Participant

Answered

Illustrator unusably slow and laggy on macOS

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 15, 2018
32 replies
94159 views

Some time in the last year, Illustrator (which previously worked just fine) has become unusably slow and laggy on my 2011 iMac. Anyone out there have solutions or work-arounds?

Performance

Correct answer gogfox

I had the same problem in Illustrator CC 2018 22.1 and MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

I have a MacBook Pro 15 inch (2017), Intel i7 2.8 GHz, 16 GB RAM, Radeon Pro 555 2048 MB RAM.

I tried to reinstall without retaining preferences. I tried resetting preferences. Nothing worked.

Strangely enough, for me the solution was disabling the dictation feature of MacOS: Illustrator returned fast.

To confirm this, I tried to re-enable the dictation feature in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Dictation: Illustrator

became laggy again.

UPDATE: I also found that the bug is known and reported on UserVoice. Here's the link:

Click and touch release problems Illustrator CC 2018 Mac High Sierra - cause dictation software – Adobe Illustrator Feed…

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CarlLydon

Participant

Thank you! I recently bought a brand new imac, very fast, and yet illustrator was unusably slow: using the pen tool took a second for each point, and clicking on a dropdown menu took several seconds for the menu to appear. I just turned off dication, and suddenly it seems like I can draw in illustrator! So weird. Maybe there should be an alert or something. Also, would be nice if this info came up more readily on a google search...This is about the 20th post I read on the subject, first with a real answer. Anyway, thanks!

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CarlLydon

Participant

I'm using a brand new iMac 3.0ghz, 6 core, 27". I finally broke down and started paying for cc specifically for this new computer, which replaced a 2011 model.

I can't do any kind of edit without a lag or spinny beachball.

Sambo68

Known Participant

Thank you so much for this valuable tip. That is what was causing my Ai lag issues.

Djspaceg

Participating Frequently

Interestingly I have the same issue as thomaso31515832. I've been an Adobe user for 20+ years, and with the recent version (in the last year) of Illustrator 2019 (v23.x?) the actual interface performance is just terrible. It's exceedingly hard to work on anything at all, even a simple file with under 10 simple shapes at low pixel-render resolution.

My Mac is a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017), running macOS Mojave 10.14.5 (18F132), with a 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 RAM, and a Radeon Pro 560 4 GB. With the usual built-in internal SSD. Just like Thomas said, even just after opening the program, with no files loaded, the interface is slow, sluggish, laggy, and has poor response time. This is unlike previous versions of Illustrator CC on older, slower, less capable hardware.

For the sake of other users, please report back what you find during the chat support session.

Srishti Bali

Community Manager

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this frustrating experience. I understand that Illustrator is slow in general irrespective of any file or tool. Let us help you with this. I would request if you can share a few more details like:

Are there any recent changes made to your system? For example, any antivirus, system updates or web extensions installed recently.
Does turning of dictation helps to resolve the issue.
Is there any sync service turned on while you are working on Illustrator for example i-cloud. If yes, try turning it off and check how Illustrator works

Regards,

Srishti

Djspaceg

Participating Frequently

No recent changes to the system
Dictation is not enabled, and hasn't ever been.
iCloud syncing is not enabled. Adobe Cloud isn't syncing any files, Google Drive isn't syncing, Amazon Photos isn't syncing, and Dropbox isn't syncing.

M

meegee

Inspiring

Dont ask me why I thought of it, but I wondered if my app was launching from Creative Cloud, ie online. So I quit and opened up from the applications software folder on my HD and Illustrator was so much faster. I'm not sure if this is actually a valid thing as I would never choose to work off CC as my work station uses wifi only - and as far as I know my docking was linked to my HD app software. So whether in all the OS and Adobe upgrades I do its defaulted to run off Creative Cloud? Sorry my grasp of technology is limited but it did work for me.

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Philip Coltart

Participant

SOLVED! My dictation was never on. I just un-installed and re-installed. Bingo! MacBook Pro 2016 TouchBar 2 (yes two) BlackMagic eGPU Pros. Hope it stays un-laggy

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Anonymous

Macbook 2018: 16gb/1TB. Brand new, OOTB. No additional fonts installed. Just those that come with OS.

Adobe CS6 Master Suite = worthless. Specifically, Illustrator v16.0.4.

My problem:

Laggy, lame, painful. I can't type anything: Any typing takes forever.

I type a text box... spinning beach ball... I ...t....y..........p.....e...... ....... <space> ........a .....................<space>............................................w.................................................................o..................r........r......r.........<backspace><backspace>............d.........................................<space>...................................and wait. and wait. ..............

<click on pointer!><click on pointer!><click on pointer!><click on pointer!> egad.... Beach ball still.

What I've done:

Not in any particular order, I...

Applied all updates.
Turned off Dictation.
Installed PostScript Driver.
Deleted my Preferences

My empty promise:

My license is provided by the school where I teach. So, technically, I've never paid Adobe for its products, at least not directly. But here's my promise: never again! (Not that they care. As long as I come around to Adobe CC.) Which. I guess. I'll have to do. So, you got me. You called my bluff. There's nowhere else for me to turn. So you win, Adobe. You win. CC it is. You are a worthy opponent. But an opponent, you are.

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beno70

Participant

Same boat here. Done all of the above, to no avail. One thing with CS6, there doesn't appear to be a (Illustrator) preference for GPU usage, so I can't turn this off. And I don't know that I can switch off the secondary GPU through (Mac) Sys Prefs either.

I've set screen up to make Activity Monitor visible while editing a file in Illustrator. It definitely seems to max out the CPU usage, even just simple things like typing in a new text box. Laggy. Fonts are very chunky too. Everything else pretty crisp though.

I'm on new 2018 MBP 15 i7, with CS6. Loath to upgrade as I don't generate enough income from it to justify the pricey subscription to CC, especially when CS6 more then meets my demands still...

Monika Gause

Community Expert

beno70 schrieb

I'm on new 2018 MBP 15 i7, with CS6. Loath to upgrade as I don't generate enough income from it to justify the pricey subscription to CC, especially when CS6 more then meets my demands still...

Most likely your issue is compatiblity.

CS6 ist just not (fully) compatible anymore.

When updating the system beyond a certain point you have to update the application software as well. Will be difficult to find out the cause of the issue and you're basically on your own doing it, because there's not a lot of experience with this constellation.

KShinabery212

Community Expert

This is exactly why I happy to be a PC person now. I have yet to face any difficulties running anything on Windows 10.

I used to love Apple, but when they said my old Mac was vintage and would not do anything to help me fix I said goodbye. Now I am a happy camper!

I know it might not be a real answer. But I would consider going PC when it comes time to buy your next computer.

etnuvo

Participating Frequently

I never use dictation, so that surely was not the issue. The software was just laggy. Period.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

etnuvo schrieb
I never use dictation, so that surely was not the issue. The software was just laggy. Period.

Is the feature turned off in the sytem preferences?

It's not about you using it, it's whether it's turned on.

etnuvo

Participating Frequently

Dictation by default is OFF, so yes it is and will always be off on my mac system preferences. Dictation was not the issue. AI is just not running smoothly as it should. I'm on a 5k imac with 40gb ram and a 4.2 i7 quad core. There's no reason a vector based program should run this slow. No reason at all. My old HP laptop ran Illustrator CS2 faster. That's sad.

ijustwanttogivethanks

Participant

OMG, you gave me my Illustrator back!

I am back in my happy place.

I disabled dictation as suggested.

Thank you,

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