Acrobat DC extremely slow and often "not responding" for 30 seconds

[TechByter]

For approximately the past two months, Acrobat DC reports "not responding" for about 20 to 30 seconds when I open it. This happens again when I open any PDF document (even one with just a single page). It happens again when I select any of the tools (Edit, Combine, Organize, etc). It also happens when I try to drag or rezize the application window.

Machine Resources:
Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11950H @ 2.60GHz 2.61 GHz
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.7 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Edition Windows 11 Pro
Version 21H2
OS build 22000.739
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22000.739.0

The post acrobat-dc-extreme-slow-on-windows-10/m-p/12118085 points to how-to-reset-acrobat-preference-settings-to-default/td-p/4792082 with instructions to clear %appdata%\Adobe\Acrobat\[version], so I presume this would be C:\Users\willi\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\ on my computer.

I renamed the directory and restarted Acrobat. Performance improved slightly. The "not responding" periods are now about 15 seconds. Still unacceptable.

The next step is then described here: cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html. 

1. I ran the log collector tool. AdobeLogs_20220630_111841_237-win-GS.zxp in in a LogCollector directory on the Desktop.
2. No files are pending upload.
3. "Close Adobe Desktop Service and Core Sync in Task manager (Windows) or Activity Monitor (macOS)."
   Neither of these is listed on the Task Manager's Processes tab, nor are they on the Services tab. I cannot proceed with this step.

Being unable to perform step #3, I have not continued.

Is anybody else seeing this problem? Has anyone managed to resolve it? Thanks!

[TechByter · Accepted solution]

AN UPDATE

Given the total lack of response, this is apparently a problem that nobody else sees, so I have uninstalled Acrobat DC using the standard procedure outlined here: uninstall-reinstall-acrobat.html.

I then restarted the computer and reinstalled Acrobat DC from the Creative Cloud Desktop app. During the installation, "Progress is slower than usual. Working on resolving issue ..." appeared. Task Manager reported the setup process was using an excessive amount of system resources.

Acrobat DC opens much faster. It still reports "not responding" in situations where I never saw this previously, but performance is now acceptable. Performance isn't what it should be on a computer with an i9 processor and 32GB of RAM, but at least it's now functional.

[mshubert · Accepted solution]

Whoever said "this is apparently a problem nobody else sees" is absolutely bonkers. When trying to find a fix, it is obvious this issue is EXTREMELY common!!! 

Anyway, I tried all the solutions I could find (cleaner tool, repair, uninstall/reinstall, etc) and NOTHING worked. Every single PDF I opened took forever to open.

I did finally find a solution that worked! Go to "Security (Enhanced)" in Preferences and uncheck the "Enable Protected Mode at startup" and set "Protected View" to "Off." 

[boprcsoftware · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the suggestion, however Protected Mode was already disabled, so enabled this, restarted Acrobat and then disabled again, this seems to have fixed the slow startup issue. 

[TechByter · Accepted solution]

AN UPDATE

Given the total lack of response, this is apparently a problem that nobody else sees, so I have uninstalled Acrobat DC using the standard procedure outlined here: uninstall-reinstall-acrobat.html.

I then restarted the computer and reinstalled Acrobat DC from the Creative Cloud Desktop app. During the installation, "Progress is slower than usual. Working on resolving issue ..." appeared. Task Manager reported the setup process was using an excessive amount of system resources.

Acrobat DC opens much faster. It still reports "not responding" in situations where I never saw this previously, but performance is now acceptable. Performance isn't what it should be on a computer with an i9 processor and 32GB of RAM, but at least it's now functional.

[Dave__M]

Is Acrobat the only app that shows as not responding?  Every now and again, I find that Chrome is drinking up all sorts of resources for some reason, and it affects how other applications behave.  Can you open up your task manager/processes to see what is grabbing your resources?  

Dave

[TechByter]

Thanks, Dave. Only Acrobat was affected. Not Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Audition, Word, Excel, or Thunderbird. I use the Vivaldi browser, which is based on Chrome, but doesn't seem to have the memory hogging characteristics of Chrome. Most of the time CPU is under 25%.

[ls_rbls]

++ Adding to the topic,

Fortunately, the Microsoft Windows provides some tweaking tools to manage stubborn background programs's.

The issue of high CPU processing does not necessarily mean is a   stubborn background process.

If your CPU have multiple cores, Microsoft Windows assigns all the available cores to every program by default.

If you open the Task Manager, and go to the "Details" tab, you'll see that this is true.

However, if you want to get rid of the CPU hog you may right-click on the desired process on that list and verify two items of interest in the context menu:

• Set priority

• Set affinity

You can leave the Adobe Acrobat.exe priority at "Normal" and leave the affinity allowed to run this process <All Processors>.

For the rest of the programs that are consuming too much CPU processing you may set the priority to "Low" and the affinity only to one core CPU.

Also, in the "Startup" tab you may disable other related services.

