Skip to main content
Participant
January 9, 2023
Question

Adobe Reader opens only in background

  • January 9, 2023
  • 13 replies
  • 18725 views

Every time i try to open adobe reader nothing seems to happen. 

When i open the taskmaster/Job list, Adobe has opened two jobs in the background, but i can't open any documents via the program. I can open the documents via a browser, however, I have a lot of PDF's that are saved in another program, and i can't open those documents through a browser, they need to have the program indstalled. 

I have tried uninstalling the program and installed the newest version. I have tried repairing the program. Nothing works. I have another computer that runs all of the same programs and versions, and on that computer adobe works with no issues. 

Sometimes when restart the computer, I can open a document, but then it sort of crashes again, and i can't open anything.  

13 replies

Participant
February 5, 2025

I just had an IT guy check it out and he said a program called 'FileOpen' commonly stops Adobe from working. He deleted it and everything works perfectly now.

AnandSri
Legend
March 10, 2025

Hello Paul!

 

I hope you're doing well. Thank you for sharing your findings on the cause of the issue and how you resolved it by removing the third-party app.

For future reference, you can check this article on a similar topic and try the suggested solutions:

🔗 Failed to Connect to DDE Server

 

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

Participant
October 29, 2024

Found a way to fix it: edit the properties of the executable files and set it to run in Compatibility mode: Windows 8.

It will start working again.

Participant
November 9, 2024

That worked!  I've been fighting this for a couple of months and tried everything listed above. Thanks!

Participating Frequently
September 27, 2024

Download the 32-bit version of pdf. it resolved the issue. 

Participant
October 1, 2024

I treid to do that this morning, but couldnt find a link for a 32bit.  Tried installing 64 again and so far its working.  Weird.

Participant
September 27, 2024

Having the same issue on one of our machines, Windows 11, after a recent windows update.

Participant
May 15, 2024

Same issue, even after reinstalling.

 

Participant
April 30, 2024

Having this issue. Tried everything possible. Unable to solve. 

Participating Frequently
April 30, 2024

What I found was that opening Acrobat and then manually opening files from the menu worked, but double clicking files would open the "phantom acrobat".

 

I completely nuked it a few times with various adobe uninstall tools and it seems to be working now.

Participant
May 20, 2024

I have been having this issue for months. I still had few files running in the background and after reading this comment tried to open it manually and woalaaaa it opened. There definitely is a bug, need a fix 

Participating Frequently
April 3, 2024

Adobe customer service remote accessed my computer and downloaded the 32 bit version of acrobat which helped tremendously. Not perfect but it is much better. 

JR Boulay
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 3, 2024

[MOVED TO THE ACROBAT READER DISCUSSIONS]

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe
Participating Frequently
April 3, 2024

Same issue. Trying to get Acrobat to work in reader mode for another local account on my computer where my main account has Acrobat Pro. Complete nightmare. Doesn't work. Now, PDFs will not load at all on my secondary account. Acrobat runs in background and blocks Chrome from opening PDFs.

Participant
March 27, 2024

Same same as all the other comments.  I do a HEAP of things in Acrobat and this is EXTREMELY counter productive.  I agree Adobe needs to escalate and address.