Adobe Illustrator CS5 Crashing

Question

Level 1

11 points

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Crashing

I am having an issue ever since installing El Capitan. When using Adobe Illustrator CS5, any time I attempt to use the Eyedropper tool, the program will crash as soon as I click on the object I'm trying to copy the color of.

I have noticed that I am able to use the eyedropper successfully ONLY when copying the color of a SOLID color object. If I attempt to copy the color of an object with a gradient-fill, or copy a color from an embedded image/photo, the crash is immediate.

The issue is happening on both my Macbook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) and my iMac (24-inch, Early 2008).

PLEASE help. I am very reliant on using Adobe Illustrator for my job.

Any advice will help, or if you are experiencing the same (or similar) issue let me know so I can avoid anything that will cause the crash!

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 2, 2015 12:23 PM

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Answer 1

Ralph9430

Level 7

21,732 points

Oct 2, 2015 12:35 PM in response to rickmartin

This appears to me to be a problem of compatibility of the Adobe Illustrator CS5 app and not a problem with El Capitan. Check in the various Adobe or Illustrator forums to see if others have experienced this problem and how they might have fixed it.

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Answer 2

Oct 2, 2015 12:39 PM in response to rickmartin

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1871440

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Answer 3

rickmartin Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 2, 2015 2:18 PM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks leroydouglas, but unfortunately that thread doesn't apply to me, for I don't have auto-hide active.

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Answer 4

Oct 4, 2015 1:36 PM in response to rickmartin

This is just the thing I've been wondering. I have not installed El Capitan. I did have a problem with Yosemite, which is what I'm using now. But installing that deprecated version of Java (Java 6) solved the problem.

I don't want to get into renting by the month and working in the cloud, which Adobe seems to be pushing now. If Photoshop CS 5.1, which is what I've got, does not work with El Capitan, is there another version that I could purchase (not a cloud version, a downloadable version, work on your desktop version)? Not trying to skew the discussion.

My main concern is: will Photoshop CS 5.1 work on El Capitan?

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Answer 5

Oct 8, 2015 12:51 PM in response to Stephen Souza1

I have just installed El Capitan and wish I never had. I downloaded the older Java Software as suggested, as I have Adobe CS5, and restarted my Mac. Everything seemed to work, but Photoshop and Illustrator take ages to load up, Illustrator more so. Now, Illustrator has started regularly crashing, usually when I'm using the eyedropper tool. When I go to the font list to preview fonts they all appear blank or in some weird code. So now I have to figure out how to go back to an older OS, as this new one is not worth it. My Mac is running 3 times slower than it was previously 😟

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Answer 6

rickmartin Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 8, 2015 1:40 PM in response to UrbanReiver

@UrbanReiver -- Every single thing you just mentioned was happening to me as well (The eyedropper and font issue were impossible for me to work around and had me so fed up).

I started a thread in the Adobe forums about it, and it seems to be consistently buggy for everyone trying to use CS5 with El Capitan. (Here is the thread, if you're curious. https://forums.adobe.com/message/8023966#8023966)

Unfortunately, nothing I have attempted to do had any resolve, so I ended up reverting back to OSX Yosemite last night. I have been using time machine, so I was able to simply Restart my computer, Holding 'Command+R', and ultimately Restoring from a Backup from Disk Utility that I saved prior to upgrading to El Capitan. This worked very easily (took a few hours) but when the system restarted, it was back to Yosemite. Keep in mind, if you do this, make sure you back up any files you created during your stint with El Capitan somewhere else, because once reverting back to Yosemite those files will be gone.

There are other methods to downgrade back to Yosemite, by erasing the disk, but restoring from Time Machine seems to bypass that step, and worked great for me!

Good luck!

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Answer 7

Oct 10, 2015 3:25 AM in response to rickmartin

Did you use Time Machine to restore? I'm a little confused about that because you also wrote "ultimately Restoring from a Backup from Disk Utility." How did Disk Utility figure into this?

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Answer 8

Raicya

Level 10

208,293 points

Oct 10, 2015 4:52 AM in response to rickmartin

Have you visit the Adobe Illustrator Community ☞ https://forums.adobe.com/community/illustrator/overview

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Answer 9

rickmartin Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 13, 2015 7:25 AM in response to Stephen Souza1

@Stephen Souza1, I am sorry, I was mistaken. I meant to say I used The Max OS X Utilities menu to Restore from Time Machine, not Disk Utility. I apologize for the confusion.

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Answer 10

Bee509

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2015 12:21 AM in response to rickmartin

Those folks aren't of much help are they? 😠

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Answer 11

Oct 21, 2015 5:59 AM in response to rickmartin

El Capitan...

For the first time since 1987, when I purchased the first version of Adobe Illustrator, I am considering moving from Mac to a PC. Apple is not what it used to be.

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Answer 12

Oct 26, 2015 1:19 PM in response to rickmartin

Same here, after El Captain and first update (10.11.1) Illustrator CS5 crashes when using Eyedropper Tool. Tested on (few) solid colors and worked, but failed when change it to gradients.

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Answer 13

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,223 points

Oct 26, 2015 1:26 PM in response to Stephen Souza1

Adobe still sells CS6 but when I asked them about support for 10.11 they directed me to a link that provided nothing in the way or saying they supported it or did not. Adobe is pushing CC2015 and despite 50K signatures from CS users who asked for a version we could buy and keep Adobe has not budged from their subscription only model (MicroSoft did though!)

you may wish to read this article from Bob Levine who is highly active on the Adobe Forums and if I'm not mistaken was or still is a developer for them.

http://boblevine.us/adobe-quietly-drives-a-nail-into-the-coffin-of-cs6/

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Answer 14

benwiggy

Level 4

1,473 points

Oct 26, 2015 2:09 PM in response to JimmyCMPIT

Try Affinity Designer instead. It's available on the Mac App Store for very little money, and is a SERIOUS, professional contender to Illustrator.

If you don't want to rent your software (and have your documents held to ransom), then migration away from Adobe is the only choice.

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Answer 15

Oct 26, 2015 2:38 PM in response to benwiggy

What would be a good alternative to Photoshop? Gimp? I've looked at it, but it doesn't seem much like Photoshop. Anything that's very good and Photoshop-like -- in other words, that would not take a long time to learn and to transfer over from Photoshop?

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