Updated 28 August, 2020
Illustrator Crashes in 16″ Macbook Pro
There is a known issue where Adobe Illustrator crashes frequently on the 16-inch Macbook Pro.
OpenGL is being deprecated, causing stability issues around GPU rendering (Adobe thread).
The fix requires installing a pre-release version of Adobe Illustrator that includes Metal support. Metal is Apple’s new graphics-rendering engine, much faster and more stable than OpenGL.
Installing the Pre-release Version of Adobe Illustrator
Go to this page and request to participate in the pre-release program:
You must be connected to an Adobe account for the link to work. More information.
Download and install the following file:
- Illustrator 24.3 Metal Build 3
This version does not overwrite your existing version of Illustrator; both can be installed at the same time.
Existing preferences and shortcuts will not be retained, but these can be copied between the preference folders at:
/Users/YourName/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator 24 Settings/en_US
/Users/YourName/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator 25 Settings/en_US