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Identify and troubleshoot file issues

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  1. Illustrator User Guide
  2. Get to know Illustrator
    1. Introduction to Illustrator
      1. What's new in Illustrator
      2. Common questions
      3. Illustrator system requirements
      4. Illustrator for Apple silicon
    2. Workspace
      1. Workspace basics
      2. Learn faster with the Illustrator Discover panel
      3. Create documents
      4. Toolbar
      5. Default keyboard shortcuts
      6. Customize keyboard shortcuts
      7. Introduction to artboards
      8. Manage artboards
      9. Customize the workspace
      10. Properties panel
      11. Set preferences
      12. Touch Workspace
      13. Microsoft Surface Dial support in Illustrator
      14. Undo edits and manage design history
      15. Rotate view
      16. Rulers, grids, and guides
      17. Accessibility in Illustrator
      18. Safe Mode
      19. View artwork
      20. Use the Touch Bar with Illustrator
      21. Files and templates
    3. Tools in Illustrator
      1. Tools at a glance
      2. Select tools
        1. Selection
        2. Direct Selection
        3. Group Selection
        4. Magic Wand
        5. Lasso
        6. Artboard
      3. Navigate tools
        1. Hand
        2. Rotate View
        3. Zoom
      4. Paint tools
        1. Gradient
        2. Mesh
        3. Shape Builder
      5. Text tools
        1. Type
        2. Type on a Path
        3. Vertical Type
      6. Draw tools
        1. Pen
        2. Add Anchor Point
        3. Delete Anchor Point
        4. Anchor Point
        5. Curvature
        6. Line Segment
        7. Rectangle
        8. Rounded Rectangle
        9. Ellipse
        10. Polygon
        11. Star
        12. Paintbrush
        13. Blob Brush
        14. Pencil
        15. Shaper
        16. Slice
      7. Modify tools
        1. Rotate
        2. Reflect
        3. Scale
        4. Shear
        5. Width
        6. Free Transform
        7. Eyedropper
        8. Blend
        9. Eraser
        10. Scissors
    4. Quick actions
      1. Retro text
      2. Neon glow text
      3. Old school text
      4. Recolor
      5. Convert sketch to vector
  3. Illustrator on the iPad
    1. Introduction to Illustrator on the iPad
      1. Illustrator on the iPad overview
      2. Illustrator on the iPad FAQs
      3. System requirements | Illustrator on the iPad
      4. What you can or cannot do on Illustrator on the iPad
    2. Workspace
      1. Illustrator on the iPad workspace
      2. Touch shortcuts and gestures
      3. Keyboard shortcuts for Illustrator on the iPad
      4. Manage your app settings
    3. Documents
      1. Work with documents in Illustrator on the iPad
      2. Import Photoshop and Fresco documents
    4. Select and arrange objects
      1. Create repeat objects
      2. Blend objects
    5. Drawing
      1. Draw and edit paths
      2. Draw and edit shapes
    6. Type
      1. Work with type and fonts
      2. Create text designs along a path
      3. Add your own fonts
    7. Work with images
      1. Vectorize raster images
    8. Color
      1. Apply colors and gradients
  4. Cloud documents
    1. Basics
      1. Work with Illustrator cloud documents
      2. Share and collaborate on Illustrator cloud documents
      3. Share documents for review
      4. Upgrade cloud storage for Adobe Illustrator
      5. Illustrator cloud documents | Common questions
    2. Troubleshooting
      1. Troubleshoot create or save issues for Illustrator cloud documents
      2. Troubleshoot Illustrator cloud documents issues
  5. Add and edit content
    1. Drawing
      1. Drawing basics
      2. Edit paths
      3. Draw pixel-perfect art
      4. Draw with the Pen, Curvature, or Pencil tool
      5. Draw simple lines and shapes
      6. Image Trace
      7. Simplify a path
      8. Define perspective grids
      9. Symbolism tools and symbol sets
      10. Adjust path segments
      11. Design a flower in 5 easy steps
      12. Perspective drawing
      13. Symbols
      14. Draw pixel-aligned paths for web workflows
    2. 3D objects and materials
      1. About 3D effects in Illustrator
      2. Create 3D graphics
      3. Map artwork over 3D objects
      4. Create 3D Text
      5. Create 3D objects
    3. Color
      1. About color
      2. Select colors
