Inspiring

Answered

Removing Acrobat adds background items on Mac

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 6, 2025
2 replies
1114 views

I don't need support, I only want to report this as a bug: I deleted Acrobat, and I got the same message one gets when installing:

Again, everything is fine, but I don't think this should be happening!

Install update and subscribe to Acrobat

Correct answer IceFloe

Totally get how you feel — it's super frustrating, I know.
But... this probably isn’t a bug (at least not technically 😅).

Even after uninstalling,
there are still leftover files in places like:

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper
/Library/PDF Services/Save as Adobe PDF.app

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.XXXUUIDXXX.plist

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/ARMDC
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/ARMNext
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat

If those are still hanging around, you'll likely need to do a proper cleanup.
Have you tried running the Cleaner Tool yet?
https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/AdobeAcroCleanerTool.dmg

Might be worth a shot.

Hope that helps!

IceFloeCorrect answer

Participating Frequently

Totally get how you feel — it's super frustrating, I know.
But... this probably isn’t a bug (at least not technically 😅).

Even after uninstalling,
there are still leftover files in places like:

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper
/Library/PDF Services/Save as Adobe PDF.app

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.XXXUUIDXXX.plist

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/ARMDC
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/ARMNext
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat

If those are still hanging around, you'll likely need to do a proper cleanup.
Have you tried running the Cleaner Tool yet?
https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/AdobeAcroCleanerTool.dmg

Might be worth a shot.

Hope that helps!

tlmurray23Author

Inspiring

I sent a wee interface bug to Apple. In a dialog, three buttons are shown, but the verb that is actually useful isn't there. As it turns out, you have to press Option to see it. According to Apple, it's not a bug because "it works as designed."

Pariah Burke

Community Expert

If you're uninstalled Acrobat and restarted your computer, it should be gone. Just to be sure--and for identifying if it's a bug--would you please post a screenshot of your Activity Monitor? Does it show any process starting with "acro" still running?

tlmurray23Author

Inspiring

I would, but Acrobat is back, as I deleted it just for temporary purposes. But asking whether any "acro~" processes are running avoids addressing the point: When you uninstall something, you should not get a message that background items were added.

Now, if it were the case that "if you remove A, we had to add B to make C run properly," that's different, and the message should have said as much.

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