Participant

Answered

Why are fillable PDFs running slowly now?

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
June 22, 2026
3 replies
112 views

Hello all,

I have been using and updating various forms of the same fillable PDF for over a few years now. It has numerous fillable forms that, in the past, I could quickly cycle through using tab and fill in with ease. However, in the last few days these PDFs have begun to be sluggish and lag when simply scrolling from 1 page to the next. I have disabled some of the enhanced security features as recommended in similar looking posts, this has not seemed to make much of a difference. If anyone has a fix or recommendation, please let me know.

Thank you

Correct answer Doroski

Fixed it!

Turns out the new update was the problem

Menu → Disable new acrobat

Something to do with acrobat trying to scan everything you do as you do it so it’s AI assistant can help.

I had to use AI to figure it out.

To any future peeps reading this, good luck!

DoroskiAuthorCorrect answer

Participant

Fixed it!

Turns out the new update was the problem

Menu → Disable new acrobat

Something to do with acrobat trying to scan everything you do as you do it so it’s AI assistant can help.

I had to use AI to figure it out.

To any future peeps reading this, good luck!

DoroskiAuthor

Participant

Hi Tariq,

Thanks for the quick reply. I am running windows 11:

Edition   Windows 11 Home
Version   25H2
OS build   26200.8655

There was a new update that I installed. I made sure to restart acrobat, but that did not fix my issue.

I couldn’t find the Page Display under preferences. These are the options I have:

Current Acrobat version: 2026.001.21677 | 64-bit

Please let me know if there is anything else I should try.

T

Tariq Ahmad Dar

Community Manager

@Doroski,

Thanks for sharing the requested information and details.
Attached the screenshot of the screenshot you have shared to point out to “Page Display” preference.

Let us know how it went.

DoroskiAuthor

Participant

Well, now I feel kind of dumb…

I have now turned off smooth images, and I didn’t notice much of a difference.

Thank you,

T

Tariq Ahmad Dar

Community Manager

Hello @Doroski,

Thank you for reaching out and we understand how disruptive this must be when working with forms you rely on daily.

Before we point you to the right steps, could you confirm your operating system? This will help us make sure the instructions we provide are accurate for your setup.

In the meantime, please try the following:

Check for updates
Go to Help > Check for Updates, install any available update and restart Acrobat before testing again. Performance issues with form navigation have been addressed in recent builds.
Disable Smooth Images rendering
On Windows: Edit > Preferences > Page Display > Rendering and uncheck Smooth Images. On Mac: Acrobat > Preferences > Page Display > Rendering and uncheck Smooth Images.

This rendering setting is known to contribute to scrolling lag in multi-page documents.

Disable online storage prompts
On Windows: Edit > Preferences > General and uncheck both Show online storage when opening files and Show online storage when saving files. On Mac: Acrobat > Preferences > General and uncheck both options.

Background cloud sync activity can cause lag, specifically in fillable PDFs.

Please also share your current Acrobat version under Help > About Adobe Acrobat, along with your OS, and we will take it from there.

~Tariq

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