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LeahDShae
LeahDShae
Participant
February 18, 2019
Question

Acrobat Reader DC runs extremely slow when using Comments and Sticky Notes

  • February 18, 2019
  • 15 replies
  • 34767 views

Reading, writing, and editing Comments and Sticky Notes is extremely frustrating. When I receive PDFs with Comments from other people, I can barely navigate the file because Acrobat runs so slow. The Comments do not display when I hover over them, I am forced to use the Comments bar and even then the delay to move from one to another is terrible.

Similarly, when I add Sticky Notes to a PDF I have to wait a long time before the text I typed appears. The delay is quite bad. I typed the following in a Sticky Note and waited 12 seconds for it to appear:  "You ask me if I love you and I s a"

I'm running Windows 10.

I have the latest version of Acrobat Reader DC:  19.010.20091, February 12, 2019

I tried Repair Installation 3 times today.

I cleared the Enable Protected Mode at startup, and Enhanced Security check boxes.

Nothing works.

Short of uninstalling and reinstalling, is there anything else to try?

    15 replies

    Show previous replies
    A
    Adam5CDD
    Participant
    December 4, 2020

    I am having the same issue with pdf's created from CAD drawings, each line of text in the drawing comes up as a separate comment. I am using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and the drawings are impossibly slow to even scroll through, then even slower again if I try and add comments. 

    Adobe, can you please fix this.  

      D
      default6lqpicowk8dp
      Participant
      May 14, 2021

      I am having this EXACT same issue...my PDF is 167 pages, and Adobe is saying i have 11658 comments, and I have no idea how to make it so that doesn't happen when I create a PDF crom AutoCAD Electrical

        P
        PJ25267664mozf
        Participant
        July 15, 2022

        same here .... 173 pages with 13810 comments - fixit Jesus 

          G
          GrizzlyHippo
          Participating Frequently
          October 8, 2020

          Same here, I cannot believe how bad Acrobat DC still is. When it was released I refused to use it. Why oh why the huge interface restricting vertical screen space??? And now I have been forced to move to DC due to the arrival of a new MacPro and Mac OSX 10.15... and OMG, Acrobat DC is almost unusable. It is SO SLOW, especially when commenting on a document. For crying out loud, I've got a cutting edge MacPro 12 core, full of RAM and I can't comment on a PDF without HUGE amounts of lag.

           

          Either fix it, or release an update for Acrobat X to work on OSX 10.15... I know that's not going to happen, but until 2 weeks ago Acrobat X was working perfectly on my old machine.

           

          COME ON ADOBE, SORT IT OUT.

          J
          joshmilks
          Participant
          July 10, 2020

          I CANNOT BELIEVE THERE IS STILL NOT A FIX TO THIS. ADOBE IS

          USELESS

          UNUSABLE

          WORTHLESS

          I should not spend 20 minutes making 4 comments on one page... We are an engineering firm so having plan sets of 100+ pages 22x34 and needing to make 20-40 comments on each sheet is very normal. The fact that Adobe Acrobat Pro DC cannot handle something this simple when our computers can run 5 complex CAD files at the same time makes it apparent that your product is disgustingly flawed in how it processes anything. This is why I keep pushing for Bluebeam. Unfortunately I am new to this company and these old timers are used to Adobe since they still work with hard copies for everything. Everyone who is anyone has been transitioning to Bluebeam, kicking Adobe to the curb, because Adobe is USELESS, UNUSABLE, WORTHLESS.

            L
            LeftOffice
            Participating Frequently
            July 16, 2020

            I have the same problem since DC-Versions of Acrobat. I checked out my file (500 pages, 920 comments) in Acrobat X. It runs fast and without problems.

            In DC it takes about 2 minutes to show the comments after opening the file and each time I click the checked icon of a comment it takes about 4 seconds to finish.

            Horrible.

             

              G
              GrizzlyHippo
              Participating Frequently
              October 7, 2020

              Same here, I cnnot believe how bad Acrobat DC still is. When it was released I refused to use it. Why oh why the huge interface restricting vertical screen space??? And now I have been forced to move to DC due to the arrival of a new MacPro and Mac OSX 10.15... and OMG, Acrobat DC is almost unasable. It is SO SLOW, especially when commenting on a document. For crying out loud, I've got a cutting edge MacPro 12 core, full of RAM and I can't comment on a PDF without HUGE amounts of lag.

