Participant

Question

Adobe Acrobat is by far the worst program I've ever used

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
November 18, 2021
16 replies
7013 views

Updated almost weekly with minial feature advancements or performance improvements in sight, this horrific tool needs a re-write.

I cannot believe the industry tolerate such garbage.

Crash or freeze

This topic has been closed for replies.

parkerupwll

Participant

It still is a huge pile of shit and I hate it with my whole being

B-Diddy2026

Participant

Here in 2026 and it is still without a doubt just a nonfunctional piece of hot shit. Crashes nonstop. When you go to export it will randomly omit letters and bullet points at random throughout the document. God forbid you try to save a smaller PDF file type using the compress feature. Their idea of compressing is just deleting 80% of the elements from the document. I laugh out loud every time I try to use this shitass software. It’s so hysterically bad, I just can’t believe it came from the same people who made Photoshop.

Crystal1981

Participant

I agree!!! Do you know how I can cancel my subscription please let me know

that is a hard know

Participant

Thank goodness for that I thought it was only me that HATE it… Our business went from Nitro Pro to new adobe, and it was like we landed on another planet, it’s truly horrible, it’s a real good time waster.

T

Tariq Dar

Legend

@that is a hard know
Hello,

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience—we’re really sorry to hear how frustrating the transition has been for you. Moving from a tool you were comfortable with to something new should feel like an upgrade, not a setback, and it’s clear we haven’t met that expectation in your case.

We also understand your concern about productivity. Acrobat is designed to streamline workflows, so hearing that it’s been a “time waster” is something we take seriously.

To better understand what’s not working for you and improve your experience, could you share a bit more detail about the specific challenges you’re facing? For example:

Are there particular features or workflows that feel slower or harder to use?
Is this happening across all PDFs or only certain files?
Which version of Acrobat (and operating system) are you currently using?

If you’ve run into issues opening specific files, it would also help to know whether the same files work in other PDF tools—this can help us determine whether it’s file-specific or something we need to address in Acrobat.

We genuinely value your feedback, especially during transitions like this, and we’d like to work with you to get things running the way you expect.

I’ll be waiting patiently to hear back from you.

~Tariq

Crystal1981

Participant

I too feel the same way as the above comment. I have been trying to cancel my subscription for 3 days and I think Adobe hides it on purpose so that no one's able to cancel please provide me with the exact instructions on how I can cancel as I am not happy with the service and I'm currently on a 7-Day free trial I purchased this apparently through Samsung on my phone thank you if I'm unable to cancel through Adobe I will cancel it through my bank

M

Mystical_EverglowB838

Participant

I second, third and fourth this message despite providing no details. I think it truly covers it... I am an IT Director, I have been working in web development since web, and I am a pro photographer. I could/would write a BOOK on how unintuitive, slow, clunky, driver incompatible, etc., Adobe products are if I hadn't already wasted literally hundreds of hours on dealing with figuring it out. Editing PDFs is both SIMPLE and TEDIOUS, SLOW and FRUSTRATING simultaneously.

Great example of how poorly coded these apps are. Lightroom Classic on my Alienware is slow to detect faces etc. It's unusable on standard laptops without discrete graphics. But, they Android Lightroom? Does the same detections nearly instantly... It's not WHAT it does, but HOW it does it.

Oh - and the billing is terrible. It takes me so long to find all my invoices to pay them with our enterprise account... They are all over the place. IDK. They can only rely on laurels so long in the AI era.

Amal.

Legend

Hi there,

Hope you are doing well and thank you for sharing your feedback.

We’re sorry to hear about your frustrations with Acrobat, Lightroom, and billing. We know how important it is for tools to work smoothly, especially when you rely on them every day.

PDF editing/Acrobat: If you can share details like your OS, app version, and when the slowdown happens, we can try to investigate further.

Lightroom performance: We understand the difference you’re seeing between desktop and mobile. We share feedback like this with our product teams so they can keep improving performance.

Billing: For enterprise accounts, invoices should be available in the Adobe Admin Console. If you’re still having trouble finding them, please reach out through your Admin Console support so the billing team can help directly.

