2025 (29.0.1) is giving tons of errors on preview.
I have a file with some simple multi-gradient appearance stacks that constantly throws two errors every time I load it, and every time I switch outline mode on and off. Also the document is marked as modified the instant I load it.
Works fine on 2023. Dunno how it works on 2024, I never switched to that one. Constantly complains on 2025.
This is happening in CPU preview mode, I would check if it's happening in GPU mode as well but I deleted 2025 before thinking about that detail.
Uservoice isn't letting me upload this file so I've posted it on my own site: http://egypt.urnash.com/media/blogs.dir/1/files/2024/11/IABD-Unknown-Error-Sample.zip - ~7m zip of an Illustrator file.
The two errors, in order, are:
"The outline cannot complete because of an unknown error [IABD]"
followed by
“An error occurred while processing the appearance of an object”.
Margaret Trauth
shared this idea
The team says it’s fixed in Prerelease build 29.6.191.
The fix is now scheduled to be pushed into the upcoming general release.
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Margaret Trauth
commented
aww yeah, I'll be hitting that update when it happens then! I'm still hitting this one on a regular basis. Thanks for the heads up!
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Margaret Trauth
commented
29.3 still does not fix this.
I'm still on 27.8.1 at the moment because even though I know what causes this I still do not want to deal with being annoyed every time I try to use the pen tool to draw a path with an effect that triggers this. Turning "new art has basic appearance" back on before drawing a potentially offending path would *technically* work around this but, just, no, I've had "new art has basic appearance" off for something like twenty years at this point, please fix this bug.
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Margaret Trauth
commented
Oh hey a new version. Is this bug fixed in 29.2.1? No it is not. Back to 27.8.1 for me!
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Margaret Trauth
commented
Awrite, I just installed 2025 (29.1, an update from the 29.0.1 I originally reported this on) and noted the following:
* deleting this path on my original file did indeed fix this, both errors are gone
* drawing a new single-point path with this appearance instantly causes the [IABD] and appearance processing errors, whether I'm in outline or cpu preview
* this behavior exists in the gpu renderer tooaaaand
* your stripped-down file still generates both the [IABD] and appearance processing errors in 2025
That's one more drink I owe you if we ever end up in the same place at a convention, I guess :)
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Margaret Trauth
commented
Oh wow, thanks for doing the digging on isolating this one, Egor! I will try to make some time to reinstall 2025 and see if I'm still getting the [IABD] error. It definitely makes a *ton* of sense for it to be a weird edge case with effects this update touched.
(Here's a Reddit post from someone who's getting similar behavior except their first error is [!out] instead of [IABD], followed by the "error during processing appearance of an object": https://www.reddit.com/r/AdobeIllustrator/comments/1ha2ol9/anyone_ever_had_this_pop_up/)
....really I would kinda love it if there was a "show me the offending object" button on the "error processing appearance" requestor next to the "ok" button., I should make that feature request if it doesn't already exist.
New idea from comment
This comment was upgraded into a new idea: "Show me the offending object" button in the appearance error dialog for [IABD] and [!out] errors -
Here is the redacted file. I think it’s safe to delete the original, if this one behaves the same way for you, with the [IABD] error.
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I get only the second one (after the warning about the missing link).
Then I just deleted the object part by part, one by one, until I found the only singular point in the 'witch clothes' sublayer, right in the middle of the character’s left half of the chest (right one for the viewer). If I delete the point, no error shows up.
And the specific effect that causes the problem is Feather: when left in one fill only and disabled, the error vanishes.
So I assume it’s related to the recent performance changes for the blur-based effect the team introduced to boost up the performance.
I will share this redacted file with the team, so that they can review it.
Thanks
