RAM Usage is too high in illustrator

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
November 11, 2025
1 reply
119 views

ALL my ram is being used by illustrator to open just 1 document. How come adobe can't actually make good software anymore?

This is an issue across my workplace with illustrator specifically on both Intel and M2 macbooks. What's going on why does it need to use so much RAM, it's slow and not usable in this state at all.

It's also frustratingly impossible to contact the greedy corporation that is Adobe for assistance.

Performance

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @defaultgjmj524gjthw,

Thanks for reaching out and sharing your experience. Could you please confirm which version of Illustrator and macOS you're using? Also, let me know if this happens with all files or only specific ones.

In the meantime, please try the suggestions in this article to optimize performance and reduce memory usage: Optimize Illustrator performance.

Once you've tried these steps, please let me know if you still notice high RAM usage, so I can check it further.

Abhishek

D

defaultgjmj524gjthwAuthor

Participant

Hi,

It's illustrator 30.0 (also 26 on another mac), on mac os 26.0.1.

It's worth noting that nother has changed on all 3 machines other than updates to the OS and illustrator. Using the same files and doing the same kind of work. Therefore there should be nothing to change and the issue stems from your (expensive subscription based) software. I have had a look to see if theres anything affecting performance system wide and there seems to be nothing. Can/do adobe test software before release?

The longer illustrator is open and the more it's used, the more memory it eats up unnecessarily.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @defaultgjmj524gjthw,

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with this on multiple computers. To better identify the root cause of the problem, could you share the following details:

- Does Illustrator behave this way when you work with specific files or new files as well?
- Are the files stored on a network/removable drive or a cloud-synced folder (Dropbox/Google Drive/etc.)?
- Could you try the suggestions shared here (https://adobe.ly/4pakvsG) and manually resetting Illustrator's preferences on one of your machines and checking if it helps:

For macOS

• Close all Adobe applications.

• Go to the following locations

• ~/Library/Caches

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe

• ~/Library/Preferences

• Rename Adobe Illustrator, com.adobe.illustrator and Adobe Illustrator 30 Settings folders to Adobe Illustrator.old, com.adobe.illustrator.old and Adobe Illustrator 30 Settings.old

• Launch Illustrator from the Creative Cloud.

Note: Location starting with this "~" sign indicates the User Library, which is hidden. So, you need to copy & paste the exact path in spotlight search or from Finder Menu > Go > Go to Folder > Paste the location in the dialog box.

Disclaimer: Please note that renaming preferences folders will remove all the custom settings, and Illustrator will launch with default settings. You can also save a backup of the folders in case you want to. The location is mentioned above.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

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