Text changing to gibberish

[superbloom421]

Why did all my artboard text just change from city names to this gibberish?

[Ton Frederiks]

What version are you using? Does it appear like that in an older version?

Resetting preferences is a common solution when strange things happen, but maybe first make a backup:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/video/setting-preferences-video.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfO7Ixi28oM

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @superbloom421,

Sorry to hear about the text issue. This can happen if the fonts in your file get corrupted, replaced, or if the document was synced or opened on another system where the original fonts aren't available.

Could you please confirm which version of Illustrator and OS you're using? If you're not already on the latest version (v30.0), please update and check if the issue persists. Also, let me know where this file is saved, locally on your drive or synced to the cloud.

Try signing out of Creative Cloud Desktop and then signing back in to resync your fonts. If that doesn't help, please try clearing your font cache by following this guide: https://adobe.ly/43sdcV7.

Lastly, let me know if this happens only with this file or others too, and whether it affects one specific font or all fonts.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek