager it shows Illustrator as using a small amount of ram but absolutely no CPU power.  Even if I end task the app, it is impossible to get it to load again without restarting my computer.

This really hinders my productivity, as I often just need to quickly open a file to continue working on another project and having to save everything I am working on and restart the computer everytime is a massive waste of time.

If anyone has any help or suggestions on fixing the issue, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Steve

{Renamed By MOD}

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi Steve,

Sorry to hear about the trouble you are facing with Illustrator. I would request if you can share a few more details like:

1.  The version of Illustrator.
2.  Does this happen with a specific document?

Regards

Rishabh

[Eyetooth.Design]

Hi Rishabh,

This has been happening since early-mid 2019 so has been an issue with pretty much all of the versions of Illustrator since then.

It is not caused by a particular document either, it has occassionally even happened when I just try to open the application (with no particular file selected).

I deleted the preference files yet again but now I've just run into a similar issue where it looks like Illustrator has opened and I can see the file, but I cannot click or interact with the app at all.

Is there anything else I can try to fix it?

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Thanks Steve for sharing additional information. I would request if you can try the following steps and share your observation:  

1. Reset Preferences:  I understand that you have already tried deleting the preferences, please try resetting it manually by following the steps below:

• Close all Adobe applications. 
• Go to Location C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe 
• Rename  Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Illustrator 24 Settings folders to Adobe Illustrator.old and Adobe Illustrator 24 Settings.old.
• Launch Illustrator from the Creative Cloud.

Disclaimer: Please note that resetting preferences will remove all the custom settings and Illustrator will launch with default settings. This way all your old settings will be saved in .old folders and Illustrator will recreate new folders with default settings.  

2. If that doesn't help, try booting the system into Safe Mode (https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode) and check how it works there. It starts your system so that it performs certain checks and prevents third party software/ services from automatically loading or opening. If it works fine in Safe mode, then there is some third party service or application like antivirus, plugins or web extensions which is conflicting with the Illustrator.
3. If that doesn't help either, login to Hidden Admin account (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbMs3w-Z3s&t=53s). Check how the application works there. If it works fine there, then it could be related to permission errors. Follow these steps to repair permission errors: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/kb/preferences-folder-read-only-error.html
4. If nothing helps, then we need to troubleshoot this on a live session. Please head here (https://helpx.adobe.com/support.html) and select the chat button in the lower-right corner of the page. We can help on a live session that way.

Regards

Rishabh

[Eyetooth.Design]

I have just tried to login to Hidden Admin account, but I get an error of System error 5 has occurred.  Access is denied in the command prompt window.

Do you know a way around that?

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

This error usually occurs when you are trying to execute a command that requires you to run Command Prompt as an administrator with administrative privileges. So please run the command prompt as an administrator and then check again.