Acrobat DC freezing or "not responding"

Report · Apr 21, 2015

I recently installed Acrobat DC. I previously used Foxit Phantom. Now when I am in "My Computer" and I either mouse-over or try to open a PDF file, it freezes for about 10 seconds and says "not responding" at the top. It always works again after the 7-10 seconds. Very annoying. This never happened when using Foxit. Has anyone else had this problem? How do I fix it?

Report · Apr 22, 2015

Hi Scott2116,

I am sorry that you are experiencing this issue & will be happy to assist you.

Can you please let me know the version of operating system installed on your computer in order to diagnose the issue correctly?

In the mean time please refer to this KB doc. Troubleshoot system errors, freezes | Windows | Adobe software‌ to check the system requirements & other troubleshooting steps.

Regards,

Aadesh

Report · Apr 22, 2015

Windows 7 Professional

Report · Apr 22, 2015

Hey Scott,

Have you tried any of the troubleshooting steps mentioned in the KB doc. which I provided you in the above comment?

Regards,

Aadesh

Report · Apr 22, 2015

I've tried a few of the things that were listed. I haven't gone through all of the options yet. I've found that this non-responsive issue happens regardless of what other programs are running at the same time. I even closed everything else and it still happens. This is a work computer that I adopted from a previous employee. I went though and deleted all older Adobe programs that I'm not using. I even removed Acrobat Reader. It made no difference.

Report · Jun 16, 2015

same issue, windows 8.1 x64

every day this happens.

Report · Jun 17, 2015

Hi Scott & Hayden,

Please uninstall Acrobat DC Pro using the cleaner tool Use the Adobe Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems
Restart your computer.
Install Acrobat DC Pro using this link https://creative.adobe.com/products/acrobat‌ & serialize it using your Adobe ID.

Let me know if you still experience any issue.

Regards,

Aadesh

Report · Jun 29, 2015

OK

I uninstalled by using the Windows Uninstaller and then running the adobe cleaner tool you directed me to. The DOS screen indicated I uninstalled successfully, but I never found any log files sitting in the user directory. The program appeared to have completely uninstalled.
Restarted
Installed Acrobat DC Pro using the link provided, which was actually a 'cloud' installation. I did log in at least a couple times through this process.

Problem: how do I "serialize it"? This seems to be a 30-day trial of the Cloud software. I have not been prompted for a serial number & don't see any obvious way to do this.

Report · Jun 29, 2015

Aadesh

Thanks for the re-installation information. Unfortunately, that did not fix the problem.

Report · Oct 22, 2015

Mine is freezing as well since I upgraded my mac to the latest OS ...

Report · Apr 09, 2016

Hello,

I have a Lenovo Idea Pad G850 running Windows 8.1.

Report · Apr 18, 2016

Adobe is now notorious for dissipating thumbnails. I am having to run a workaround to get the thumbnails to display. Are these "updates" going to crash my thumbnail feature? Will I have to find another workaround for that?

Report · May 21, 2016

Over a year later and this problem still hasn't been fixed? I have the latest update and the reader still crashes constantly anytime I have more than one .pdf open. Is there any end to this debacle in sight?

Report · Jun 13, 2016

Good day folks,

Here is how I solved the issue for myself.

Background:

I have Adobe Acrobat Pro DC running on Windows 10 Pro (Enterprise) and I am connected to a corporate Network. After starting Acrobat (whether with or without opening a Document) it would run for around 15 seconds apparently normally. It would then hang / freeze / crash. If I tried to click on anything more than a few times then Windows would report that Acrobat is "Not Responding". It would recover on its own within around another 15 seconds. This is a common complaint from what I can see. I tried the following things without any success:

Things that didn't work:

Setting Recently Used Documents to only 1

Toggling Enhanced Security, Protected Views settings, etc.

Plug-Ins attempts: Holding Shift when Acrobat starts keeps the problems from happening (but I need many of the Plug-Ins).

Graphics (Multimedia) Settings changes: No effect for me.

Trying all kinds of permutations of settings in the Preferences settings had no effect for me.

My solution (works for me):

1) Close down Acrobat.

2) Fire up regedit (follow the usually cautions for dealing with the Registry)

3) Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\2015\FeatureLockDown

4) You should see Key folders with names like cDefaultExecMenuItems, cDefaultFindAttachmentPerms, cDefaultLaunchAttachmentPerms, cDefaultLaunchURLPerms

5) If a key name named cServices does not yet exist, then create it (right click on FeatureLockDown and select New -> Key and name it cServices).

