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defaultclntz85ad7zj
Participant
February 17, 2025
Question

Bloated, inefficient product - cancelling subscription

  • February 17, 2025
  • 5 replies
  • 1365 views

I've used Acrobat professionally and personally for well over 20 years (since version 4.0, at least) and the product has become bloated with non-essential features, slowing down my process and hogging system memory, not to mention the online (and not) associated bloatware. 

I have just cancelled my personal subscription as the addition of useless AI features is the final straw. Unfortunately I am stuck using it for work, but will not re-engage with the product until it becomes more streamlined, economical and user-friendly.  There's been an industry-wide trend over the past 15 or so years to add "impovements" and constantly mess with UI/UX that have added very, very little to productivity imho and Acrobat Pro might be the worst of the lost. Just kidding, it's PowerPoint, but whatever. 

    5 replies

    P
    philippe_9292
    Participant
    November 13, 2025

    I also can't believe how bloated the Acrobat reader has become. The install took a long while (on a very fast connection) and then after I ran it for the first time, it started downloading and installing extra features I never requested and that took quite a while too.
    Windows is telling me that the app is taking 2.04GB!!! That's for the PDF reader, that's way too much.

    U
    Undead Pillager
    Participant
    October 26, 2025

    I have had it with the massive amount of bloatware that keeps getting added to Adobe PDF reader, which is supposed to be LIGHTWEIGHT and SIMPLE, and the idiotic floating AI summary that needs to be closed every time a new document is opened is just too much. I have never had an interest in exploring alternatives, but Adobe has finally done it! 

    F
    FrankCarfora1964
    Participating Frequently
    June 7, 2025

    I remeber a time when Acrobta was useful. Now, it's such a sluggish piece of shite that i loathe having to open a PDF. What the actual F is with the verification thing EVERY SINGLE TIME I OPEN THAT POS? No matter what I do, it still does that. So sad... used to be pretty awesome 10 years ago.

      dennisf78493222
      dennisf78493222
      Participant
      June 6, 2025

      Amen Brother!!  You have my vote for President of the World,,, I am writing this as I wait for  Adobe Bloat to open an email attachment. Good grief can anything be more unproductive than waiting for software to start running?

        creative explorer
        Community Expert
        creative explorerCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        March 7, 2025

        @defaultclntz85ad7zj sorry to hear your frustations....i bleed Adobe for over 25 years now, and I would NOT consider any other applications for my work or personal stuff. Unless, the application is being taken out of the line-up. That's the whole point of updates, is to make it better. 

        m
        G
        georgec22503189
        Participant
        May 5, 2025

        Lately the updates have not been better; the new UI is horrible and there are countless threads saying so. Adobe has (probably temporarily) provided a way to downgrade but they did nothing to listen to their users. Even the previous UI is crap. No easy access to zoom, the search on the main page searches tools not the document. I could go on.

        But I need to use the offline installer for work; the version I have downloaded now; from Mar 2024, comes in at just about 300MB. I went to get the offline installer today, and it is now almost 700MB. You're trying to tell me that 400MB in a year of upgrades is not bloat? The only difference I can tell is the AI assistant. Which is definitely not a requirement. I've managed 25+ years without an AI assistant telling me how to read a PDF, I certainly don't need one now. And definitely not one in every app.



        The install adds both a service and task to update the software; even though it should be up to me when 

        Souvik Sadhu
        Community Manager
        Souvik SadhuCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        May 5, 2025

        Hi @georgec22503189,

         

        Hope you are doing well. Thanks for sharing your concern.

         

        We have moved from the traditional individual installers to the unified installer for Acrobat and Reader.

        What this means is that the application does not dynamically install the features for Reader later, but comes pre-packed.

         

        Also, from what I see, the system requirements for Acrobat Reader already state that you must have at least 900 MB of free storage space on your hard drive. 

        More info about this can be found here: https://adobe.ly/3EP6PSC.

         

        Coming to the Auto-Update section, you can disable the feature by going to Menu > Preferences > Updater > uncheck "Automatically install updates."

         

        If this does not help, you can disable the feature through the registry. To do so, go to Start > Registry Editor > Navigate >

        HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockDown

        New DWord bUpdater

        Value: 0

         

        Hope this helps.


        Regards,
        Souvik.

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