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R
Ross Thomson
Participant
December 6, 2025
Question

"Adobe Acrobat quit unexpectedly" when opening some PDFs?

  • December 6, 2025
  • 7 replies
  • 195 views

When I open some PDFs, Acrobat Pro quits. Not all PDFs, but some and I cannot see any difference between them. This has been happening 'off and on' for a couple of years as Apple and Adobe bring out various upgrades. HELP!!!

 

Adobe CC: Acrobat Pro version 2025.001.20982
MacOS Tahoe 26.1, iMac M3

7 replies

P
PeterBB
Participating Frequently
July 30, 2026

I’m having the same issue now on my Mac, OS 26.5.2. I get the attached message every time, I mean every time, I execute Adobe Acrobat. Likewise, I’ve been using Acrobat since 1993! This is embarrassing. All I can do is go to the file I want to open in Finder, or PathFinder, and double-click the file there to open it.

This has been going on for the past two weeks.

Thanks,

Peter

 

 

Amal Jaiswal
Community Manager
Amal JaiswalCommunity Manager
Community Manager
July 30, 2026

​Hi @PeterBB 

Hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out. We are sorry for the trouble you are experiencing. 

Follow the steps below to perform a clean uninstallation and reinstallation of Acrobat to resolve the issue:-

  1. Uninstall Acrobat and the Creative Cloud Desktop Application using the Cleaner tool:-

    https://adobe.ly/4g2WcuZ

  2. Delete all Acrobat folders located at /Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Application Support.

  3. Delete All Acrobat preferences from /Library/Preferences and ~/Library/Preferences.

  4. Restart the machine.

  5. Install Acrobat from the link below:-

    https://adobe.ly/3RC0oZx

  6. Launch Acrobat and sign in to activate it.

     

    For more information please check the help page https://adobe.ly/4yOdW4T

     

    Let us know how it goes.

     

    ~Amal



P
PeterBB
Participating Frequently
July 31, 2026

I did all this. And it worked. Thanks!

 

Randy Hagan
Community Expert
Randy HaganCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 6, 2025

Hard to say, without more information. PDFs can fail, or cause a PDF reader to fail, for any number of reasons.

 

Are you creating them? Or is somebody else providing those files to you? Are they coming from the same person or organization? Or are they coming from different ones? Do these errant PDF files come from a common source? Or a common program? Can you open them in web browsers or other PDF readers? Do they contain similar types of content? 

 

To help, we'd need to know a lot more information than you've currently shared with us. Can you share any more common issues with those files? The more information we can get, the better shot we have of being able to help you past your issues.

 

Randy

R
Ross ThomsonAuthor
Participant
December 7, 2025

First, many thanks for replying and helping with this issue.

I am a graphic designer using Adobe Creative Cloud and the issue is with PDFs I've created myself from InDesign. The majority are fine, but some make 'Acrobat quit unexpectedly'. All PDFs open perfectly in Preview and Safari. I have spent hours examining the source InDesign and Linked files, but I cannot find any clue to the problem.

This is not just new or latest PDFs, but ones created months or years ago. The issue comes and goes over the years, I presume with latest macOS and Adobe updates.

Randy Hagan
Community Expert
Randy HaganCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 7, 2025

(response deleted, intended for another post on this forum)

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