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Jen3887003659ug
Participant
Jul 29, 2024 11:42 AM UTC
Question

Abobe Acrobat instantly crashing when opening PDFs with comments in

Hi, have an issue with Adobe Acrobat which has been installed with the latest version, repaired, reinstalled etc. When opening a PDF with comments in, it will flash open for a split second and then immediately close.

 

Event viewer is showing a faulting modile path of : \Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\Acrobat.dll

Fault code: 0x35f4

 

Colleagues are also having the same issue. The only work around we have found is to open a PDF document with no comments, and then open the one with comments and we can then work on it. This is not idea and there is a fault somewhere causing this to happen.

 

We have already worked through a few articles which suggest changing settings in preferences (unticking options for show online storage etc)  as well as disabling security options etc which have had no effect.

 

Please advise.

    16 replies

    potmesil
    potmesil
    Participant
    Oct 15, 2026 12:35 PM UTC

    Title: Acrobat crashes on cold start when opening PDFs with a Text annotation - caused by DirectManipulation ("Optimize page interactions")

    Follow-up to my earlier report with the repro file. I found the root cause and a workaround.

    Environment: Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (build 26200), Adobe Acrobat 64-bit in Reader mode, Czech single-language install. It has been crashing since 26.1.21771 (August 2026) and still crashes on 26.002.21931, 26.002.21996 and 26.002.22031.

    Symptom: Acrobat crashes right after start (access violation 0xc0000005 followed by 0xc000041d in Acrobat.dll) when it is launched by double-clicking a PDF that contains a Text (sticky note) annotation. Invoices from the Czech invoicing service iDoklad trigger it, because each one contains a hidden Text annotation named "ISDOC". The attached minimal repro is a blank page with a single Text annotation.

    Key observations:
    - It only crashes on a cold start. If Acrobat is already running, the same file opens fine.
    - It happens only when DirectManipulation is enabled. On my machine it was switched on by the server-side experiment HKCU\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\IPMExperiments\cDirectManipulationIPMConsumer (iVariant = 2). Removing just that experiment stopped the crash. I narrowed it down by bisecting the preferences registry.
    - A fresh preferences profile does not help. The first launch works, but from the second launch on it crashes again. Reinstalling or resetting preferences is therefore not a fix.

    Workaround: Preferences > Page Display > uncheck "Optimize page interactions" (AVDisplay\bUseDirectManipulation = 0). With this setting the repro opens fine on cold start, every time.

    This probably explains why the issue could not be reproduced in-house: it only affects users in the DirectManipulation experiment cohort. Could the team please look at the DirectManipulation initialization path for documents with annotations on cold start?

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    alexis_5864
    Participant
    Apr 10, 2025 3:02 PM UTC

    Hi @Tariq Ahmad ,

    We have users experiencing this issue.  Will there be a software fix available for this?   None of the suggested solutions in this chat have worked to resolve the issue. 

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    Tariq Dar
    Legend
    Apr 10, 2025 3:54 PM UTC

    Hi @alexis_5864, 

     

    Sorry for the troubled experience, and thanks for reaching out. 
    If you had a chance to read through this discussion, we have been trying to get logs and more details about this issue. Sadly, we have not been able to reproduce it in-house. 

     

    Let me know if you and your affected user will be available for a debugging session next week?

     

    Thank you for your patience and support. 


    ~Tariq

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    dawson_8105
    Participant
    Aug 8, 2024 9:40 PM UTC

    Same issue, PDFs with comments will not open unless Adobe is open already. Any fix yet?

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      Tariq Dar
      Legend
      Jul 29, 2024 12:08 PM UTC

      Hi @Jen3887003659ug 

      Sorry for the trouble you and your colleagues are experiencing.
      Please share a screenshot of the error. Use this link: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-diagnostics.html to collect crash logs and share the unique ID of the log. It would be helpful if you could also share the following:

      • OS name and version
      • Acrobat version installed. 
      • Screenshot of the error.
      • A screen recording, if possible, of how this crash occurs. 

       

      Will be waiting patiently to look for more information.

      ~Tariq

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      Jen3887003659ugAuthor
      Participant
      Jul 29, 2024 3:55 PM UTC

      Hi Tariq,

      There is no error that is given for this, when you open the PDF it opens for a split second and then closes there is no error what pops up and the event log just shows this which is listed under an "application error" Event ID 1000.

       

      Version: Adobe Acrobat (64-bit) 24.002.20965

      OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro, 64-bit

       

      I will run the diagnostics and upload as well, thanks.

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      Tariq Dar
      Legend
      Jul 29, 2024 5:28 PM UTC

      Thanks for the swift response, @Jen3887003659ug 
      When you run the diagnostic, please provide the logs and let us know when this issue started.

       

      Before you run the diagnostic, try the following - 

      • Launch Acrobat.
      • Click on the Hamburger icon (New UI) or Help. > Repair installation
      • Once the repair is done, try restarting if possible.
      • Try reproducing the issue if it is reproducible. Please run diagnostics. 


      ~Tariq

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