Unable to launch Illustrator 2020 on macOS Catalina

[KrisKhunachak]

Since updating to Adobe Illustrator 2020, the app will no longer start up successfully, either opening it cold or trying to open a specific file. I get the splash window and then it changes to the dark gray pre-workspace window but there is no text, no images, and then I get the spinning beach ball. Have not tried waiting longer than 5 minutes for it, but that's not the point I suppose. App will not respond and I have to Force Quit it. 

{Renamed by MOD}

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about the trouble you are facing with Illustrator. Please try resetting preferences for Illustrator by following below mentioned steps:

• Close Illustrator.
• Click on the Finder icon on the dock, choose Go on the top> Go To Folder.
• In the Go To Folder dialog box, type "~/Library". Click Go.
• Open the Preferences Folder > rename the Illustrator  24 Settings folder to Illustrator  24 Settings folder.old
• Under Preferences, Open Adobe folder and rename Adobe Illustrator folder to Adobe Illustrator.old
• Go back to library->open caches->rename  com.adobe.illustrator to com.adobe.illustrator.old
• Go back to library->open application support-> open adobe->rename the Illustrator  24 folder to Illustrator  24 folder.old

Disclaimer: Please note that resetting preferences will remove all the custom settings and Illustrator will launch with default settings. This way all your old settings will be saved in .old folders and Illustrator will recreate new folders with default settings. 

Also, please do share the crash logs by following these steps: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/kb/crash-next-steps.html 

Regards,

Rishabh

[Guest]

So, if I do this, how do I get my custom workspace back?

Its such a pain and time drain to place all the windows and panels and on and on.

[aneezaarshad]

I'm having the same problem as everyone else here. I try to open a 2020 Illustrator or Photoshop file. Sometimes Photoshop opens, but Illustrator has stopped opening all together. Sometimes it crashes when I open, and sometimes it's when I am saving/packaging files. I have lost too much time and effort redoing layouts etc. 

This is again, happening after downloading Catalina. 
I am also unable to open layered, working files in Illustator 2019 as I worked on 2020.

I tried to relaunch Creative Cloud as it keeps spinning and says "Loading apps..."
At the bottom there is a warning message that says "Your apps are taking longer than usual to load. Relaunch Creative

Cloud or restart your computer and try again." 
But "relaunch" does not work either. 

I have already tried the workflow renaming folders to "xxx.old". Hasn't made a difference to anything. 

I am at work and really need this to work asap. Is there another solution yet?

[BCrill]

I have been having the same issue. I recently converted to Catalina and since have not been able to open Illustrator. It is a major problem. I have tried the suggested steps you outline above with no success. Are there any other ways I can correct this?

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about the trouble. I would request if you can try the steps below:

1. Please check if you have a printer connected and setup correctly? If not, please set Adobe PDF as the default printer.
2. Please try booting the system into Safe Mode (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/x-productkb/global/start-safe-boot-mode-mac.html) and check if you are able to launch there? If it works fine in Safe mode, then there is some third party service or application like antivirus, plugins or web extensions which are conflicting with the Illustrator.
3.  If that doesn't help either, login to the root account (https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204012). Check how the application works there. If it works fine there, then it could be related to permission errors. Follow these steps to repair permission errors: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/kb/preferences-folder-read-only-error.html  

Regards

Rishabh

[Srishti Bali]

Hi Kris,

Thanks for reaching out. I am hopeful that the issue is resolved by the steps shared above. If not, please reply on the DM I just sent you.

We’re here to help!

Regards,

Srishti

[bvoisin]

Since updating to Illustrator 2020 yesterday I am experiencing the same crash as the original poster, except that the crash happens immediately after showing the splash screen, before seeing the pre-workspace window. The crash happens whether Illustrator is launched by itself, or opening an Illustrator file, or from the Creative Cloud app. This on macOS Catalina 10.15.1. To be more specific, Illustrator 2019 (23.1.1) was working fine, a Creative Cloud notification popped up saying an Illustrator update was available, I applied it, Illustrator 2020 (24.0.0) was installed; since that point on it's been impossible to launch Illustrator 2020, the app crashes on launch. In case that matters: Illustrator 2020 was installed alongside Illustrator 2019, instead of replacing it (the setting was to replace the previous version); I had to uninstall Illustrator 2019 from the Creative Cloud app.

