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Known Participant
November 7, 2019
Answered

Illustrator 2020 not saving PDF compatible files even with "Create PDF compatible file" box checked!

  • November 7, 2019
  • 16 replies
  • 71210 views

Very frustrated with the new Illustrator. Not only is it having problems saving (unless I do a "Save As"), but I cannot create a PDF file from Illustrator, even with the "Create PDF compatible file" box checked before I save the AI document. What the heck is going on? A lot of lost time trying to figure this out and I'm getting very frustrated!

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Correct answer Srishti Bali

Hi,

 

Thanks for reaching out. We have tried to address this issue in our latest build of 24.1.2. If you are not already on v 24.1.2, then we recommend you to update to latest version and let us know how it goes. 

 

Regards,

Srishti

16 replies

Participant
September 6, 2022

Encountering this issue with Current Illustrator 26.5, running on OS Monterey 12.5.1.

Attempting to save a PDF from an AI file only to render Illustrator unclickable and all tools GREYED out.  Have RESTARTED APP and COMPUTER to no avail.  Weird.  What gives??

Participant
August 3, 2022

I found that you have to go File > Export > Export for Screen. 

 

Here you can save as a PDF

martins73850577
Participating Frequently
October 28, 2020

Hey, I've the same error message (no PDF content in .ai-file) when I save from AI 25.0 and want to open the .ai-file in AE or PS.... no idea how to solve this...

Known Participant
May 1, 2020

I continue to experience this problem every couple of weeks. Do users really have to trash their preference files after evey updgrade or every time this happens? This is rediculous. Having to delete the preferences requires having to reset all configurations. Spent an hour with tech support a month or two ago in attempt to address dozens of oddities and bugs with my Adobe software and they were unable to address 95% of them. I've yet to hear anything back as I was told, still unable to produce crisp jpg or png files no matter the settings, still experiencing stroke issues, etc. Get with it Adobe. Having to spend more time dealing with these annoyances is drastically effecting workflow. 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 1, 2020

Usually it's best to reset preferences when updating the software. Especially this issue is realted to migrating the preferences from the old version.

Srishti Bali
Community Manager
Srishti BaliCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
Community Manager
April 27, 2020

Hi,

 

Thanks for reaching out. We have tried to address this issue in our latest build of 24.1.2. If you are not already on v 24.1.2, then we recommend you to update to latest version and let us know how it goes. 

 

Regards,

Srishti

Participant
April 17, 2020

Thank you! Deleting the preferences files worked!

Geminon41
Participant
April 14, 2020

You can just go to Illustrator Preferences and click reset preferences in the new version and it will work.

Shots by Wolf
Participant
April 17, 2020

Hey there! Thank you for the Preferences reset share! It worked like a sharm ^_^

Participating Frequently
January 17, 2020

Thank you, Chuck! I've just deleted all the older pref files and now it's working again! 🙂

Known Participant
January 17, 2020

You're welcome Jazzsims!  Glad that it helped you! 🙂

 

Participant
January 13, 2020

How do i do this? I am facing the same issue!

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 13, 2020

Did you reset the preferences when updating the software?

laurieb77321760
Participant
January 13, 2020

How do I do that? I'm having the same problem.

 

Participant
January 2, 2020

This has been annoying me since the "upgrade".  I had to go old school, using save as postscript and then using distiller! should have thought of deleting the old prefs sooner, all working fine again now! Thanks