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Rodney34355046q1uf
New Participant
December 19, 2023
Answered

Adobe Acrobat Freezing constantly.

  • December 19, 2023
  • 44 replies
  • 193949 views

Over the last few days, everytime I and a few other Adobe Acrobat users just open the app, it hangs and we need to wait for it to respond. Sometimes it works, but it is unpredictable. This was not an issue last week. I have updated to the newest version via updates yet it still happens. I paused virus scanning w/o any improvement. 

 

I also tried to disable enhanded security and protected mode, but that does not seem to help either.

 

Do you have any suggestions, this is quite annoying. 

    Correct answer johhnyd68650275

    Hi all! In case my experience could help anyone:

    I also got this "white square" with "spinning circle" which made Adobe Acrobat Reader DC hang/freeze. But, here we are talking about the application beeing published in an on-prem Citrix site, as a "seamless application", and also using the 32-bit Norwegian version, running on Windows Server 2019. In addition, it's packaged as an AppV-application, not locally installed. Nevertheless we have been running this setup for quite some time, and only this last week (from after April 1st) the issue has occured. 

    What seems to fix it in our case is adding the following registry setting via GP Preferences:

    Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockdown

    Value: bWhatsNewExp

    Data: 0x1 (DWORD)

     

    From Adobe: 

    This feature was phased in incrementally over 2022. When enabled, the default user on first launch will see a What's New screen as well as a See new features notication. These UI items appear once. Possible values include:
    • 0: Enable the What's New experience.
    • 1: Disable.

     

    So, after disabling it (= setting the value to 1) the problem disappeared!

     

    44 replies

    creative explorer
    creative explorer
    Community Expert
    October 3, 2025

    @mels_8 is there an Adobequestion here?

    m
    R
    Rachel38744444mgd4
    Participating Frequently
    July 31, 2025

    everytime i use acrobat my computer freezes at some point. Each year adobe lets me down more and more. So tired of having to restart my computer daily solely because all my adobe programs run into problems

    R
    Richard22255945d5cj
    New Participant
    January 22, 2025

    AGAIN, MY ADOBE PRO APPLICATION IS JUST SPINNING W/ A NON RESPONSIVE ERRORS. IT TAKES 5 MINUTES TO MOVE INTO ANOTHER SHEET. WORKS SOMETIMES AND MOST IT DOES NOT....

    ADOBE IS HORRIBLE AND I WILL BE CANCELLING MY SUBSCRIPTION. I HAVE BEEN DEALING WITH FREEZES, NON-RESPONSIVE ERRORS, REBOOTING MY MACHINE, REINSTALLING, ETC.

     

    USER SHOULD NOT  HAVE TO MODIFY CODE, REINSTALL, ETC. TO GET THIS SOFTWARE TO WORK. IF ADOBE CANNOT CREATE A PRODUCT THAT WORKS THEY SHOULD NOT CHARGE MONEY. WE PURCHASE A SUBSCRIPTION UNDER THE IMPRESSION IT THE BEST OUT THERE SAVING US HOURS OF PRODUCTION TIME. IT'S COSTING MORE MONEY IN PRODUCTION TIME TO SIMPLY CERTIFY DOCUMENTS OR REVIEW AND THEY ARE SMALL FILES.

    RECOMMEND GOING ELSEWHERE SINCE IT'S A WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME. MANY USERS ARE EXPERIENCING THE SAME ISSUE IN THIS THREAD WITHOUT ANY RESOLUTION FROM ADOBE. ALSO, NOT ONE SHOULD HAVE TO SHARE A CRASH REPORT....IT SHOULD SIMPLY WORK!

     

    NOT WORTH THE MONEY, TIME, OR FRUSTRATION.....IT SHOULD SIMPLY DO THE JOB AS ADVERTISED.

      G
      Geoffrey36035439asgp
      New Participant
      December 10, 2024

      We have teachers that use Acrobat for editing PDF's and one particular teacher uses it heavily for combining PDF's.  Not only does it become "Not responding" and freezes for 10, 20, 30 seconds it eventually causes everything else on the machine (Edge, Chrome, Outlook, Word) to become unresponsive. 

      A reboot fixes this but then after so many reboots with unresponsive apps causes additional issues and sync errors.  

      This is costing us in support, time and wasted effort. 

      We will try the marked answers listed in here for the GPO and repairs but will also look at Foxit as a solution.  This seems daft considering a 3rd party has a more robust editing tool than the company that designed the original. 

      TremainEvent
      TremainEvent
      Participating Frequently
      December 10, 2024

      Don't bother with the solutions. Make the change, and don't look back. You've likely wasted enough time and resources trying to fix it or unfreeze your computer. Don't send reports to support; it's a total cluster F. They are slow, and sometimes totally ghost you. Don't uninstall and reinstall; just uninstall. 

      K
      kristy_5330
      New Participant
      November 11, 2024

      I also have been experiencing constant freezing of the app for some time and it has progressively gotten worse.

      I have tried nearly all the suggetions on this thread - however the app freezes so much it is near impossible to try and change any settings within it.

      Would love to know if there is a solution in the pipeline?

      Or if anyone can recommend a different app would be great!

       

      janetr63454133
      janetr63454133
      Participating Frequently
      November 11, 2024
      I have switched to Foxit. Good so far.

      Janet
      Sent from my iPad please reply to jmr@janetrennie.com
      Mobile number 07787503169
      janetr63454133
      janetr63454133
      Participating Frequently
      November 10, 2024

      Agree completely. It has been happening to me for months now. I have tried most of the suggestions on this thread. Last week I downloaded Foxit, and i am trying it (you get some days free) before possibly switching to it. So far it is working well. It is also cheaper. 

      N
      Nin316611376og8
      New Participant
      November 10, 2024

      I have been experiencing the same issue for months now. Despite multiple remote sessions with Acrobat support, the problem still persists. They keep attributing the issue to the AutoCAD PDF drawings I'm working on, which I find strange because I have been handling similar PDFs for years, and this issue only started occurring this year. I just finished another remote session today, and unfortunately, the issue remains unresolved. At least the last support agent mentioned that it is a bug and that their engineering team is working on a fix. I hope this gets resolved soon, as it has been affecting my work.

      P
      Pobrecitojose
      New Participant
      November 11, 2024

      I have a friend who runs the drawing department for a major world firm (consultant) and told me they switched to Foxit a couple of years ago, and that for CAD, it is perhaps the best application to combine with, much more flexible, robust and compatible. (good Luck!)

      K
      konrad_7105
      New Participant
      October 24, 2024

      Im so frustraded. Nothing helps. Acrobat drives me crazy so much!!!!!!! This s**y app freeze avery few seconds. Its imposible to use it. WTF?!

        janetr63454133
        janetr63454133
        Participating Frequently
        October 9, 2024

        Agree. i've tried many of the suggestions from this community thread but it keeps happening. very, very, annoying. 

        creative explorer
        creative explorer
        Community Expert
        October 9, 2024

        @janetr63454133 @alexbkc I recently replaced my battery in my laptop, and since then, I noticed some apps would freeze if I had Chrome opened. I have now switched to Edge (sigh), and so far, knock on wood, it has been relatively good. 

        Not sure why all of sudden, why Chrome is acting up. For me, Edge works

        m
        A
        alexbkc
        New Participant
        October 8, 2024

        my freezing issue was resolved when memory was added to my computer.  have not seen the issue anymore.  it was just annoying having the freeze

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