Adobe Illustrator Keeps Crashing – Here’s How To Fix It

Adobe Illustrator is one of the most popular choices for creating creative illustrations, graphics design, logos, and much more. 

However, it isn’t a good experience when it keeps on crashing. Sometimes restarting the application is what it takes to restore it to a working condition. But if it doesn’t, you can resolve these issues by updating the app and resetting its preferences.

Since the origin of the error can be different in each case, try out the solutions one by one until the application begins working normally.

Update the Application

You can face crashing issues in Adobe Illustrator if you aren’t using its latest version. Many of the bugs and issues are fixed in the new version. Therefore, update it to resolve them. Here’s how you can do it.

1. Launch the Adobe Illustrator application.
2. Navigate to Help > Updates.
3. Download and install any available updates.
4. Relaunch the application and check if your problem has been resolved.

Furthermore, if the application crashes immediately after opening, you can update it from the Adobe Creative Cloud. First, open it, and under the Apps tab, click Updates. Then, click the Update button next to Adobe Illustrator.

Reset the Application Preferences

The Illustrator preferences contain all the configuration settings, and they can sometimes become corrupt. Therefore, resetting it can solve your issue.

If the app crashes only when performing a particular action like closing/saving a file, you can follow the steps below for Windows and Mac to reset the preferences.

On Windows

1. Open the application.
2. On the top menu bar, click Edit, hover over the Preferences and select the General option.
3. Next, click Reset Preferences and then click OK to confirm.
4. Restart the Illustrator application and see if you face any crash issues.

On Mac

1. Open the application.
2. On the top bar, click the Illustrator icon and select the Preferences option.
3. Then, click Reset Preferences.
4. Finally, restart the app and check if you still face the issues.

To reset the preferences when the application fails to open, you can use the following shortcut keys.

• For Windows: Ctrl + Shift + Alt 
• For Mac: Option + Command + Shift 

However, press them when the app is still loading/opening.

Update the Graphics Drivers

Sometimes not using the latest version of graphics drivers can lead to crash issues. So, you have to update it to solve your problem. 

To update the graphics drivers,

1. Press the Windows + R and type devmgmt.msc to open the Device Manager.
2. Then, click to expand the Display adapter option.
3. Select your graphics device and right-click on it.
4. Now, choose the Update driver option.
5. Next, select the Search automatically for drivers option.
6. Download and install the latest drivers available.
7. Restart the application/system and check if you are facing the issues.

Remove the Plugins

While plugins are useful and save your time, an incompatible one can conflict and cause issues with the application. Therefore, try removing the plugins to fix your crashing issues.

To remove plugins,

1. Exit the Illustrator application.
2. Open the File Explorer and navigate to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator <version>\Plug-ins.
3. Now move each plugin to a different location and check the app for errors.
4. Once the application runs smoothly, you can figure out the problematic plugin.
5. Delete that specific plugin and restore others to their default location.

Resolve the Compatibility Issues

The newer Illustrator application can demand the latest version of Windows to run properly. So, if you are using an older OS version, use the Windows program compatibility troubleshooter to resolve your issues. Here’s how you can do it.

1. Press the Windows + R and type control to open the Control Panel.
2. Then, navigate to Programs > Run programs made for previous versions of Windows.
3. Under Select the program you’re having problems with, choose the Adobe Illustrator option from the list and click Next.
4. Now, on the Select troubleshooting option window, choose both the options one by one and follow the on-screen instructions to apply the recommended fixes.
5. Relaunch the application and see if you face crash issues now.

Furthermore, try installing the latest windows updates and then check the application.

Reset the Font Cache

Sometimes a damaged font cache can be behind the Illustrator crashing issue. To resolve the problem, you can delete the font cache. Here’s how you can do it.

On Windows

1. First, make sure you have exited the Illustrator application.
2. Open the file explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local.
3. Navigate to Adobe folder > Adobe Illustrator<version>.
4. Now, delete the folder named “Font Cache.”

On Mac

1. Open Finder, located at the bottom of your screen
2. Press the Option key while clicking Go on the top bar and select the Library option.
3. Then navigate to Application Support > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator.
4. Finally, delete the “CT Font Cache”.

Close Other Applications

Illustrator is relatively a heavy app. It requires more memory and consumes CPU-intensive resources than normal applications. So, check the minimum requirement to run Illustrator on your system as mentioned by Adobe itself.

On the other hand, if you are low on memory(RAM) or trying to run it on low storage space, the app may fail to perform smoothly. Therefore, sometimes it crashes and doesn’t work as expected.

To resolve these issues, you can force close all the unnecessary applications running in the background. Here’s how you can do it.

1. Press the Ctrl + Shift + Esc key to open the Task Manager.
2. Under the Processes tab, select an unnecessary application and click the End task button in the bottom right corner. Do this for each unnecessary app.
3. Additionally, go to the Startup tab and click Disable to avoid running heavy applications automatically whenever your system starts up.

Reinstall the Application

If nothing works, you can reinstall the application as it will give the app a fresh start and help resolve issues from the previous application. Here’s how you can do it.

On Windows

1. Open the control panel and click Uninstall a program.
2. Select Adobe Illustrator from the list of programs.
3. Click Uninstall from the top bar and click Yes to confirm on the next prompt.

On Mac

1. Drag Adobe Illustrator to Trash.
2. Empty the trash to remove it permanently from the system.

After uninstalling the application, install its latest version on your system. Check if your problem has been resolved with the new application.