Your feedback is very valuable, and we’ll make sure it’s passed along to the right teams.

Regards

Amal

J

JGHR

Participant

Yes it is utter tripe. I have been tolerating it and paying for it for far too long now, just because im lazy and its easier to do nothing than change. Now I can't stand it any longer, Im canceling my subscription and moving to Foxit. All of a sudden 'there was an error opening this document access denied'. It opens just fine in every other PDF editor and web browser. It opened just fine yesterday. I no longer have time left in my life to spend hours debugging this overpriced garbage myself. Adobe i'm done with you.

R

raymond_8598

Participant

Experiencing the exact same problems as everyone else on this forum. A technical manual I had been writing for two day suddenly took the liberty of reformatting all the text and eliminating letters that it didn't like(?). Was going to buy the Creative Cloud but after this that will be a hard NO!. Disgustingly slow, switching between the tool sets are a pain and slow of course. I have time to post this because it's waiting to post text that I wrote 3 minutes ago.

D

Dynamic_reality2676

Participant

At first, I thought, well, maybe you just need to get used to this program and its functions, just like I had to learn how to use PCB design software, Autodesk, etc. But now that I’m reading these posts... DAMN, this program is the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. First, I used that (cursing removed) program InDesign to create a layout, which took me a few days—just for a very SIMPLE layout. Now that I have that, I’m faced with junk that ain’t able to do! Every function in that program is absolutely stupid. I feel ashamed that this was made by humans—this program is an insult to our race! Everyone who was involved in Acrobat should get lifetime imprisonment!

[Abuse removed by moderator]

D

Dynamic_reality2676

Participant

This is the first and last time I’m using Adobe! I feel sorry for the people who paid for this!

J

Jennifer30225839s6oq

Participant

Please share the alternative. As a business owner, I have to sign and send pdfs all the time. But it is barely usable, mainly because it doesn't recognize me as a subscriber, won't download the app to my pc, and can't load my documents without offering me a free trial every time (even though I pay monthly.) I've been looking for reliable information on another program, without luck.

Y

You make bad software

Participant

Dear Adobe:

Clearly a lot of us have typed in nearly OP's exact title into a search out of utter frustration and incredulity that this program could be so consistently terrible in both design and function, year after year after year. It truly is both bewildering and impressive to make such absolute garbage and charge such a ridiculous amount of money for it, as if you are actually providing something that works. Stop pretending that you're trying to do a good job, it's obvious that you're not! Most of the updates are tiny, and sometimes you rearrange the UI in an attempt to make users feel like you are doing stuff and therefore justify the cost. We are laughing at you as soon as we stop crying.

I don't believe in ghosts, but using Acrobat for years has really challenged that because your software must be haunted. It is constantly behaving in inconsistent and unpredictable ways, almost like some poltergeist is in there mucking around. As a company, maybe it's time to take a good look in the mirror and realize that the whole "fake it till you make it" thing really doesn't work as an entire business model. Do us a favor and die so something worthy can grow out of your bug-ridden corpse. Byeeeeee

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

@You make bad software, I'm not Adobe. Just a users like you.

Did you try reverting to the classic interface in your version of Acrobat Pro?

For both Mac and Windows, the instructions are at https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/acrobat-2023-how-to-revert-to-classic-gui-user-interface/m-p/14052807

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

Y

You make bad software

Participant

Hi Bevi,

I don't see how my post and your response to it are connected. Please elaborate as to how reverting to the classic interface would relate to my post.

Thank you!

B

Beej38853285

Participant

Totally agree. Trying to do exams on it and every time I try to save it crashes....work all gone. Bought the Pro version..no better. Won't even allow me to upload phots of the pop ups..... Utter garbage

K

Kyle37076466jmu8

Participant

Couldn't agree more. This garbage is an insult to the concept of computer programing. I use it because I have no choice. Everything I use it for, I get it done, then never ever interact with it again.

S

Scott36373660unzy

Participant

I've been writing software for 40 years, I've never seen a program with more bugs, ever. It is damn near impossible to use.

Does Adobe even have a single QA resource? Even one? I suspect not!

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded