Acrobat DC continually crashing

[spyre]

Over the last week I have experienced Acrobat DC continually crashing. It opens a document and then after a few seconds becomes unresponsive and I have to force quit. I've uninstalled and reinstalled and still the same problem. I am using Mojave 10.14.6 and keep CS updated. It's becoming unworkable now as I need to use it all the time. This has occurred with all kinds of PDF content even ones I've only just exported from InDesign moments before.

[ls_rbls]

Hi

There is a total of three updates that were published this month since 14th of October.

Can you verify if these were applied after your reinstallation?

[spyre]

The software is showing up to date in my machine’s Creative Cloud, are there updates that I don't know about?

[ls_rbls]

Hi,

Check the flowing links:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/release-note/release-notes-acrobat-reader.html 

https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/acrobat.html#AcrobatDC 

[spyre]

Thank you, I didn't have the very last one so have just installed that. I've opened a couple of pdfs and although slow it seemed to hold. I will know more on Monday when using it for work all day!

[spyre]

After a few days after installing the updates you posted the links to I can report that it's still crashing 😞

[ls_rbls]

I forgot to ask, in which hardware are you currently running that version of Mojave?

I was checking the hardware compatibility list from here:

http://osxdaily.com/2018/06/05/macos-mojave-compatible-macs-list/ 

The reason I am asking is because I have An old macBook 2010 with an intel core duo processor and Yosemite installed.

If I try to upgrade to a more recent and authorized by Apple versionS, for that computer, it shows similar symptoms to yours.

I upgraded the mac memory which seems to improve the speed and functionality of the apps installed, however, even though is supposed to be a 64bits platform, only 32bits apps actually work but with observed random crashes that disappear after a reboot.

So in my case I am thinking is either a kernel related issue or that one of the cores in my processor is  either bad or missing a driver; it appears recognized properly by the OS but not available to resource intensive applications. So that is weird.

I didn't wanted to deviate from the main topic that you posted with this, but I thought of putting it out there for additional troubleshooting insights.

It would be good if you can share a screenshot of any message error(s) that you get during the crash (if any) and/or share a crash dump and see if any of the Adobe reps here in the forums can try and reproduce the issue on their end.

And as I read earlier in another thread, an Adobe Community Professional was recommending to another user to check with your local tech support  so that they troubleshoot your system remotely and guide you through some steps.

[spyre]

I have a pretty new 27" iMac purchased in 2019, I'm running Mojave 10.14.6. Acrobat just stalls with the spinning wheel before I've even tried to do anything on a PDF. It doesn't seem to matter if it's a small or large file.

[ls_rbls]

Hi,

I did a little more research with your issue and came accross these three links with possible solutions:

1) this link focus on Photoshop but use the steps described with Acrobat

https://community.adobe.com/t5/Photoshop-Elements/PSE-19-on-Mojave-Has-Spinning-Wheel-on-EVERY-Actio... 

2) changing the hard drive sleep settings

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/rid-rainbow-colored-onscreen-beach-ball-mac-26982.html 

3) Restoring Acrobat Preferences folder

https://community.adobe.com/t5/Acrobat/How-to-reset-Acrobat-Preference-settings-to-default/td-p/4792... 

[spyre]

I tried all three, the first two didn't help at all. The last one seems to have worked at the moment. I will use it today and see if it's stable and then adjust my preferences to how I need to have them. If it goes back to crashing then I guess there's something it doesn't like in the settings

[spyre]

Nope! still crashing

[ls_rbls]

I'm sorry that you're still dealing with this issue.

At this point all I can think of is of PC repair troubleshooting approach with a focus in eliminating unnecessary startup applocations.

To do this it is necessary to boot in Safe Mode and take notes of unnecessary items that could make the system. One example is eliminating user selected fonts from loading at boot time. Another possible example is Creative Cloud services associated with updating and syncrhonizing files while you're working with Acrobat.

