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Trav2016
Known Participant
July 10, 2018
Answered

Acrobat Runs Slow/Not-Responding

  • July 10, 2018
  • 5 replies
  • 33594 views

My company recent upgraded from Adobe Acrobat Pro 11 to Adobe Acrobat DC. We had to upgrade due to licensing and support ending for that product.

After upgrading Acrobat we have noticed when using Adobe ie: Opening/scrolling/etc the program runs slower. A normal PDF document will have about 40 Pages. Another thing we noticed is when you print from Microsoft Excel to Adobe PDF, we notice Excel will lock up and not respond. After about 30sh seconds, you will be able to see the Adobe PDF printer dialog box. After you save the document, Excel will then respond. The normal amount of pages we print from Excel is 6 Excel sheets.

What I was wondering is what I can do to improve the performance of Adobe PDF documents when you have them open and scrolling through/zoom in or out/etc. Along with what I can do to improve the performance when someone prints from an Excel document to an PDF document.

Thank you for you Advice!

Correct answer Lisa25444720whnm

I was having this problem after updating windows.

I took these steps that solved my issues.

1. Open the Adobe and locate file location.

2. Right clicke and go to properties

3. Go to the compatability tab and run the wizard. Works like a charm now!

5 replies

Lisa25444720whnmCorrect answer
Participant
January 22, 2025

I was having this problem after updating windows.

I took these steps that solved my issues.

1. Open the Adobe and locate file location.

2. Right clicke and go to properties

3. Go to the compatability tab and run the wizard. Works like a charm now!

whitetree_henry
Participating Frequently
February 13, 2023

We just had this problem and fixed it by clearing the recent documents. Selecte File>View all REcent Documents (second from the bottom)  Then "Clear All" is a link at the bottom of the panel. 

Inspiring
January 5, 2021

Sorry if this is a very late reply, I do not see the dates these posts were created.

 

Windows 10 Dell laptop and Acrobat DC is extremely slow and the bar at the top turns white and says "Unresponsive" for a few seconds, then becomes responsive. It's painful because I use this app all day at work.

 

I also have a Mac and Acrobat is very slow there too, especially compared to the built in PDF viewer, Preview, from Apple.

Participating Frequently
January 17, 2022

So have you resolved the problem on your MAC?  I too have the same problem.

 

eclecticscribe
Participating Frequently
November 16, 2018

I know my response is a little late to the game, but I haven't found my solution suggested anywhere and thought I would share it, although it probably will affect a small number of people.

In my case Acrobat Pro would not access my menu items or scroll without the spinning beachball, sometimes lasting for more than 10 seconds. This was making the program unusable. After removing preference files to no affect, it occurred to me that my virus scanner (Intego VirusBarrier) was set to Real-Time scanning. Once I turned it off, the program was back up to speed. As I can designate VirusBarrier to skip certain folders or files I can still leave it on for downloads with turning it off and on. I don't know if other virus programs will cause the same issue, but it is something to consider if you use one that scans files as they are opened.

iMac OS X 10.14.1

Intego VirusBarrier 10.9.16

Adorobat
Community Manager
Community Manager
November 20, 2018

Hi eclecticscribe,

ThankYou for sharing your findings with us. It will surely help fellow users facing similar issue.

-Shivam

Trav2016
Trav2016Author
Known Participant
November 21, 2018

Shivam,

I think Adobe needs to work on re-writing some of its software. Especially the part that deals with the Anti-Virus. I just checked, our Windows 10 workstations that are experiencing this issue all run the same hardware, same OS, and same anti-virus. PLUS, the real-time protection is enabled (aka Advanced Active Protection).

On my Anti-Virus, I can set it to scan real-time, and any time a file-extension that I set is run.

I'm using VIPRE Endpoint Security.

Adorobat
Community Manager
Community Manager
July 11, 2018

Hi Trav2016,

As per the issue description mentioned above, Acrobat DC is running slow also printing takes time when printing to Adobe PDF printer in excel, is that correct?

Could you try following steps:

1- Reboot the machine once if you haven't already and check.

2- Check if an update is available for Acrobat using "Check for updates" option under "Help" menu, reboot the machine after installing update and try again. You may also download updates from here: Adobe software and product updates

3- If that doesn't work, try resetting preferences for Acrobat using the steps given in this link: How to reset Acrobat Preference settings to default. , reboot the machine after resetting preferences and check.

Also, let us know dot version of Acrobat and the operating system installed on the machine? You may refer to the steps given in this link on how to check the version: Identify the product and its version for Acrobat and Reader DC

Let us know if you need any help.

Shivam