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scott7118
Participating Frequently
April 21, 2015
Question

Acrobat DC freezing or "not responding"

  • April 21, 2015
  • 58 replies
  • 185098 views

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? 

This topic has been closed for replies.

58 replies

Participant
October 31, 2015

Same problem here.....New computer.....Windows 10......one monitor or two no difference.....ran fine for a month or two......now pausing an "not responding" whenever I try to do anything.....what's going on Adobe??....first post on here was in April and y'all still can't solve???....6 months???....do something!!!....give me a stand alone copy of Pro that will work until you figure it out.....do y'all have any idea how much productivity is being lost to this??....Come on!!

AshuMittal9644438
Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee
October 23, 2015

Hi all,

Acrobat team is aware of this issue and working towards a resolution soon. Meanwhile, please use the workaround below to resolve the issue:


Workaround

1. Try pressing Esc key when blank screen is in focus

2. If #1 doesn’t work, then detach second monitor and re-launch Acrobat

 

Thanks,

-ashu

Participant
October 21, 2015

Our Team is having the same issue.. We process 100's of PDF's a day and as you can imagine this is driving us crazy. Acrobat DC keeps "Not Responding" and IE (Versions 10 & 11) crashing constantly when viewing PDF's online.

OS Windows 7 SP1 (64 Bit)

Have tried all the suggestions above... Have used the cleaner and reinstalled it 4 times now and still its crashing

bruceb30226490
Participant
October 20, 2015

I have an end user who is experiencing the same - I have tried kicking him out of the team account.  I uninstalled Creative Cloud as well as Acrobat Pro Dc, invited the user back into the account, downloaded Creative Cloud, downloaded Acrobat Pro DC and he is still getting the same freeze when he launches the app.  He is on a MAC running the latest of YOSEMITE.  I need a fix for this, Adobe?

Adobe Employee
October 21, 2015

You could try follwing two workarounds for the Mac blank screen problem.

  1. Try pressing Enter and then Esc key.
  2. Remove second monitor connected to your Mac and then restart Acrobat.

I hope this will help.

Participant
October 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?

jcurt40215205
Participant
October 13, 2015

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

Satish Shinde
Participant
October 9, 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.

Participating Frequently
August 5, 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.

scott7118
scott7118Author
Participating Frequently
August 6, 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.

Participant
September 4, 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.

AadeshSingh
Participating Frequently
April 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

Participant
May 22, 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?

Participating Frequently
June 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 cDefaultExecMenuItemscDefaultFindAttachmentPerms, 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! :-)