               

              Either fix it, or release an update for Acrobat X to work on OSX 10.15... I know that's not going to happen, but until 2 weeks ago Acrobat X was working perfectly on my old machine.

               

              COME ON ADOBE, SORT IT OUT.

                J
                jg31415926535
                Participant
                November 6, 2019

                I'm not sure if this will help your situation, but it solved mine (which is similar).

                I work professionally on editing fairly decent-sized PDF documents (the last one was 40 pages). Because of the nature of my work, each edit has to be documented with an individual comment (so there are many). In that last document, I left over 600 comments. I work with the current version of Acrobat Reader DC and Windows 10. I noticed that during my editing sessions (that last hours) the performance would progressively get worse. The program would slow, even typing would start to lag, there would be errors in displaying pages, and eventually, I would even have to kill the program with the task manager after it locked up completely.

                Frequent saves of the document prevented any real loss. The solution was actually very simple. Before the errors occur, close Acrobat Reader completely and restart it. When I up the same document (with all those comments), it runs at top speed as if there was never a problem. Now, I do that at regular intervals (at about an hourly rate), and it works. I assume that Reader has some memory leaks or other unresolved issues as comments are created that probably are eating up app resources and killing performance. Killing the program frees everything up and lets you start fresh. It's crude, but effective.

                In my case, I was the only one commenting on a document, so yours may be a different issue, but the symptoms sound the same (and it's an easy fix to try). It also won't help if the problem is with the file itself (which I sometimes run into).

                Good luck.

                FUNAGEN
                FUNAGEN
                Participating Frequently
                June 29, 2025

                That is an awful fix. I do not want to have to restart Acrobat every 1 hour. Also in my case, it is too slow from minute 1. I have lost hours and hours of work because of crashing. I'm done.

                AnandSri
                AnandSri
                Legend
                February 18, 2019

                Hello Leahdshae,

                We're sorry for the trouble you had with Adobe Reader, and thank you for sharing the detailed information. Is it possible to share a sample PDF file with us on which you are facing the issue so that we can try to replicate the issue at our end?

                If yes, please share the PDF file in the direct/private message. How Do I Send Private Message

                Have you saved these files locally or on a network or shared drive?

                How many comments are there in the file (number of comments)?

                What is the version of Windows 10 installed? Is it 1803?

                We're here to help, just need more info.

                Thanks,

                Anand Sri.

                LeahDShae
                LeahDShaeAuthor
                Participant
                February 26, 2019

                Hi Anand,

                Apologies that I haven't sent you a PDF, yet. The information in the PDF is currently confidential so cannot be let outside the company. I am hoping it will become public soon and then I can send you a copy. In the meantime:

                • Have you saved these files locally or on a network or shared drive?
                  The files are saved locally, on my desktop.

                • How many comments are there in the file (number of comments)?
                  File A has 178 comments.
                  File B had no comments, but I was adding short Sticky Notes (1-4 sentences each) and had a problem even when under 20 notes.

                • What is the version of Windows 10 installed? Is it 1803?
                  Not sure. It says Windows 10 enterprise. Model, WIN10-Final-Release-Q1-FY18

                Note:  My computer has 4 cores and 8 logical processors with a base speed of 2.70 GHz. While running tests on this problem a coworker and I observed that actions in Acrobat Reader max out 2.75 of my 8 processors. That shouldn't happen.

                Regards,

                Leah

                  edwardp23905076
                  edwardp23905076
                  Participant
                  April 9, 2019

                  Hello Adobe.. Any answers to original posters question??  as I and many others in my organization are having the same exact issue.. it does not matter what version of adobe or MS windows one has.  it happens to any document so sending you a sample document will be of no use. It does not matter whether files are stored locally or on the cloud an it seems this issue has been going on for some time now.  I am disappointed & surprised you haven't addressed the issue.  Please someone from Adobe please answer.. comments and sticky notes on documents are critical to using adobe acrobat.. Please help!!

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