Illustrator freezes on file open

[Scripturient1899]

Hi team,

I've been using Adobe products just fine on this machine up until last week, when Illustrator began freezing/hanging every time I attempt to open a file. It does this whether I open the file by double-clicking in Finder, using the File menu within Illustrator, or clicking on one of my "recent" projects. It also hangs if it tries to autorecover a file that was open when it froze, so I turned off the autorecover function and that still didn't help. But every once in a while, it works fine for no reason I can determine.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling. I tried uninstalling and installing a previous version. In both cases, it worked for two or three files and then stopped working again. It was not an Illustrator update that caused this, although there may have been a Windows update that my machine performed automatically.

I'm using an MSI Workstation running Windows 10 Pro with an Intel Core i7-8750H CPU with 6 cores, and an additional NVIDIA GPU. I should have more than enough processing power and have had no problems running multiple Adobe programs simultaneously up to this point.

I'm in a pretty significant bind here as I have projects due and neither I nor our company IT team can figure out what the issue is.  Anyone have ideas?

[Monika Gause]

Is a printer connected and turned on? And is that printer set up as the default printer?

[Scripturient1899]

Hmm. I have access to a number of printers via the company network, but there's no printer connected to my machine directly and I don't believe I have a default printer set.

[Monika Gause]

Please set a default printer now. Should not be on a printer queue.

[Scripturient1899]

Will it work if Adobe PDF is set as my default "printer"? I don't have the ability to set any other printer as a default. Not sure whether that's because of a security setting or because they're networked.

[Monika Gause]

THat's the usual workaroud if you don't have a physical printer.

[Scripturient1899]

I set the default printer and then restarted just to be on the safe side. I confirmed that the computer had retained the settings, and then tried opening a file in Illustrator. I discovered that it will open files no problem if I have the Illustrator window on my 13" laptop screen. But if I drag the window to either of my two additional 23" monitors, it still hangs when I open a file. So, at least I have a way to work now, which is definitely better than where I was! But the laptop screen is not ideal.

I did of course try unplugging the docking station and plugging one monitor directly into the computer's port. Still didn't work on that monitor.

[Monika Gause]

Is there a setting to define which monitor is the main monitor and which one is secondary?

Also you could try if there's an update to your graphics card driver.

[Scripturient1899]

My graphics drivers are definitely all up to date - I was having similar problems with Dimension and updated everything as part of that solution.

Looks like changing my primary monitor to the other one that's plugged into the GPU does allow me to open files on that monitor. Still doesn't work on the other two but at least it's one of the big ones now. Thanks for all the assistance!

[Jeff Witchel, ACI]

Have you tried resetting preferences: How to set preferences in Illustrator

[Scripturient1899 · Accepted solution]

I did! As it turns out, I think it may have been resetting my preferences that caused the issue in the first place - I wiped all my Adobe settings last week to get Dimension working properly, and that's when my Illustrator issue started.

Fortunately our IT team landed on the solution today. I had to go back into my settings and disable the GPU performance. Now it works and doesn't crash. Wouldn't be an ideal solution if I had to disable it for everything, but everything else seems to run smoothly with it enabled as long as it's off for Illustrator.

[andys78692109]

I am having the same problem. But this did not help me. I still cannot open files w illustrator.

[Monika Gause]

andys78692109  schrieb

I am having the same problem. But this did not help me. I still cannot open files w illustrator.

Then please create a new thread, tell us your system and version and all kinds of details about your files, plugins, peripherals. Do you have a printer installed and turned on? You might want to try with that: install a printer.