The example screenshots below show the performance results after changing the priorities and affinity on 32bit version of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC on Microsoft Windows 10, but these settings work in the same way if you're on Windows 11.

 

 

[Jim33374432cs0s]

Hi Everyone,  I have struggled with a Slow System problem ever since MS autoupdated to Windows 11, which is unfortunate and they should NOT do stuff like this without user consent.  Anyway, that was some 11 months ago and I have tried various fixes and nothing worked for any period of time... Here is the FIX...  I came across a posting with similar attributes and they proposed CCleaner.  I had a look at it, downloaded the FREE version and ran it with a particular focus on the Registry, which I had not tried before and frankly don't know a ton about.  I also unistalled Adobe Acrobat Reader (free) and loaded a new version.  Immediately, everything including other programs that were slow including saving files to a specific folder from Word, Excel, and Adobe, started working significantly faster.   This is the fix!!! in my humble opinion...  Good luck to all!!

[mshubert]

Yes, I am seeing this problem And have been for a long time now. Drives me insane!

Having to work with many PDFS this week, so went looking for any possible solutions that may have been posted since last I looked. It's NOT the preferences files. Uninstalled, rebooted, found and used the Adobe removal tool (just in case), rebooted again, reinstalled through the Creative Cloud app and got the same "progress is slower than usual" message mentioned below. 

Opened the app and voila! Same old "unresponsive" and spinning wheel each and every time I open the app and each and every time I open any PDF doc. This includes those I create myself, created by others, and even downloaded bank statement PDFs. Doesn't matter.

It's not the docs, it's the app!!!!! And the problem has been going on for YEARS!

(You can probably detect a note of frustration in my typing. Aaaaarrrrrggghhhh to Adobe!)

[andrewb86002697]

I am having the same problem. Nothing seems to work. Does anyone know of a good substitute for Adobe Acrobat Pro DC?

[Gunnar25892958ne8k]

I'm having the same problem, just started a new job that has me working on PDF's all day, every day so you can imagine the amount of frustration I have. Got a brand new Thinkpad with i5 processor, 16 gb ram and Win 11 Pro. 

So Adobe, How about bringing some suggestions !

[Marco Emilio25895050u9q8]

Stesso problema

[hansfordsusan]

This is August 2024 and I am running on a Mac OS and Adobe Acrobat is running so slow that is practicallty unusable!!!  It takes an hour to do an edit that should take less then 5 minutes!!!

[SandiW]

I am having the exact same issue - Acrobat DC very slow to respond when opening or closing. My IT department trouble-shooted by repairing and reinstalling the program. No change. I use this app all day long and it's really frustrating - I don't have any response issues with other programs, and up until a few weeks ago had zero issues with Acrobat DC. 

[mshubert · Accepted solution]

Whoever said "this is apparently a problem nobody else sees" is absolutely bonkers. When trying to find a fix, it is obvious this issue is EXTREMELY common!!! 

Anyway, I tried all the solutions I could find (cleaner tool, repair, uninstall/reinstall, etc) and NOTHING worked. Every single PDF I opened took forever to open.

I did finally find a solution that worked! Go to "Security (Enhanced)" in Preferences and uncheck the "Enable Protected Mode at startup" and set "Protected View" to "Off." 

[SandiW]

I tried your solution and that fixed the problem! Such an easy fix but I would not have thought to go there. Thanks!

[Michael24859451sc6s]

Wow that worked for me too! Had that problem since monthes.

[medanielb]

This is it! It drove me crazy for months and there were no helpful answers anywhere. That is the solution and it makes me mad that it's not a recognized bug.

[Randy27261267d1ib]

Unfortunately, this solution did not work for me.
New computer, new software, huge frustration.

[Randy27261267d1ib]

Since my last post I have tried all suggestions. Nothing has worked for more than about 15 minutes or so and then it goes back to the same behavior.  Every time I open a document, make a change to a document or save a document I get a Not Responding error/freeze before Acrobat starts to work again. Because I work with Acrobat more than any other app, over an 8 hour day this will happen 60 to 80 times. EVERY DAY.  THIS IS PURE TORTURE! 

[krakaos]

This worked for me!! thanks coz this was a major pain. @Adobe should check why this setting is making trouble though!

[Jan K3rsbergen]

Thanks! This worked for me.

[ls_rbls]

Thank you for sharing this solution.

[TechByter]

OUTSTANDING!

Thanks for passing this information along.

[chappz180]

This is amazing. I don't know how you found this, but you have fixed it!!!!!

Isn't it sad that in 2023, AI can paint a picture and write a full movie script, but a simple program which has been around for years whose only purpose is to read, sign and modify forms can be totally corrupted by one simple tick box buried under a mountain of preference menus...

Adobe, do you even read these forums..?

[Alan337850110l2r]

Totally agree.

[acimof]

WOW, just wow,,,,, i was tooooooo frustrated, THANK you so much