6) Left Click to Select the cServices Key you just created.

7) Right click in the white space in the right side pane and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value and name this new Value bToggleAdobeDocumentServices

8) Double Click on the newly created bToggleAdobeDocumentServices and enter 1 (Hexadecimal) for the Value data. Click OK.

9) Continue creating new Key names within the cServices Key folder until you have the following:

Name Type Data

bToggleAdobeDocumentServices REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)

bToggleAdobeSign REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)

bTogglePrefSync REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)

bUpdater REG_DWORD 0x00000000 (0)

Note: The value of bUpdater is 0 while the values of the first three are 1).

Note: When you create the cServices Key folder a Key named (Default) may be automatically create, this is OK. Just ignore it (don't try to delete it).

10. Close the regedit, and restart Acrobat. You may need to restart your PC.

More Info:

An explanation of these Registry fields can be found here:

Services integration

I looked for this when I discovered that the problem had to do with one the Plug-Ins (as I mention above). I traced it to IA32.api. But, removing this Plug-In file crippled Acrobat in addition to keeping it from crashing. Adobe Support tried to help me but they couldn't figure it out and I couldn't spend any more time with them. These registry changes will stop Acrobat from going out to "the Cloud". This keeps it from hanging while it tries to get through the corporate firewall. My opinion is that it it very poor design and maybe insufficient testing that would cause this unresponsiveness to happen and go undetected. I have been unable to find a non-registry way to get this result.

Good luck! 🙂

Report · Jul 04, 2016

Knote,

I tried you fix and it did help. For my situation (described in an earlier post), if I waited 2 minutes after opening a PDF document the reader functioned fine.

After modifying the registry as you described my wait time for being able to effectively use a PDF document is now a little less than 1 minutes. Every few seconds saved make using Adobe Reader more bearable.

Thanks,

Report · Aug 05, 2015

I'm following this because I am having the same problem. I have NOT gone through the troubleshooting steps provided by Aadesh since Scott7118 said they did not work. Honestly, I am holding out for an Adobe CC update that fixes this for me.

Report · Aug 06, 2015

Last week I loaded the new Windows 10 and that seemed to fix the two problems that I had. One was the "freezing and not responding", then I had the problem of Acrobat closing down every time that I used it. After loading Windows 10 those problems went away. Now I have run into a new problem of several functions that just don't work including printing. I have noticed that it runs just perfect on my home computer and iPhone. This computer that I am having problems with is at my work. I am convinced that the problems I am having are directly related to this machine and not Adobe or Acrobat. I think that if I can get my employer to upgrade my computer, the problem(s) will be resolved.

Report · Sep 04, 2015

Scott, I am also having the identical issue with my program freezing and throwing up a "not responding" message when attempting to print. Makes no difference whether I print from the printer icon, print from File or Ctrl+P, the only thing that differs is that sometimes I can make it into the print setup page only to have it freeze there!

It is on my home computer running Windows 10; newly reinstalled & serialised Acrobat DC.

Report · Sep 04, 2015

Yesterday, I installed a new SSD drive in my computer. Completely reloaded all programs, including Windows 10 & Acrobat. That fixed my problem. So, my guess is that something previously within the operating system itself was causing the problem. I hate to say reload everything from scratch including Windows, but it worked for me.

Report · Sep 24, 2015

I am having the same problems and I have Window 7. I am going nuts and am not about to change my entire operating system that supports a host of wide range of other important programs that are running fine. There must be a glitch somewhere that has an easier solution than updating the entire machine.

Report · Oct 02, 2015

I am having the same problem as everyone else. I use this program for work and I can barely function right now with how much it randomly stops responding and closes. I cannot change my operating system to fix the problem as I just got this computer in the past year with windows 8.1 on it. Tried all of the troubleshooting with no improvements.

Report · Oct 09, 2015

Hello Scott,

I am having same issue as "freezing acrobat dc". I have Windows 7 Professional. Please suggest me any solution that can work well.

Report · Oct 13, 2015

I am having the same issue. It just started today (began using DC about 2- 3 weeks ago). Has anyone been able to find a solution?

Report · Oct 13, 2015

Unfortunately no. I did everything on the troubleshooting and even upgraded to windows 10. Still does the same thing.

Report · Oct 16, 2015

I just started having this same issue on my Mac laptop running the latest OS El Capitan. It loads up and just freezes. Uninstalled and reinstalled to no avail.