Fix Illustrator Crash on Launch: Corrupted Preferences File

You're mid-project, double-click Illustrator, and boom — it bounces in the dock or shows a blank white window, then dies. I've been there. It's almost always a corrupted preferences file. Here's the fix.

The Fast Fix: Delete Your Preferences File

Don't bother reinstalling Illustrator or updating your GPU drivers first. The culprit here is almost always AIPrefs (Windows) or Adobe Illustrator Prefs (Mac). Just nuke it.

On Windows (Illustrator 2023/2024/2025)

Close Illustrator completely.
Press Win + R, type %appdata%\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator [version]\en_US\ (replace [version] with your build, e.g., 28 for 2024).
Find and delete AIPrefs — it has no file extension, just the name. You can also delete the whole Adobe Illustrator [version] folder if you're feeling aggressive, but stick to just AIPrefs to keep your workspaces.
Restart Illustrator. It'll rebuild the file fresh.

On macOS

Quit Illustrator.
Open Finder, press Cmd + Shift + G, enter ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator [version] Settings/.
Delete the file named Adobe Illustrator Prefs (no extension). Again, you can trash the whole folder if you want a full reset.
Relaunch Illustrator.

That's it. 9 times out of 10, Illustrator will boot right up. If it doesn't, read on.

Why This Works

Preferences files store everything from your workspace layout to brush settings to GPU acceleration flags. When that file gets corrupted — from a crash, a bad plugin, or a system update that interrupted a write — Illustrator reads garbage and panics during startup. Deleting it forces the app to generate a fresh, clean file. You'll lose your custom workspaces and keyboard shortcuts, but you'll be working again in 30 seconds.

This is the single most common startup crash cause across all Adobe apps. I've fixed it on hundreds of machines — from Windows 10 boxes to Mac Studio rigs.

When the Above Doesn't Work

If deleting preferences doesn't fix it, you've got something rarer. Here are the other usual suspects:

1. Corrupted Font Cache

Adobe uses a font cache that can also get corrupt. On Windows, go to %appdata%\Adobe\TypeSupport and delete the FontCache folder. On Mac, it's ~/Library/Caches/Adobe/TypeSupport. Restart after.

2. Third-Party Plugins

Plugins like Astute Graphics or VectorScribe can cause startup crashes if they're outdated. Test by launching Illustrator while holding Shift (Windows) or Cmd + Option + Shift (Mac) — this loads a minimal safe mode that skips plugins. If it works, disable plugins one by one.

3. GPU Driver Issues

Illustrator uses your GPU for hardware acceleration. On Windows, update your graphics drivers — especially if you've got an NVIDIA card and recently installed a Windows update. If the crash only happens on a high-DPI display, try setting Illustrator's compatibility mode to "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings." Right-click Illustrator.exe > Properties > Compatibility tab.

4. Network Drive or Missing Fonts

If Illustrator tries to load a font from a network drive that's disconnected, it can choke. Disconnect any network drives or external drives with fonts before launching.

Preventing This from Happening Again

You can't fully prevent preference corruption — it's a risk with any software that saves state on shutdown. But you can minimize it:

Always close Illustrator properly. Don't kill it via Task Manager or force quit. Let it save the preferences file cleanly.
Back up your preferences. Once you've got a stable setup, copy AIPrefs somewhere safe. If it corrupts again, just paste it back. I keep a copy on my desktop labeled AIPrefs_Backup.
Update Illustrator regularly. Adobe fixes corruption bugs in nearly every patch. Old versions are more vulnerable.
Watch your third-party plugins. Update them when Illustrator updates. A plugin built for an older version can corrupt preferences on the new one.

If you're managing a fleet of machines (like I do), add a startup script that checks for a corrupted preferences file and renames it if Illustrator crashed on last launch. But that's overkill for most people.

Bottom line: preferences corruption happens. Now you know how to crush it in under a minute.