I tried all the things advised in this thread, namely erasing the mentioned folders from ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe, ~/Library/Caches and ~/Library/Preferences: no effect at all, the crash is still there. I shared the crash log as suggested.

What's odd is that at the same time as Illustrator, Photoshop was updated from 2019 (20.0.7) to 2020 (21.0.0) and this went perfectly: the new Photoshop replaced the previous one, and Photoshop 2020 launches without any problem. 

[bvoisin]

For what is worth: for reasons not connected with Illustrator, I just reinstalled my setup entirely (boot into the recovery partition, erase the disk, reinstall macOS, reinstall the apps one by one, then put back all documents into place). For Illustrator, this meant installing Creative Cloud, then installing Illustrator from within it. After doing that, Illustrator 2020 (24.0.1) boots and works just fine.

I'm not recommending this procedure, as it is error-prone and requires careful planning so as not to lose documents, mail messages, etc. But this seems to mean that there is no incompatibility of Illustrator 2020 with Catalina per se, and that it is instead some faulty preference or configuration file somewhere, or maybe some leftover component from successive macOS updates, that is causing the problem.

[bvoisin]

After more debugging, the issue in my case turned out to be font-related. In order for Illustrator to edit PDF files containing Type 1 fonts, I had put symbolic links to the font files inside /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts. Specifically, the fonts were Computer Modern fonts in Type 1 format, part of the MacTeX distribution and installed in subfolders of /Library/TeX/Root. To make them visible to Illustrator, I had run, in Terminal,

ln -s /Library/TeX/Root/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/*.pfb /Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Fonts

and so forth. I had done that long ago, then forgotten about it. Up to the preceding version of Illustrator, this worked fine. With the present version, this causes crash on launch.

The problem only happens with Unix symbolic links (created with ln -s). If copies of the PFB font files are placed inside /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts, Illustrator 2020 launches just fine. If aliases are placed there instead, by dragging-and-dropping the PFB files while pressing Cmd-Alt, Illustrator 2020 launches just fine. If ln -s is used in Terminal, Illustrator crashes on launch.

Hoping this may help others.

[simonsterjones]

Srishti,

I've been having the same issue. I did all the suggested preference .old renames above and also tried an install without importing prefs prior to that.

Illustrator freezes at a different point each time. The furthest I've got is the 'What's New' window. IT froze on the first slide.

Simon

[simonsterjones]

Illustrator 2020 is mysteriously working just fine this morning. I pulled in all my workspaces, plugins, etc... all good. 

[sortmike]

Same, 2020 illustrator doesn't load.  The previous one did launch on catalina fine I believe.

[Srishti Bali]

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing the details. I would request that if you can share the crash report by following these steps: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/kb/crash-next-steps.html (Please submit the crash report with the email address with which you are logged in on this community, this will help us find the crash log and help you further).

Also, please try resetting preferences for Illustrator by following the steps shared by Rishabh. If the issue is resolved by resetting preferences, please upload all the .old folders to creative cloud and share the download link with us. 

All this information will help us investigating this issue at our end and troubleshoot accordingly.

Regards,

Srishti

[PondTownMan]

You act like we know how to upload all the .old folders to creative cloud and share the download link with us. 

Don't know how to do that. 

I have done all the things they said to do above and nothing works. NOTHING.

[k00tsuka]

Check "Run Diagnosis" at first. Remove custom Plugins in "Plug-In" folder.

Here is the details,

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator/illustrator-24-0-1-crashing-on-macos-catalina-10-15-1/m-p...

[calm_fashion5C60]

This does not work.  I have tried EVERYTHING POSSIBLE. To even resorting to reinstalling Catalina.  I have deleted and reinstalled all of Illustrator ... to latest version 24.1. Nothing works.  This is a disaster.  I am weeks behind doing jobs for clients and cannot use Illustrator, my no 1 software that I use for clients jobs.  This is an ADOBE DISASTER!~!!!!!!

[Monika Gause]

Please contact Customer Care: http://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html

They can login to your system to search for the cause of the issue.

[Srishti Bali]

Hi Wendy,

So sorry to hear about this. I have sent you a DM, please check.

Regards,

Srishti