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Ambrosial_Lionheart2923
Participant
Sep 29, 2026 6:46 PM UTC
Answered

Acrobat Uses All Memory When Saving and Closing a PDF Document

I am having the same problem as this post from another forum that was directed to be posted here: 

 

When I save and close a PDF, the computer’s memory is maxed out and everything eventually freezes.  I have to force a restart to get everything back.  Same as the post linked above, Malware run is clean and I have tried turning off all the recommended settings.  I have tried repairing as well as reinstalling.  I’m not able to get a diagnostic log because of the freeze. This has been happening for a couple of weeks at this point.  

 

Has anyone experienced this and been able to fix? 

    Anand Sri Bhattacharya
    Anand Sri BhattacharyaCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    Oct 1, 2026 8:53 PM UTC

    ​@Ambrosial_Lionheart2923 Thanks for the details.

    If it is a personal computer, you can refer to this article to create a test user profile with full admin rights: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/identity-signin/manage-user-accounts-in-windows

    If it is an IT-managed machine, please connect with the IT team to get the account created.

    For logs, you can refer to this article to collect the logs: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/collect-logs-crash-freeze.html

    Regards,

    Anand Sri.

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    9 replies

    Ambrosial_Lionheart2923Author
    Participant
    Oct 1, 2026 8:48 PM UTC
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    Anand Sri Bhattacharya
    Community Manager
    Anand Sri BhattacharyaCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    Oct 1, 2026 8:53 PM UTC

    ​@Ambrosial_Lionheart2923 Thanks for the details.

    If it is a personal computer, you can refer to this article to create a test user profile with full admin rights: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/identity-signin/manage-user-accounts-in-windows

    If it is an IT-managed machine, please connect with the IT team to get the account created.

    For logs, you can refer to this article to collect the logs: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/collect-logs-crash-freeze.html

    Regards,

    Anand Sri.

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    DFWTechGuy
    Participating Frequently
    Sep 30, 2026 9:45 PM UTC

    This sounds like more than a normal Acrobat installation problem, especially since you've already tried repair and reinstall. There is also a recent Adobe Community report describing almost the same behavior, where Acrobat.exe starts allocating memory extremely quickly when a PDF is closed on Windows 11.

    Since the freeze happens before you can collect the diagnostic logs, I'd first try to narrow down what triggers it. If possible, test with a small/simple PDF and then with the affected PDF. Also try temporarily disabling any third-party Acrobat plug-ins, since Adobe lists incompatible plug-ins as a possible cause of crashes/freezes.

    You could also try disabling Protected Mode at startup temporarily as a test under Preferences > Security (Enhanced). Adobe recommends only doing this for troubleshooting and turning it back on afterward.

    If the memory usage starts climbing again, killing Acrobat.exe from Task Manager before Windows becomes completely unresponsive should avoid having to force-restart the whole PC.

    Since another user has already reported the same ~1 GB/sec memory growth, I'd also include your exact Acrobat version, Windows 11 build, CPU/GPU, RAM amount, and whether it happens with every PDF or only certain files when reporting it to Adobe.

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    Ambrosial_Lionheart2923Author
    Participant
    Oct 1, 2026 9:01 PM UTC

    Thank you, ​@DFWTechGuy.  I have already tried a few of these things without success.  Trying to kill Acrobat from the Task Manager causes everything to immediately freeze, unfortunately.  I do not think that there is one specific trigger.  It seems to happen randomly when closing a PDF and occurs with large or small files with a save or without a save.  I have not taken a look at plugins, though.  

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    Meenakshi Negi
    Community Manager
    Meenakshi NegiCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    Sep 30, 2026 10:06 AM UTC

    Hi Ambrosial_Lionheart2923,

     

    Thank you for reaching out, and sorry to hear that you are experiencing an issue.

    To help us investigate this behavior further, please provide the following information:

    • Please collect the freezing and process logs by the steps provided here: Collect logs when Acrobat/Reader crashes or freezes

    • Share the version number of Acrobat.

    • Specify the operating system on your machine.

    • Check if the issue occurs with all PDFs or with particular files.

    Once we have this information, we can further assess the problem.

    We look forward to your response.

     

    Thanks,

    Meenakshi

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    Ambrosial_Lionheart2923Author
    Participant
    Sep 30, 2026 4:57 PM UTC

    Hi Meenahkshi,

    Thank you for replying!

    Adobe is not actually freezing.  It is freezing the entire computer.  The PDF is saved and closed, but Adobe is still running in the task manager and increasing memory use until it’s maxed out and the entire computer system freezes.  I have to force a reboot of the computer at this point.  I would not even be able to access a log at the time this happens because the computer system is entirely frozen. 

    Adobe Acrobat Pro (64-bit), Continuous Release, version 2026.002.21931.  Windows 10.

    The issue seems to happen with larger files or when I’ve been saving multiple files.  Smaller files seem to be ok.  I also seem to be able to download and save from a Chrome browser without issue.  This issue appears to only happen when I’m running the actual Acrobat program.

    Thanks so much for looking into it.  

     

     

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    Anand Sri Bhattacharya
    Community Manager
    Anand Sri BhattacharyaCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    Sep 30, 2026 5:26 PM UTC

    Hello ​@Ambrosial_Lionheart2923 

     

    I hope you are doing well, and thanks for sharing all the details. Sorry for the trouble you had.

     

    For testing purposes, can you please create a test user profile with full admin rights, check the performance of the Acrobat with one of the large files, and see if this is still freezing the computer? Also, please ensure that all the mandatory and optional updates of the operating system are installed.

     

    If the issue continues, please close all Adobe apps and restart the machine. Launch Acrobat > Menu > Help > Troubleshoot Acrobat.

    • Select Advanced logs, then enable:

    • Acrobat process monitor

    • System apps information

    Start diagnostics, reproduce the issue with a local copy of one affected PDF, and stop the capture while Windows is still responsive.

    If Acrobat Diagnostics cannot finish because the computer freezes, Open Task Manager before reproducing the issue, monitor the Acrobat process, and create a dump while its memory is increasing, but before system memory is exhausted.

     

    Please also confirm whether the affected PDFs are stored locally or on a network, OneDrive, or SharePoint location. Test the same large PDF from a local folder, as this will help separate an Acrobat processing issue from a storage or synchronization interaction.

     

    Reference articles to collect logs: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-diagnostics.html

    https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/collect-logs-crash-freeze.html

     

    Let us know how it goes, and please reach out if you experience any issues or have any questions.

    Regards,

    Anand Sri.

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