Synchronize settings using Adobe Creative Cloud

Illustrator stores application-related settings on your local computer. The Sync Settings feature preserves a copy of these settings on Adobe Creative Cloud. If you activate Illustrator on another computer, you can choose to synchronize the settings from Creative Cloud with the newly-activated computer.

In essence, if you are using the same Adobe ID and running Illustrator CC on two computers, you can synchronize settings between both computers to have the same working settings and environment on both computers.

Examples of settings include:

The Sync Settings feature addresses two basic user scenarios:

• Single computer. You have one computer, and would like to maintain a back-up of Illustrator's current application settings. If you replace your computer with a new computer, you can sync the settings available in Creative Cloud with the new computer.
• Multiple computers. You have multiple computers, and need to have the same working settings on any computer you activate Illustrator on.

When you synchronize Illustrator's settings, Creative Cloud is used to upload, store, or download any information. The Sync Settings feature requires:

• An Internet connection
• An Adobe Creative Cloud subscription or a single-app subscription
  

No. The Sync Settings feature is manually initiated. The feature cannot be scheduled or triggered automatically.

Synchronization of settings happens as often as you click Sync Settings Now.

• [Recommended] Click the icon at the lower-left corner of the Illustrator document window, and then click Sync Settings Now.
• Click Edit (Mac: Illustrator) > {AdobeID logged in} > Sync Settings Now.
• Click Ctrl/Cmd + K > Sync Settings tab > click Sync Settings Now. When you use this method, the latest settings are uploaded or downloaded. No changes are applied.
  

When you run Illustrator for the first time on a computer on which Sync Settings has never been used, on opening a document you are asked to choose if you want to enable Sync Settings.

• Click Sync Settings Now, to upload/download settings with Creative Cloud for the first time.
• Click Disable Sync Settings, to disable the feature.
• Click Advanced, to open the Preferences dialog, where you can choose and customize what items are synchronized.

Synchronization conflicts occur when the system is unable to determine whether you want a setting from Creative Cloud or from your local computer to be retained, since both have been changed after the last sync operation.

Consider the following scenario. You modify Illustrator Preferences on your work computer, and synchronize the settings. Thereafter, you modify Illustrator Preferences on your home computer. You now have two sets of modified preferences - one new set in Creative Cloud (synced from your work computer), and a newer set on your home computer. If you attempt to synchronize settings now, you will be prompted to choose from which settings you want to keep.

• Sync Local: Sync local settings on this computer to the cloud; overwrite the cloud version with the local version of settings.
• Sync Cloud: Sync from the cloud to this local computer; ignore changes made to the local settings and replace them with the settings in the cloud.
• Keep Latest File: Keep the latest settings based on the timestamp.

Only those settings are synchronized that are loaded or used in Illustrator. If you copy a new set of swatches or brushes to installation/settings folders for Illustrator using Explorer or Finder, these assets are not synced. To ensure that such items are synchronized successfully, they must be loaded and saved in Illustrator, once.

For example, if you want to synchronize a new Brush Library, select the brushes from the Brushes panel, save them as a Brush Library from the fly-out menu at the default location.

A list of the items synchronized using the Sync Settings feature:

*Restart Required indicates that if the settings you are downloading contains such an asset, you must restart Illustrator to apply the downloaded setting.

**Keyboard shortcuts are synchronized for the same platform only, and not between Windows and Mac platforms. Many Windows and Mac keyboard shortcuts are different.