New .ait Templates can no longer be opened as the orginal template for edting

[GregL2570]

I've been building .ait templates for decades and have ALWAYS been able to open the original template file to make improvements and adjustments to the .ait source. 

I love that once an .ait file has been created, it's easy to just click on to create a new Untitled document. However, with v29.2.1 on Mac OS 14.7.2, there seems to be no way to open the original template file (as a template file) to make modifictions to the template source. It just ALWAYS opens as a new Untitled, standard .ai file. What happened? This has never been an issue until now, and yes, I'm opening from within the Illustrator app itself and there's no option to edit the original source. 

[Monika Gause]

I just tried that with Illustrator 2022 and it wasn't possible.

WHich versions did allow it and what do you need to do to make it work?

[Ton Frederiks]

I only can get that to work when I save the file first as .ai and rename the file extension to .ait to make it behave like a template.

When I want to edit the template, I rename it again to .ai and when done to .ait.

[Monika Gause]

You do not need to save an AIT at all.

You can open any AI file through "New from template" and it will behave like a template.

[Ton Frederiks]

That is true, but to open it as a template by double clicking you need the .ait extension.

[Monika Gause]

Don't know about Windows, but on the Mac you could make it into a template in the Finder Info window

[GregL2570]

Yeah, sorry but none of these answers are sufficient. An Adobe Illustrator Template file (.ait) should have the following behaviors. 1. When double-clicked directly in Finder, it should open a new "Untitled.ai" file (which is does). 2. When opening the .ait file directly from within the running Illustrator application, it should open the orginal .ait source template so that the author can make imporovements and updates to the Source.  This has always been the case, and I can now confirm that it's still the case, but only when opening .ait template files that were created and saved with an earlier version of Illustrator. Basically any .ait file that was saved prior to the current 29.2.1 version still opens as it's supposed to. 

There is absolutely a bug 100% in this latest version (29.2.1) that does not allow the user to open the orginal source of an existing .ait template file (if that template file was created and/or saved using v29.2.1).  Hoping that this can be resolved ASAP. The only other workaround (which is just irritating) is to open the template as a new untitled.ai file, then immediately save as and select the original template.ait file name to overwrite it. Too many unneccessary steps though. Users should be able to instantly open a saved .ait source file to make and save adjustments, just as they've always been able to do up until now. Hope that helps to clarify the issue. Thanks everyone! Cheers!

[Monika Gause]

 This has always been the case,

By @GregL2570

At least not in version 2022.

Please report feature requests to https://illustrator.uservoice.com 

[GregL2570]

But who uses version 2022 in 2025?  This isn't a feature request, it's a bug that needs to be corrected. Editing a template source file by opening it from directly within the app is a standard behavior that virually all applications utilize. Even non-adobe products all behave the same way. Opening an Adobe Illustrator template (.ait) file from directly insdie the app, should always open the original source template for editing (and it still does, but if the template was saved in an earlier version). It should not create a new Unittiled.ai document when opening in this way. This is a new bug that is specific to this new version of Illustrator. 

[Hannah34063925puue]

Hello - did you report this as a bug through uservoice? I am finding the same and it is annoying.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @GregL2570 @Hannah34063925puue,

Thanks for sharing your detailed explanation. Could you please confirm the exact version of this issue that started occurring? Additionally, it would be incredibly helpful if you could provide a small screen recording demonstrating your workflow from scratch — specifically, how you’re attempting to open the .ait file directly within Illustrator to edit the source template.

This information will help us investigate and log the bug more effectively. I'm looking forward to hearing back from you!

Best,

Anshul Saini

[dasom_Lee]

The original ait file cannot be modified directly, right?
I'm going through the process of changing the extension of the template final ai file to ai and changing it back to ai when I modify it. I learned that recently, but I guess that wasn't it.😅😅😅