Please Read: Illustrator CS Crashing Issues - Questions From Adobe

[ShaneAdobeTS@adobeforums.com]

Hello Illustrator CS Users

I know that many of you have had issues with Illustrator CS crashing on you, and we are trying to find resolution to these problems. Currently, we are tracking two separate issues. I am trying to find out information on both of them.

I will outline the issues we need information on below, if possible, can you let me know if you fall into either of the scenarios or if you are having a different problem. You can either post here in this forum or you can email the information to [email]aifiles@adobe.com[/email].


Scenario 1

Issue


When launching Illustrator CS on Mac OSX, you receive the error message, "The Application Has Unexpectedly Quit........"



Details


You have a Swatch, Brush, Graphic Style, or Symbol library set as persistent and you have either turned off the Font Preview function, set the Font Preview size to Large,set the Font Preview size to Small, or checked "Show Font Names in English" from the Type and Auto tracing section of the General Preferences.



Solution
Trash the Illustrator preferences to open up Illustrator CS. To stop it from happening again, either change the swatch library from persistent, or change the font preview to "On" with the medium size setting.



Scenario 2

Issue
Error "The Application Has Unexpectedly Quit..." when saving or printing a file in Illustrator CS

Details


This we don't know and need information from users....


* Are you using Norton Antivirus with Autoprotect running? If so, if you disable it does the crashing stop? What version?

* Is there a default printer installed and selected? If not, after you install one, does the crashing stop?

* Does this happen with one file, many files, all files? What about a new file with just a box?

* If the crash happens when saving, is it to the local drive or to a network drive?

* If the crash happens when printing, how is the printer connected to the computer (local, network, wireless network)?

* Did Illustrator ever work? If so, what had changed recently when you started crashing? (new software, etc...)

* Have you tried resetting your permissions? If so, did that help?

* Is your user account Administrator or User?


* Anything else you think might help?



Thank you for your help!

Shane Tracy
Product Support Manager - Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Systems

[brock@bergdesign.com]

Why is it so hard for you guys to find these issues? You should have hundreds, if not thousands of crash logs from OS X users that should help pinpoint these issues quickly. Have you guys been on vacation for eight months? With the massive profits and resources of Adobe, there's not much of an excuse for the lack of updates and fixes to Illustrator CS. Most shareware developers could have found and fixed these issues much more rapidly than your team has. It's very embarassing.

Brock Brandenberg

[brock@bergdesign.com]

Here's one issue that I've confirmed with the Apple ColorSync guys that prevents Adobe Acrobat from starting up, but this problem could possibly point out some related issue(s) in Illustrator. Acrobat crashes at startup if there is a ColorSync profile with a very short name in the user's ColorSync Profiles folder. A profile with a two character name (both on the file's name and the internal name) will cause the crash. Unfortunately, this single scenario was the extent of the testing that I did since it alone hilited and quickly led to the solution. In this scenario, there's something wrong in the code that Acrobat uses to iterate through profiles, so if you're sharing code between apps (like well-factored code should be), it could propagate problems into Ilustrator.

Brock Brandenberg

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

Brock I had that problem with the startup and the colorsync but simply dumped the profile as I thought it was corrupt and made a new one. I sometimes give my profile a short name but I can tell you that I have such a short name now for my profile and it works fine. I do not think I had a short name when the profile had such a short name.'

But trashing the Monitor Profile and doing it over did solve my problem. Perhaps you have not found the complete cause and effect. Though I admit I don't quite understand this distinction you are making with regard to File name and Internal name.

Also perhaps it is simply not apparent what the issue is and the information that is given along with the crash reports might be well a bit incomplete so it is difficult to put the info together in a way that points to the real problem. Sometimes people don't want to tell about a certain software they use because they like it and it turns out that is the cause of the conflict.

I know from experience here on the Forum that often it becomes frustrating to assist someone when you give them all the advice that should work and it does not only to find out that they forgot to mention a certain software they use because they did not think that could possibly affect AI.

Also sometimes it is hardware or firmware related as there are many variations with many possible combinations it is possibly no one is alert or willing enough to mention the possibility that they have some attached or installed. I hope you see what I mean.

[brock@bergdesign.com]

Hi Wade.

I understand the information issue completely. My post for the Ilustrator developers was primarily meant as a starting point for discussion, so I haven't yet filled in all the details :) I write calibration software, so I ran into this particular issue, troubleshot and isolated the issue, contacted the Apple ColorSync group since it was related to profiles, and confirmed the issue with them that it was not ColorSync, but Adobe code. Here's the nitty-gritty.

The issue affects Acrobat Distiller. Profiles with short internal names (not file name) will cause Distiller to shut down during launch, but I haven't yet determined just how short the name must be to cause it. My testing involved one and two character file names, which caused the problem. I tested with profiles created by the Apple default calibrator and profiles created with our SuperCal application, and edited existing profiles using a file/hex editor to turn them "bad." I moved the suspect profiles across machines to isolate the problem, and it followed the profile from machine to machine, and went away when removing the profile.

To reproduce the problem on a Mac, open the Apple default calibrator, leave the expert option turned off, step through to the last step, and save the profile with the name "a". Then launch Distiller and see if it shuts down during launch with this profile installed.

