@beat the instability you describe is likely to be a separate issue to the one tested and described here; this issue was resolved in version 27.4+

However, I can't recomend upgrading because version 27.3+ introduces an even more awful PDF file saving issue.

On M2 Max all Illustrator 27 versions, up to 27.5 are completely unusable and crash constantly (spinning wheel ...). All previous versions work without problems. On Intel iMac no problems with all Illustrator versions.
Meanwhile, the whole thing is more than annoying. What is the problem, Adobe?

Same here. Mac OS 13.3 Ventura on both an Intel Mac Pro Power Mac 2019 and an M1 MacBook Pro 16 2022.

I had to downgrade to the previous version.

@Susan, sorry to hear that, it's most frustrating. Have you posted (or voted for) a bug report yet? I've not had a chance to test the PDF error properly to identify clear steps to repeat outside a working document. All this unoficial QA work takes more time than I have right now!

@Mark, I appreciate you posting the video. I work as a rug designer, so working with and moving complex repeats is an absolute necessity. The PDF file-save issue you mentioned has become my latest nightmare after reverting back to 2022/26. Unfortunately, my PDF files created in 27+ have not saved their illustrator editing capabilities.

@Egor, confirmed, I was unable to reproduce it on a PC. But also yes, it does seem extra slow (though I've not run my benchmark script accross versions to check).

Back on the M1 MBP, I tested 27.3.1 and can say the bug is much more rare here. The only way I could reproduce it there was by opening a test file made in 27.2, and even there it took a lot more effort to cause the crash to happen. HOWEVER, 27.3+ appears to introduce a PDF filesave bug that is too bad to live with. I won't be updating at least until that is resolved :|

@Mark, a heavy one. It takes my 27.2 at my Windows machine (AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 15.9GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 960) from 16 up to 60 seconds to perform an operation, but it survives. I tried two dozens moves, stable still. But — the artwork doesn’t really move the full distance I drag it to...
But no crash :/

@Egor - attempting to attach a test file. I previously tried to upload a video but it didn't succeed. The file is 180MB (I went from new document and making the moderately complex object from scratch).

I've been in contact via email with Wasim Ansari, who has been following this. He's the one who asked for the video, since he says he's unable to reproduce via my steps (which surprises me as I've been able to quickly and reliably reproduce it on 5 separate devices including a couple of brand new ones).

Steps to repeat:
1. New Document
2. Make a rectangle. Duplicate it a few times. Group them together. Add a text frame. Select the whole lot, duplicate a few times, group, repeat... aim for approximately 150k points.
3. click and drag the whole lot around a bit.
4. Has it crashed yet? If not, duplicate it one more time and repeat step 3.

Note - on an M2 mac complexity equivalent to around 2m points may be needed to cause the crash. But it still happens as described!

These steps have worked on the following hardware: 2x M1 Macbook Pros, an M1 Macbook air, an M2 Macbook Pro and an M2 Macbook Air. These have variously been running Monterey, Ventura 13.0.1, 13.1, 13.2 and 13.2.1. One of the M1 devices had just been refreshed, and both M2 devices were brand new (ie. fresh illustrator installs). Illustrator versions 27.1, 27.2, 27.3 and even 27.4.428. GPU Performance on and off.

Note - I have NOT been able to reproduce the bug in Illustrator 2022 26

@Mark, can you share a test file, the steps and a short video of it crashing at your side, so that a team can follow these and replicate it on their side?

I did not know about the drag feature, but usually the crash occurs right after it's been pasted when I go to position it on the art board. Normal it's paste, start to move, crash.

I don't really have the time to experiment to recreate it unfortunately.

I wonder, does it help to not copy and paste, but to drag it from a document to another, through their tabs? Not as handy as using a buffer, but perhaps it can save you some time.
Also — if you have the time — can you check if it crashes still with something else than this particular atlas-file?

Nope. Different art every time. The last crash - which was after my last reply - was simply moving something that was already on the dartboard.

Basically what I do is I print files from Illustrator. I have a 6 page artboard. I have several thousand different pieces of art and when a customer orders a given piece of artwork I open the file, copy it and paste it onto the artboard, which is why I'm always copying and pasting. I arrange the various pieces of art to best fill the artboard depending on what is ordered.

Yep, this is a tight knot to try to untie.
Can you try to isolate this specific piece of artwork that crashes this particular configuration into a file, to share with the team, so they can try to reproduce this on their side? I know it’d be difficult to do, but there is little that can be done without it.

"Michael, do you send crash reports when this happens? " Every single time.

"What kind of artwork getting pasted does cause this? " Vector with maybe one small line of text (same font every time)

"Do you by any chance have any clipboard manager tool installed?" I use Copy Clip but it is set to ignore Illustrator.

Up until a week ago I was using an iMac Pro with Montery. Since last Saturday I've been using a Mac Studio with Ventura 13.2 (and 13.2.1) So three things changed: Intel to Apple Silicon, Monterey to Ventura, and I had to install the Apple Silicon version of Illustrator. All of this crashing has been since the shift to the Mac Studio.

Michael, do you send crash reports when this happens?
What kind of artwork getting pasted does cause this? Text, images, vectors, a mixed one?
Do you by any chance have any clipboard manager tool installed?

Your 27.2 update did NOT fix stability issues on Mac OS Ventura 13.2. Still crashes constantly. Usually when pasting artwork from one file to the next.

I've tested Illustrator 27.1 and 27.2, Ventura 13.0.1 and 13.2, with GPU performance and without; I'm able to recreate the crash in every case.

This is what I, and users where I work, are experiencing:

We're all on Macbook Pros running Ventura. Most of them are M1, one is M2. None of us are using Wacom tablets.

We're all using Illustrator 2023 (27). I've not yet been able to recreate it on version 26.

We're finding that dragging moderately complex groups of items crashes Illustrator pretty reliably.

I've managed to recreate it with just rectangles and text frames. Make a few, group them, copy paste, group and repeat a few times over to get a moderately complex object. Then just drag it around a bit. This also happens in outline mode, so might be worth trying that.

It's pretty bad.