Illustrator window shrinks, size not big enough, can't open the illustration
When I try to open a document from my drive, I get a pop-up window that says: Can't open the illustration. There is not enough room for the window; increase document area and try again.
I've only had this issue since the last update. What can I do to fix this?

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Still a problem in 2025.
Illustrator window occasionally shrinks on launch to the smallest size possible (no second monitor is connected).
While in this state, Ai refuses to open a document, showing a message it has no enough memory. -
Caitlin commented
I have been getting an issue with opening AI files and getting an error saying "Can't open file because window is too small", and it randomly shrinks Illustrator to where you just see the file/edit tool bar. I always maximize the window when working. It does this when I open from Windows Explorer, I don't think I've had that issue when opening from Illustrator. The files I'm opening are only 3.5" x 1" text banners, no graphics.
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Tommy D Thompson commented
Happening on almost every file. It minimizes the window to a size that illustrator "can't" open the file. wasting time getting files open.
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Thomas Wolfe commented
This also happens to me but only on windows and with certain files for the first few tries of opening it. Then it appears to self-resolve. It does cut about 5 minutes out of my workflow though.
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Lance commented
This has been a long standing issue with Illustrator, at least on Windows. It has something to do with whether the application window is maximized or whether the user has click-dragged each edge to re-size the window.
I've always found that in maximized window mode I have more issues with this; typically everytime I double-click an illustrator file to open it.
If I manually drag each application border; top, bottom, left and right edges to the screen's edge then this issue does not happen very often.
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Kristi K commented
Every time I try to open an additional tab in .ai with the program already open, the window gets small and then an error code pops up saying "Cant open the illustration. There is not enough room for the window; increase document area and try again". It's so annoying to have try 2 and sometimes 3 or 4 times just to open the file. I have to manually readjust the window even though I'm starting from full screen.
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Jason commented
I am still experiencing this issue as of 4/30/21. Sometimes I have to attempt to open my file up to 10 times before it finally opens without giving me that warning and shrinking my window down.
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Sean commented
this had been resolved the last 6 months or so and is now happening again. 8/18/2020... what gives?>
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gequ commented
Same problem here when trying to open a ai/pdf from the web (we have a plugin to tell AI to open it).
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Anonymous commented
No. The customer is correct on his complain. Many times we have to create or open files larger than 577 cm and Illustrator does not allow it. The samr applies to all Adobe programs. It really is annoying.
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Anonymous commented
When in Windows 10 and I have a explorer window open from doing an import into another app Eg. InDesign and then while having the file list open then right clicking on a file to open with Illustrator I get a window too small error (if illustrator currently has been minimised in some way. It would be nice if this file open with illustrator could open the app window bigger so that it could display the file for editing.
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Sean commented
I have to close and open AI files all day. Every 5-6th time of opened various documents, my entire program window will shrink down as small as possible and i will get an error message saying AI is too small to open the file when I already had the program as full size.
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Caitlin commented
Never mind, I found the issue for the saving problem. Some how the save dialog changed the Subsetting drop down to "all glyphs" instead of "use system fonts". That made the files huge.
I have not experienced the second issue today, but did not have any particular solution to it.
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Rich commented
I have been unable to open any documents today. Even after uninstalling Illustreator the installing a new version the problem persists. I get the same error message:
"Can't open the illustration. There is not enough room for the window; increase document area and try again."
I'm unable to even see the window - so no way to increase its size.
Started happening when i unplugged from two LG UltraFine screens.
Ridiculous and infuriating bug - what can I do?
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Anonymous commented
SAME PROBLEM HERE
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ritika patel(Illustrator team) commented
Hi,
Thanks for reporting this.
It will be helpful if you share the file with us along with the machine specification.Regards,
Ritika