Adobe Illustrator won't open because of the "Not enough memory" error.

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No avatar asked by (160 points) about CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
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It's a Windows 7 professional 64 bit machine, with 4GB RAM. Every time I try to open Adobe Illustrator, it shows an error message during the splash screen saying not enough memory. I restarted and still have the same problem.

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• Save the file to your local (C) drive, which will decrease the potential for issues. Open the file in other versions of Illustrator if possible. Placing the file (using the “File > Place” command) into a blank document may also work, although it may require some minor edits to restore the file to its previous specifications (ungrouping, resizing, re-linking source files or changing color mode).
• Open the file (if possible) and print as a Postscript file by choosing "File > Print," then choose "Adobe Postscript File" as your printer and click "Save." Open the exported PS file in Illustrator.
• Select “Object > Path > Cleanup”, then go to the “Layers Panel” menu and select “Paste Remembers Layers.” Select the artwork and copy, then paste into a new file.
• Launch Adobe Acrobat (any version except Reader) and attempt to open the Illustrator file from within Acrobat. If it opens, make a minor edit using the “Select” tool (if possible). Save as a PDF and an EPS,and export as an EPS by clicking "File > Export > Postscript > Encapsulated Postscript." Open these files in Illustrator, or place them into a blank file if opening fails.
• Eliminate potentially corrupted elements (swatches, brushes, symbols, links, fonts) one at a time and save the file (under another name) to isolate the issue; reinstall the fonts, create outlines, select all elements and convert to process black. Delete all imported elements and custom elements, such as symbols, and remove custom brush strokes.
• Open Illustrator (the same program version that was used to create the corrupt file); save a blank file in the same format (AI or EPS). Close the file and change the extension of both to TXT (not necessary on Mac) and open in a text editor, such as Notepad. Note the point in the corrupt file where the valid data begins: it will be numbers and letters rather than symbols. In the good file, find “%%BeginData” and copy all data before it, then replace the bad data in the bad file. Save, close, and change the file extension back to AI or EPS, and try opening.
• Open the file in Photoshop or place into a new blank page in InDesign. This may enable you to salvage text or critical file elements, which you can export back into Illustrator.
• A final resort is to purchase a third-party program or service that salvages damaged files, for example http://www.ai.openfiletool.com/ AI Open File Tool

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No avatar answered by (329k points)
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There are many users who encountered this error and the way to solve it involves deleting the preferences file. To do this, go to Start > Run > %appdata%. Locate the Adobe Illustrator folder and delete it. It will be created again on the next start. Once Illustrator starts, change the location of the scratch disks to another partition where you have more space.

Change path using the following path: Illustrator > Preferences > Plug-ins & Scratch Disks

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