Issues with Illustrator bounding box glitches, undos, font usage

Question

I'm using Adobe Illustrator CC 2018 v.22.1 on a 2016 Macbook Pro (2.7ghz) os High Sierra v. 10.13.6 - Graphics : Radeon Pro 455 2048 MB, Intel HD Graphics 530 1536 MB

My macbook has minimal files and applications and system is running well with no issues or crashes in other Adobe applications (or any other) except for Illustrator. My undos are set to 20.

Font and bouding box issues : Fonts and typography work will often stall while i work. Bounding box disappearing as i scale type is usually the first symptom. The bounding box will disappear and from that moment on, the file will start to act glitchy and become unsusable. At this point, I save and close the app. This happens at least once a day now. I've tried tracing the issue and it happens with no pattern and with many different fonts.

Undos : When the issue above happens, it is often compounded with undos that skip past the last and undos revert to 3-4 steps back. If i try to undo that and revert to the most current iteration of the type or file, it usually doesn't make it back to the latest version of the design.

With the issues above combined, illustrator has become very difficult to use and trying to work with these issues has become very frustrating. I update constantly and my Macbook never crashes. I have to restart Illustrator constantly and i've lost work along the way. This has been occuring regularly for the past 6-8 months and recently it has been occurring at least once a day.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Bill Silbert · Accepted Answer

Have you tried trashing your preferences?

To do so:

The User Library folder in which Illustrator’s preferences are stored is hidden by default on most Macintoshes. To access it make sure that Illustrator is closed and click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N).With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder (it’s the folder with an icon that looks like a house—it may have the user’s name rather than “Home”) and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the folder called “Adobe Illustrator <Version #> Settings” (earlier versions of Illustrator might just say “Adobe Illustrator”) and the file called “com.adobe.Illustrator.plist” and delete both that folder and that file. When Illustrator is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files in this manner is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

If this does not work you might try uninstalling and reinstalling the program in the following manner:

In the app section of your Creative Cloud desktop app click on the “V” next to the app’s (Illustrator) name and choose the “Uninstall” option from the pull-down menu that appears. After you’ve run the uninstall then use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems . Then reinstall the program through the Desktop app. Before you reinstall, once again trash all preference files to make sure that your install is completely clean. Then launch Illustrator and see if the problem persists.

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