This is the user library, and it seems I was able to work successfully in a new user account because of it’s totally new and refreshed Library folder. Hold Opt while clicking on Go in the Finder menu to reveal the Library. He walked me through creating a backup folder of my settings in case any were corrupt, then he changed a system setting and some preferences to help with Illustrator’s performance. Then I got to talk with the senior tech support person who helped me troubleshoot the problem on my original user account. Illustrator was working again, but I didn’t want to start over with a new user and go through the hours of moving all my files. One at a time I tested the other components I thought were causing the issue: the 2nd monitor, the Wacom tablet, the Astute Graphics plugins - each one passed the test I installed Illustrator and tested, then I added Photoshop and tested them together In the new user, I downloaded and installed the Creative Cloud Desktop app Uninstalled my Astute Graphics plugins and their settingsįor the moment this seemed to solve all my problems:

Uninstalled every Adobe program with the Creative Cloud Desktop app Set up a new user account on my MacBook with admin permissions My ViewSonic 2nd monitor (either it’s software, settings or color profile)Īfter my first 2 tech support calls, and lots of uninstalling/reinstalling the Illustrator app, and deleting settings and preferences only to find the problem persisting, this is what I did:

The 2 things I suspected were causing my Illustrator performance issues:Ī corrupt settings file somewhere in my Mac user library To check yours, view the system requirements at Adobe help. My system exceeds the requirements for Illustrator. I hope this can be of help if you’re having problems with Adobe Illustrator’s performance on a Mac too.Īlways check these first: I’m on a MacBook Pro laptop that’s only a couple of years old, running Big Sur, 32 GB Ram, with 250 GB free on the hard drive and a compatible GPU. But even with his help, I had to figure a lot out on my own. I am most appreciative to the senior tech support person who finally helped me. Now, after hours on the phone, three different support people at Adobe, and several days later, I think I have my solution and I want to share what I’ve learned. It became so difficult - and I’d restarted, uninstalled/reinstalled and deleted my preferences enough times - that I succumbed to the tech support call.

Illustrator was becoming so unstable that making a pattern, placing a tiff, or using the Live Paint Bucket tool was overwhelming Illustrator’s GPU mode. Sometimes it was blue flashing, at other times it was switching into CPU mode automatically with the slightest provocation. Somehow the Illustrator problem went away with another update, but then came back to haunt me with the recent update to 25.3.1.

Adobe illustrator el capitan