Workspaces and preferences not saving

[marshall621]

Everytime I open illustrator it's starting like the first time I ever installed it. It won't save any of my preferences or my work space (it will save a custom work space. but I have to select it every time I start it). I tried deleting illustrator and reinstalling it but it's still doing the same thing. I currently have the latest build installed. I tried to install the last version, but it was doing the same thing with it. 

[marshall621 · Accepted solution]

I think I figured it out. When I uninstalled Illustrator it asked if I wanted to keep my preferences. I said no. But I just did it again and looked in my file directory and it left folders of my plug ins, scripts etc in there. So when I reinstalled it, it was reloading all my third party plug ins again. Anyway, I manually deleted all those folders out and reinstalled and now it seems to be working. So I think it must have been some kind of conflict with a plug in.

[Bill Silbert]

When installing a newer version of the program you should always check that all of your third party plug-ins are compatible with the newer version. This may have also played some part in the initial problem.

[bonehaus]

Echoing, which already been sent here, but I would always say move. Your preferences over to the new version is the right way to go. However, if you haven't done that you can still go and grab your preferences in your library folder on Mac I'm not sure what the folder structure is for windows but if you do a quick Google of where you are, illustrator preferences are on your computer you can go and grab the Files from the older version and carry them into the new folder and it should all work