Illustrator changes to default settings

[AadiSahni]

System and App Details:

• Adobe Illustrator CC version 2020 24.3.0
• Windows 10 Pro x64 version 20H2 OS Build 19042.630
• Plug-ins: All plug-ins inculded with illustrator

Problem:

After opening illustrator, the app always uses the default workspace and keyboard settings. I haven't tried any troubleshooting yet. I haven't downloded any plug-ins except the ones that adobe provides by default. Other Adobe apps like Photoshop and Premiere don't seem to have this problem. 

[Monika Gause]

That points to issues with writing the preferences file. Does Illustrator have the necessary privileges to write the preferences file?

And also: does it crash when you quit?

[AadiSahni]

Hello Monika,

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't get a notification. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by nessecary permissions. Illustrator doesn't crash on quit, in fact, it's the only adobe app that doesn't crash on quit.

[Monika Gause]

Illustrator needs permission to write the preferences file in your user folder. You need to check the permissions for that folder.

[AadiSahni]

Illustrator doesn't even seem to have a folder in the Adobe sub folder in the documents folder under my user folder. Unless you meant something else, in which case, I'm not understanding what your saying. 

[Monika Gause]

The preferences file is in your user folder.

You can find a list of locations for acouple of settings files here:

https://www.vektorgarten.de/illustrator-settings.html

Relevant for the general settings is the Preferences folder.

[AadiSahni]

I've found the folder, now how do I check if illustrator can write to the folder or not

[Monika Gause]

Please check if this helps: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/preferences-folder-read-only-error.html

[AadiSahni]

Illustrator already had the permissions to read & write in all the folder paths given there. Launching illustrator came to the same problem.

[AadiSahni]

I feel like I should clarify, that my preferences, settings, workspaces, keyboard shortcuts all are saved, but I have to manually switch to each of them everytime I launch illustrator.

[AadiSahni · Accepted solution]

This issue seems to have randomly been fixed after launching illustrator.