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Marcus25966818w4zv
Participant
February 26, 2025
Question

Acrobat commenting extremely slow

  • February 26, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 528 views

Commenting a text file is extremely slow. Comment - text appears seconds after typing. All rendering disactivated - didn't improve.

    3 replies

    FUNAGEN
    FUNAGEN
    Participating Frequently
    June 29, 2025

    I’ve found that Acrobat may not be ideal for projects that involve a large number of comments. I was working with a ~5MB file containing around 200 comments, and both the web and desktop versions became unusable. I also lost many hours of work due to crashing on the desktop version. 

     

    I decided to try a different PDF reader, and the difference was immediate—no crashes, much smoother experience. I won’t mention specific product names here out of respect for forum rules, but if you search online for popular PDF readers, you’ll find several alternatives.

     

    One thing to note: the commenting tool in the software I'm using is slightly different—you select using the highlight tool, then you get a popup (just like you do when you select on Acrobat) then add your comment to the highlight. It's faster than it sounds. It took a minute to adjust, but it works very well.

     

    Acrobat Pro may still have its strengths, but when it comes to heavy commenting, it is not an efficient tool right now. Hopefully this helps someone who's running into similar issues.

    T
    Tariq Dar
    Legend
    March 4, 2025

    Hi @Marcus25966818w4zv, 

     

    Sorry for the troubled experience. While you try Expert's @creative explorer suggestions. 

    If the issue still appears try using the diagnostic tool: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-diagnostics.html choose advance logging upload the logs and share with us the log ID. 

     

    ~Tariq

     

    M
    Marcus25966818w4zvAuthor
    Participant
    March 4, 2025

    Hi creative explorer and Tariq,

    Thank you for your responses. On 27th Feb I as was really suffering with a contract document. I updated Acrobat. I had no other programs running that I could have switched off. The Laptop is performant for CAD-Works and everything else was running smoothly. I restarted several times without improvement. I deactivated the sandbox mode, and switched off any automated review or checking options in the menu. The file has 2MB with text only. I had to print out and continue manually.

    Today I tried again and the same file and it is reacting better. I wanted to start the diagnostics tool but in the German menu I can't find neither under help nor under settings.

    T
    Tariq Dar
    Legend
    March 7, 2025

    Hi @Marcus25966818w4zv - thank you for sharing more details, about your experience and keeping us posted. 

    You may download the diagnostic tool more this link: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-diagnostics.html 

    We don't have a repair option available for Mac users. However, under the Help Menu at the top, you should be able to see Update Acrobat.  

     

    Let us know if you have more questions. 

     

    creative explorer
    Community Expert
    creative explorerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 4, 2025

    @Marcus25966818w4zv I feel your frustration, if you're experiencing significant lag when commenting on text files in Acrobat, even with rendering disabled, maybe try this?

    • Make sure Acrobat is up-to-date. Then, try repairing your Acrobat installation through the Help menu.
    • Consider closing any unnecessary programs or streaming videos running in the background
    • Restart your computer.
    • And for very large files, breaking them into smaller parts might also improve performance.
    m
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