See here from apple support forums how to properly boot in safe mode to isolate possible misbehaving startup programs:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262 

If you are able to boot in safe mode, and open up your Adobe Acrobat application while your computer is not hooked up to the Internet, then it is easier to narrow down what to allow or not allow in your startup folder.

That said, this also allows to clear the fonts cache and other temporary folders data.

See here for troublshooting startup and logging items:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/startupitems.html 

Once you can pinpoint suspicious items, my main recommendation is to uninstall the creative cloud desktop app.

I dont have macOS Catalina, but I was able to recreate your scenario in a computer with windows 10.

Everytime I opened Adobe Acrobat it stalled. Adobe Creative Cloud  services would also take over and choke my CPU. When I opened task manager there was at least 5 tasks related to the creative cloud service were seriously interfering with the overall performance regardless if my computer was connected or not to the Internet.

So I uninstalled the Creative Cloud service and immediately Acrobat opened without stalling anymore.

[spyre]

Hi, this is looking like a Creative Cloud problem and is affecting other people too. I wouldn't update to Catalina for a while yet as that will yield new problems I'm sure. I haven't completed those final recommendations as it's all taking up a lot of time – I am now noticing that if I leave Acrobat Pro alone for a while it clears the problem and starts working again. Acrobat Reader now seems OK. When will there be an update to sort this out? It's very difficult spending so many hours of work time downloading and reinstalling things. 

[dmsduco]

Me and my colleagues have the same problem for a couple of weeks now. Acrobat is 'not responding' all the time. Sometimes it's after a couple of seconds, sometimes it works fine for a couple of minutes untill the spinning wheel is there and we have to force quit the app.

I'm running Mojave 10.14.5 and the latest Acrobat (currently 2019.021.20049) via Creative Cloud.

Things I tried, without success:

• Resetting preferences (multiple times)
• Blocking online access for Acrobat
• Opening files only from a local source (instead of our network share)
• Uninstall Acrobat and reinstall (multiple times)
• Disable anti-virus (Kaspersky Endpoint Security)

Our iMacs are quiet powerful so it doesn't seem like a hardware issue (my Late 2015 iMac with 4 GHz i7 and 32 GB RAM has the lowest specs of all).

The next step I can think of is to update to Catalina, but I prefer to wait a bit more to avoid compatibility problems that might occur with other software.

[ls_rbls]

You mentiones that you uninstalled and reinstalled multuple times.

Did you try to reinstall using the offline full installer ?

You can download from here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-dc-downloads.html 

Once you uninstall completely your prior install run this standalone installer; no need to be connected to yhe Internet and there is no need to use the Creative Cloud desktop app nor the other online installtion methods.

[dmsduco]

I didn't use the standalone installer. But the issue seems to be SOLVED for me!

Acrobat seems to be crashing only when it's trying to connect to the internet. I know I mentioned I did block online access for Acrobat already, but it seems blocking Acrobat using mac FireWall wasn't enough. When completely disabling all network devices, Acrobat runs smoothly. I'm now testing using an alternative FireWall app (Radio Silence). For me, no internet connection is required to use Acrobat so it's a viable workarround to just block Acrobat internet connection using this app.

I'm not sure what exactly is trying to connect and why it causes a crash. I guess it has something to do with our company FireWall / webfilter.

[ls_rbls]

I am almost certain it has to do with the AcrobatCEF help service, the core sync service, and maybe three other services that run in the backgorund continuously.

It seems like the creative cloud desktop app is always updating and synchronizing files, not just from Acrobat, but for all other products in your plan.

If you are not collaborating and sharing files with your peers at work via a cloud service, and your computer is hanging when it connects to the Internet, you should test by removing or disabling this app completely from your system.

[dmsduco]

Good tip. I currently don’t have the time to further test which proces(ses) exactly are causing Acrobat to crash. But I do can see, while I’m blocking Acrobat, that AcroCEF (as the service seems to be called on mac) is still running, but not sending / receiving any data over the network.

The Core Sync service is not being blocked (it is sending some bytes over the network) but this doesn’t cause Acrobat to be crashing.