Illustrator crashing solution unclear (CC 2014, Mac OSX Mavericks, start-up crash, plug-ins confusion)

Question

Illustrator CC 2014 crashing on launch. Troubleshooting solution suggests moving third-party plug-ins, but how do I distinguish third-party plug-ins from those that should stay in situ, AND in any case, how do I actually move them, as any attempt to move anything out of the plug-ins folder simply creates a shortcut?

Answer 1

MoonVole,
You may look at the list of things to try below.
And you may try Creative Cloud support (all Creative Cloud customer service issues):
http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/service-ccm.html
Or if relevant this specialized forum (where you may be able find the answer from previous threads),
http://forums.adobe.com/community/download_install_setup
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file (you may have tried/done some of them already); 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html