Acrobat doesn't save my preferences or settings upon closing

[annette_6726]

I use Acrobat Pro, which worked fine on my last laptop. When I got a new laptop in July 2025 and installed Adobe, I noticed that Acrobat wouldn't save my preferences and settings. 

I have to keep the app open to avoid resetting preferences each time I open a PDF. I am signed in, my avatar shows in the top right, I edit preferences for default view, I pin thumnails, collapse the tools menu on the right and I select to open additional pdf's in a new window instead of a separate tab. Of course the setting for opening additional pdf's in a new window requires that you close the app and restart, so I'm unable to apply that setting. 

I work with hundreds of PDFs daily, so constantly reapplying these settings severely reduces my efficiency and productivity.

What would cause my preferences to not be saved upon closing the app? I have an HP Elitebook laptop, running Windows 11, 64bit. Creative Cloud installed the 64 bit version of Adobe. 

[annette_6726]

Nevermind! I asked Grok and he said it was a common issue. Suggested the following and it worked for me. 

• Locate the Acrobat executable: Usually at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe (or similar for your version—right-click the Acrobat shortcut > Open file location).
• Right-click Acrobat.exe > Properties > Compatibility tab.
• Look for "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" — if any option (e.g., Windows 8, 7, etc.) is checked, uncheck it.
• Also uncheck any boxes under "Settings" like "Run this program as an administrator" (unless you need it for other reasons).
• Click Apply > OK, then restart your laptop and test Acrobat.

This has fixed the exact "preferences reset on close/reopen" problem for multiple users on Windows 11, including cases where settings like tool panes, views, and window behavior wouldn't stick.

[creative explorer]

@annette_6726 I was taught maybe 30 years it was a common rule of thumb to set preferences with no document open to "lock in" the global defaults. I would think 30 years later, it shouldn't be like that—but, I still do it this way! Old habits!

For Windows 11, it maybe a corrupted preferences that just needs clearing and purge! I would close any Adobe app specially Acrobat. Including your tablet and mobile devices, and adobe.com as well. Press Win R, type %AppData%\Adobe\Acrobat\DC, and hit Enter. Find the Preferences folder and rename it to Preferences_Old (this would be a smarter than deleting it. If this doesn't fix the issue, you can always delete the new folder and rename the old one back to restore your previous state, just in case). Restart your computer as it will automatically create a new preference file. Then, if you like, try my old skool way, before you open a new document, you can set up the preferences you want for all documents. Setting them with no PDF open is the most reliable way to force a global change.