      3. Use and create swatches
      4. Adjust colors
      5. Use the Adobe Color Themes panel
      6. Color groups (harmonies)
      7. Color Themes panel
      8. Recolor your artwork
    4. Painting
      1. About painting
      2. Paint with fills and strokes
      3. Live Paint groups
      4. Gradients
      5. Brushes
      6. Transparency and blending modes
      7. Apply stroke on an object
      8. Create and edit patterns
      9. Meshes
      10. Patterns
    5. Select and arrange objects
      1. Select objects
      2. Layers
      3. Group and expand objects
      4. Move, align, and distribute objects
      5. Stack objects    
      6. Lock, hide, and delete objects
      7. Copy and duplicate objects
      8. Rotate and reflect objects
      9. Intertwine objects
    6. Reshape objects
      1. Crop images
      2. Transform objects
      3. Combine objects
      4. Cut, divide, and trim objects
      5. Puppet Warp
      6. Scale, shear, and distort objects
      7. Blend objects
      8. Reshape using envelopes
      9. Reshape objects with effects
      10. Build new shapes with Shaper and Shape Builder tools
      11. Work with Live Corners
      12. Enhanced reshape workflows with touch support
      13. Edit clipping masks
      14. Live shapes
      15. Create shapes using the Shape Builder tool
      16. Global editing
    7. Type
      1. Add text and work with type objects
      2. Create bulleted and numbered lists
      3. Manage text area
      4. Fonts and typography
      5. Identify and use fonts from images and outlined text
      6. Format type
      7. Import and export text
      8. Format paragraphs
      9. Special characters
      10. Create type on a path
      11. Character and paragraph styles
      12. Tabs
      13. Find missing fonts (Typekit workflow)
      14. Arabic and Hebrew type
      15. Fonts | FAQ and troubleshooting tips
      16. Create 3D text effect
      17. Creative typography designs
      18. Scale and rotate type
      19. Line and character spacing
      20. Hyphenation and line breaks
      21. Spelling and language dictionaries
      22. Format Asian characters
      23. Composers for Asian scripts
      24. Create text designs with blend objects
      25. Create a text poster using Image Trace
    8. Create special effects
      1. Work with effects
      2. Graphic styles
      3. Appearance attributes
      4. Create sketches and mosaics
      5. Drop shadows, glows, and feathering
      6. Summary of effects
    9. Web graphics
      1. Best practices for creating web graphics
      2. Graphs
      3. SVG
      4. Slices and image maps
  6. Import, export, and save
    1. Import
      1. Place multiple files
      2. Manage linked and embedded files
      3. Links information
      4. Unembed images
      5. Import artwork from Photoshop
      6. Import bitmap images
      7. Import Adobe PDF files
      8. Import EPS, DCS, and AutoCAD files
    2. Creative Cloud Libraries in Illustrator 
      1. Creative Cloud Libraries in Illustrator
    3. Save
      1. Save artwork
    4. Export
      1. Use Illustrator artwork in Photoshop
      2. Export artwork
      3. Collect assets and export in batches
      4. Package files
      5. Create Adobe PDF files
      6. Extract CSS | Illustrator CC
      7. Adobe PDF options
      8. Document info panel
  7. Printing
    1. Prepare for printing
      1. Set up documents for printing
      2. Change the page size and orientation
      3. Specify crop marks for trimming or aligning
      4. Get started with large canvas
    2. Printing
      1. Overprint
      2. Print with color management
      3. PostScript printing
      4. Print presets
      5. Printer's marks and bleeds
      6. Print and save transparent artwork
      7. Trapping
      8. Print color separations
      9. Print gradients, meshes, and color blends
      10. White Overprint
  8. Automate tasks
    1. Data merge using the Variables panel
    2. Automation with scripts
    3. Automation with actions
  9. Troubleshooting 
    1. Crash issues
    2. Recover files after crash
    3. File issues
    4. Supported file formats
    5. GPU device driver issues
    6. Wacom device issues
    7. DLL file issues
    8. Memory issues
    9. Preferences file issues
    10. Font issues
    11. Printer issues
    12. Share crash report with Adobe
    13. Improve Illustrator performance

