My Illustrator App Crashed and I Can't Close It

[witchologist]

I was working with Adobe Illustrator CC 2019 and after opening a separate document it wouldn't let me use any tools and I can't select anything under the Illustrator menu bar. I had clicked the red X in the corner to close it and managed to save my work after it had asked before quitting. But even though the Illustrator screen is gone and won't open, it still says Illustrator is active. I've tried quitting the app and it won't let me, it won't let me update it, or even shut off my Mac because Illustrator is still running.

Would anyone know how I can fix this situation as soon as possible?

[Kevin Stohlmeyer · Accepted solution]

Force restart your Mac. Hold the power button down until it relaunches.

[witchologist]

I had tried to shut it down but because the app wouldn't close the Mac refused to. I had done as you suggested and restarted by holding down the power button for 5 seconds and the app closed and now it's functioning just fine. Thank you!

[meganchi]

Did you try hitting option + command + esc keys to force quit the app?

[witchologist]

Because only the regular "quit" option would show up I figured I wouldn't be able to force quit, I didn't know there was a key command to do so. I'll definitely remember to try that first in future if this happens again, thank you!

[VICTORIA5C2E]

Thank you this was better than force quitting my computer. Worked a lot faster. 

[RODJr]

Even though my reply is a few years late for anyone who comes here for answers to Illustrator not closing with a black screen in the middle of the home page:

1. Right-click the illustrator icon on the taskbar or wherever your Icon app is & click close window etc.

1. 2. My Favorite, open Task Manager & right click on Illustrator & hit 'End Task".......

Usually Works for a Windows 11 PC.

God Bless you All.

[Sage Siwach]

It's better to press option+command+esc and than force quit it