I wll post this info to the Acrobat forum since it's most appropriate there, but if Adobe is factoring code well and using it across applications, it could affect Illustrator in some way. Since the AI issues are related to startup and printing, one of these scenarios is the same as when Distiller is shutting down, and one is related to printing which may make use of ColorSync profiles. It's only a hunch, but worth mentioning to these developers.

Brock Brandenberg

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

Yes I confirm that a one or two letter named monitor profile will collapse Distiller on launch.

I had a different issue with a corrupt profile crashing Acrobat 6.0.1 on launch how it got corrupt and the nature of the corruption I do not know however there is good cause to think this is related to the distiller issue and perhaps some of the problems AI CS has seen with some users.

[kevin_perlas@adobeforums.com]

For scenario #2

Are you using Norton Antivirus with Autoprotect running? If so, if you disable it does the crashing stop? What version?
NO. N/A. N/A

Is there a default printer installed and selected? If not, after you install one, does the crashing stop?
YES. N/A

Does this happen with one file, many files, all files? What about a new file with just a box?
ONE FILE. NO. ALSO I REBUILT THE DOCUMENT AND IT NO LONGER CRASHES WHEN SAVING.

If the crash happens when saving, is it to the local drive or to a network drive?
LOCAL DRIVE

If the crash happens when printing, how is the printer connected to the computer (local, network, wireless network)?
N/A

Did Illustrator ever work? If so, what had changed recently when you started crashing? (new software, etc...)
YES, BUT IT'S ALWAYS BEEN TEMPERMENTAL SO I'M NOT SURE WHETHER RECENT UPDATES HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE LATEST PROBLEM. BUT FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH, I JUST UPGRADED TO 10.3.4 TWO DAYS AGO.

Have you tried resetting your permissions? If so, did that help?
NO. N/A

Is your user account Administrator or User?
ADMIN

Anything else you think might help?
AFTER REBUILDING THE FILE (AS MENTIONED EARLIER) I CONVERTED ONE OF THE FONTS TO CURVES SO ILLUSTRATOR DIDN'T RECOGNIZE IT AS A FONT ANY MORE. THAT MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT.

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

Perhaps ion your case it is the font?

[tommy10pages@adobeforums.com]

Are you using Norton Antivirus with Autoprotect running? If so, if you disable it does the crashing stop? What version?

YES - NO - v9.0.2

Is there a default printer installed and selected? If not, after you install one, does the crashing stop?

YES - NO

Does this happen with one file, many files, all files? What about a new file with just a box?

EVERY FILE - BUT ONLY FILES WITH FONTS IN

If the crash happens when saving, is it to the local drive or to a network drive?

BOTH

If the crash happens when printing, how is the printer connected to the computer (local, network, wireless network)?

N/A

Did Illustrator ever work? If so, what had changed recently when you started crashing? (new software, etc...)

CRASHING ON SAVING FROM FIRST INSTALL (ONE CRASH EVERY 5 OR SO SAVES)

Have you tried resetting your permissions? If so, did that help?

YES - NO

Is your user account Administrator or User?

ADMIN

Anything else you think might help?

DISABILING FONTSYNC SUPPORT IN AI's SUITCASE PREFS SEEMS TO HAVE SOLVED IT!

[lee_vickers@adobeforums.com]

Are you using Norton Antivirus with Autoprotect running? If so, if you disable it does the crashing stop? What version? No. N/A. N/A.

Is there a default printer installed and selected? If not, after you install one, does the crashing stop? Yes. Default printer installed from start, but still crashes.

Does this happen with one file, many files, all files? What about a new file with just a box? Any file.

If the crash happens when saving, is it to the local drive or to a network drive? Network.

If the crash happens when printing, how is the printer connected to the computer (local, network, wireless network)? I rarely print from AI, but when I do there's been no crashes.

Did Illustrator ever work? If so, what had changed recently when you started crashing? (new software, etc...) AI10/OS9.2.2 crashed frequently; AICS/OS10.3.3 doesn't crash so much...

Have you tried resetting your permissions? If so, did that help? Yes. No.

Is your user account Administrator or User? Admin.

Anything else you think might help? Disable Suitcase X1 Auto-activation & Fontsync. Have had much fewer crashes since.

[Dave_MacLachlan@adobeforums.com]

Why is it so hard for you guys to find these issues? You should have hundreds, if not thousands of crash logs from OS X users that should help pinpoint these issues quickly. Have you guys been on vacation for eight months?

Brock,

I think you are under the assumption that we get the crashlogs that you send off to Apple via the little crashlogger thing? If so, unfortunately that's a bad assumption. We can't get our hands on them for a variety of reasons. If you send the crashlogs into us, then there is a chance that we can do something about them. Several people do send crashlogs regularly to me.

[Dave_MacLachlan@adobeforums.com]

Brock, just wanted to mention that I was going through the few Crashlogs we have (yet again) and noticed that you aren't installed directly in /Applications. That should NOT be a problem, however I doubt it's a heavily tested configuration. You may want to try moving Illustrator up into Applications (where the Suite installs it by default) to see if that fixes any of your issues. If you still are getting crashes, I'm still looking at crashlogs.