Are you experiencing issues with opening or placing a file in Illustrator? Learn about the possible reasons and solutions for these issues.

System-level issues can cause errors and other unexpected behavior. Before assuming that a document is damaged, follow these steps:

  1. Run the disk repair utility tool for Windows or macOS.

  2. Ensure that your system meets the minimum system requirements to run the latest version of Illustrator.

  3. Ensure that Illustrator is up to date.

    Update Illustrator

Illustrator system messages help you determine the cause of the crash by providing a list of problem-causing scenarios. Here are some of the scenarios and their solutions:

Insufficient system memory

Access denied

File already open

Device issues

Corrupt or damaged file

Unexpected issues

Insufficient system memory

You cannot open a file on Illustrator if your system does not have enough memory (RAM) to read the file. One of the reasons for less memory can be too many applications open on your computer. 

Try these solutions

  • Ensure that your computer meets the specified system requirements.
  • Perform disk clean up to reduce the number of unnecessary files on your drive and ensure that your Windows temporary folder is empty.
  • Quit some applications to free up your system's memory.
  • Expand your system's RAM, if possible.

Access denied

You cannot open a file on Illustrator and get an error message if there is an access-related issue with the file. Here are some access-related issues and their solution.

Issue

Solution

Not authorized to open this file or required access permissions are not available.

Obtain access permissions from the owner of the file and try signing in again.

Tip: Before you work on a shared file, create a local copy if possible.

File is already open or locked (in use) by another user.

Close the file from other applications or user profiles.

File is password protected or invalid login or password for the file.

Ensure that correct sign-in credentials are provided.

File is placed on a network and the network location is not reachable.

Check the network connectivity and try accessing the file again.

File already open

You cannot open a file if it is already open in another version of Illustrator.

Try these solutions

  • Close the file that is open in another version of Illustrator.
  • If you are unable to close the file, force close all versions of Illustrator or restart your computer. 
  • If you're facing this issue when saving a file, try changing the filename and location. For more on fixing issues with saving files, see Troubleshoot issues with saving files.

Input and output device issues

You cannot open a file on Illustrator when the read process is interrupted or if the file cannot be accessed or found.

Following are some scenarios that can cause interruptions to the file read process, and their solution:

File location

Reason

Solution

Removable devices (USB stick, external drive, pen drive, and so on)

Device is not removed or ejected safely from the computer

Ensure that you safely remove the device after a read/write operation.

Network location

Network connectivity is lost

Check your network connection.

Shared location

Shared file is no longer available

Ensure that the shared location is accessible.

Corrupt or damaged file

You get an error message if an Illustrator file is found to be damaged or corrupt. In general, it happens when you use any corrupt JPEG image in your document. As a quick workaround, you can replace the corrupted JPEG image and relaunch Illustrator. 

When you relaunch Illustrator, you get an auto-recovered version of the file:

  • The auto-recovered file may have some contents missing or changed.
  • The auto-recovery process does not change your original file because it runs on a copy of the file. 

Try these recovery steps

When the .ai file gets damaged, you can try to recover the PDF version of it and save the PDF with the .ai extension. However, recovery is possible only if the Create PDF Compatible File option was enabled at the time of saving the file and the PDF content of the .ai file exists.

Perform the following steps to recover the affected .ai file:

  1. Open the affected .ai file in Acrobat Reader. 
  2. Save the file as a PDF.
  3. Open this saved PDF in Illustrator and again save with the .ai extension.

If no PDF content exists for the selected .ai file, you will receive a message stating that file was saved without the PDF content.

Unexpected issues

In addition to the above scenarios, you cannot open and recover a file on Illustrator in the following cases:

  • Unexpected or unknown errors.
  • The file is damaged and beyond repair.
  • The extension of the file you are trying to open is not supported by Illustrator.

What you can do

For all these cases, we recommend that you share your affected files with us and help us investigate the issue. 

We're here to help!

If no solution works, share the affected file with us at file@adobe.com. We'll investigate the issue and let you know if recovery is possible. Ensure that the file you share does not include any sensitive personal information.

When you share your file(s) with us, you not only enable the Adobe team to find a solution to your problem, but also help us improve the overall user experience by identifying and resolving other similar issues.

We assure you that your file will strictly remain confidential and will be used only for investigation purposes.

We'll try our best to assist you, but as recovery depends on various factors, we cannot promise a permanent solution.

Talk to us

We would love to hear from you. Share your thoughts with the Adobe Illustrator Community.

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