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Question

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Crashing on Mac.

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
February 6, 2020
2 replies
1701 views

When I open Adobe Acrobat Reader on my Mac after about 2 seconds I just get the swirling circle of death. I tried to install the patch issued in December by Adobe but when the installer asks me to select the copy of Adobe Acrobat to update. Unfortunately, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is greyed out and not an option to select therefore I cannot even install the update. I have no idea what to do at this point. Even documents that I create in other apps but are saved as PDF's will not open. I need access to these documents for my business. If I delete the app and reinstall will I lose these documents? I cannot take the chance of losing them so if someone can reassure me that I won't lose them I would appreciate it. But I do need this app. Please help!!!

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Amal.

Legend

Hi Donnam,

We are sorry for the trouble and the delayed response. As described the Acrobat Reader is crashing on startup after 2 sec and the problem still persists after following all the steps provided in this thread. please try the following suggestion and see if that works for you.

Please create a new test user profile with full admin rights or enable the root account in Mac (https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204012) and try to install the application there and check.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards

Amal

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Are you using macOS or iOS?

And which version update number do you have for the Acrobat Reader installed in your Apple device?

You shouldn't loose any files if you back them up first to a separate mass storage device.

You can click on Help, and choose to Repair Installation.

You cam also use the Adobe Acrobat/Reader Cleanup and Repair tool and then reinstall.

But most importantly, have you considered using Time Machine?

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/restore-files-mh11422/mac&ved=2ahUKEwjtko-n2LvnAhUCEawKHfnaCwUQFjAGegQIDhAK&usg=AOvVaw2UxO4oEvOjODAphgX3a20l

donnam75218203Author

Participant

I have a macOS 10.13.6. I have no idea what version of Acrobat I have and I can’t tell as I cannot look into it. When I get the swirling circle it is for everything, even where I would find the version of reader, so that is not helpful. However, when I went onto the Adobe site to look into trying to see if I had cloud access to see if I could use my iPad (Adobe works on the iPad but I don’t have the docs from the MacBook on my iPad) I tried to download Reader and it told me that I had a newer version installed so it failed.

Again, because of the swirling circle of death, I cannot click on Help to get to the Repair choice so that is useless. I cannot select anything, I have to force quit.

Where can I find the Adobe Acrobat/Reader Cleanup and Repair tool? If it is on the app, no good. If it is separate, great, just let me know where I can find it.

So basically your telling me that I have to move all the pdf files off my computer, delete the app, reinstall the app then move the files back to my computer?? That’s the only choice unless the Cleanup & Repair tool is outside the app and works?? Seriously?? Can I get into the Cloud so I can use my iPad?

ls_rbls

Community Expert

No, a backup is not the same as moving files out of a computer. It is just a standard rule of thumb to copy your original content to a different mass storage device in case the problem is something else that the user is not aware of and breaks even more during a repair.

But here are a few suggestions:

If you are using any paid subscriptions for other Adobe products, Go to adobe.com, sign in with your AdobeID and manage your account settings. There is a section that you can see in how many devices you have a subscribed program . You can have a subscription in more than one computer device but you can only use it in one at a time; not simultaneously. So if that is the case, deactivate the device you're not using your subscription on and leave only activates the device that you're using right now.
OR, first you can follow this guidance: https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/access-hidden-user-library-files.html . See here on how to reset preferences to default: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/how-to-reset-preference-settings-in-acrobat/td-p/6499709?page=1
To completely remove old traces of Adobe software get the repair tool from here: https://labs.adobe.com/downloads/acrobatcleaner.html
When this procedure is done, reinstall Acrobat Reader DC from this link: https://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/
If this reinstallation goes successful perform an update. You can also apply the latest update manually from here: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/release-note/release-notes-acrobat-reader.html

And yes you can go to the document cloud.

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