Adobe Acrobat Reader crash

Hi Luca, 

Thanks for reaching out, and sorry for the troubled experience. 

Thank you for sharing the detailed error logs — that’s very helpful. The crash you’re seeing (ntdll.dll with exception code 0xc0000409) usually indicates a conflict at the system level rather than just Acrobat itself. Let’s try a few steps to isolate the cause:

1. Check the document source

• Does this happen with all PDFs or only specific ones?

• Try opening a simple/local PDF (not from email/cloud/network drive) to see if the behavior is consistent.

2. Run Reader in Protected Mode OFF (for testing only)

• Go to Edit > Preferences > Security (Enhanced).

• Temporarily disable Protected Mode at startup.

• Restart Reader and check if the crash still occurs.

• If it works, the issue may be due to conflicts with other software or drivers.

3. Repair or Reset Acrobat Installation

• From the Help > Repair Installation option in Reader.

• If that doesn’t help, run a clean uninstall using the Adobe Acrobat Cleaner Tool and then reinstall fresh.

4. Try preference reset: 

• Sometimes, ntdll.dll crashes happen due to graphics drivers.

• Try preference reset: https://adobe.ly/3JJ3ab1.

5. Create a new Windows user profile

• Corrupt user profiles can trigger ntdll.dll crashes. Testing with a new profile will rule this out.

6. Advanced: Collect Crash Dumps

• If Reader is crashing (and not just freezing), we also need crash logs:

  • Instructions: https://adobe.ly/44afCIz
  • Once collected, upload the logs to any cloud drive (e.g., OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox) and share the link with us.

 Let us know how it works. 

Best regards,
Tariq | Adobe Community Team | Meet Acrobat Studio