Acrobat hangs when scanning

[danw42365919]

Running Adobe version 2025.001.20476 for Mac on iMac OS Sonoma 14.7.4 with Brother DCPL-2550DW Printer/Scanner

File > Create > PDF from Scanner

Custom Scan window opens; select Scanner; check optimize image; create new pdf; check recognize text (OCR)

Click Scan button

New window opens - nothing appears - see attached photo - program doesn't respond - have to force quit to exit program.

Printer drivers and utilities are up to date.

Uninstalled, rebooted and reinstalled Adobe. Uninstalled, have not reinstalled Adobe Reader and InDesign. Scanning issue persists. Originally presented itself following a three hour power outage.

At this point, I am out of ideas on how to fix the problem.  Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[danw42365919]

Forgot to mention - Scanner does scan to other apps.

[gary_sc]

One important question, @danw42365919, can you scan via your scanner's software?

Here's the deal, on the Mac, when scanning directly from Acrobat, you are shunted to Apple's Image Capture software.

Unfortunately, Image Capture is a major piece of **** scanning software. It is at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to scan quality and getting to a good quality image.

I encourage you to continue scanning with your scanner’s software, save your scans in the TIF format, and leave the files on your desktop (or wherever convenient). Then, you can drag the files onto the Acrobat icon in the Dock. If you save the files as TIF images, Acrobat will automatically OCR them; there's nothing else you have to do. If you drag more than one file onto the Acrobat icon, Acrobat will ask you if you want all of these files merged into one document or to remain separate.  (If you save in any other format (e.g., jpg), the auto OCR dynamic will not happen, and you'll need to add to your workload by adding an OCR step to your activities.)

Some extra tips and bits of information: A full-page, 300 ppi, 8-bit TIF file will be about 8 MB. (16-bit will be about 16 MB); once they are processed into a PDF, they will drop down to about 100-150 kb, so do not worry about the size. Assuming that you've done a pre-scan to set the Levels settings to get a clean image and you're doing a stack of pages from the same source, there's no need to do subsequent pre-scans. The first scan will be “document.tif.” The 2nd document will be “document (2).tif,” the third will be “document (3).tif.”, etc. When you process those in Acrobat, the first scanned page will end at the end of the PDF as the last page. You can either fix this in the "Organize Pages" or, before processing in Acrobat, change the name in the Finder for “document.tif” to “document (1).tif.*

 * There's no way around this because it is up to Finder or Explorer to name it, not the scanning software. FWIW, I use this latter approach.

As long as you'll be using better quality scanning software, here's a blog I wrote for Adobe with some tips on getting the best quality scan for OCR.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/adobe-community-professionals/scanning-clean-searchable-pdfs/m-p/4785...

Good luck!

[danw42365919]

Thank you for your response.  I appreciate your sharing your blog post.

What puzzles me is that the Acrobat software, my iMac and my printer/scanner worked flawlessly together until last week, so I don't know what changed. Your suggested solution has been my work around this week, but it is frustratingly inefficient.

Once again, thanks.

[Tariq Ahmad]

Hi @danw42365919, 

Sorry for the troubled experience. It seems you have already tried almost all the troubleshooting I could have suggested. 

Let's try the following:

1. Try disabling protected mode at startup. This suggestion is for testing only: 

    To disable protected mode, you'll typically navigate to the application's settings, usually under "Options" or "Preferences," then find the " Protected View" or "Security (Enhanced)" section. Uncheck any options that enable protected mode and apply the changes. 

2. Try creating a new user profile on your machine and try again. 

If the issue persists, help us with the following: 

1.  https://adobe.ly/3Fmwja6 share log ID (Ensure to choose advanced logging).

2. Crash logs: https://adobe.ly/4jlj1J5. Upload logs to any cloud drive and share the link

3. Scanner driver ICA version installed.

Lastly, if possible, please capture a video of the workflow and share it with us

~Tariq

[danw42365919]

Tariq-

Suggestions 1 & 2 didn't work. Adobe Acrobat Helper launches whenever I start Adobe Acrobat now.

I uploaded log. Log ID 166b496b-bcc2-4cc3-b362-4a76edaa33cc.  Workflow steps are listed above and with submitted log.

I am not getting a "quit unexpectedly" prompt so didn't bother uploading crash log.

ICA Scanner Driver version is 3.0 

Grateful to you and your team for looking at this.

Thanks.

[AnandSri]

Hello @danw42365919

I hope you are doing well, and we are sorry for the delayed response.

Could you please install the latest build of the Acrobat app version 25.001.20529 (Mac), planned update June 10, 2025. Check for any pending updates from the Menu > help > check for updates, install the updates, restart the app and the machine, and try again.

If the issue persists, please collect the fresh logs from the machine with the latest version and share them with us for further investigation. Crash Logs.

Thanks for your time and cooperation on this.

Regards,

Anand Sri.

[joel_1381]

I'm having the same issue as OP.  I'm fully updated.  Thank you.

[AnandSri]

Hello @joel_1381

I hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out.

If you are on the latest version of Acrobat: 25.001.20531 (Win) | 25.001.20529 (Mac), the planned update June 10, 2025. And the issue continues. Please collect the following information from the machine and share it with us:

1. The two logs. 

2. Details of the current operating system installed.

3. The make and model of the printer/scanner, along with the current version of the driver and firmware installed.

To collect the logs, download and run the Log Collector tool. Make sure to select all log options and attempt to reproduce the issue. After that, close the Log Collector tool; it will generate the logs along with a log ID. Please share this log ID with us for further investigation.

Collect the Crash/freeze logs as well.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

[joel_1381]

Thanks for the response!   All software is current and up to date.

I ran the tool and shared the logs.  My log ID is 49bce665-9bda-4805-8a26-4a222c402bca 

2024 iMac. System installed Sequoia 15.5

HP OfficeJet Pro 8720 (ICA)

FW version: WMP1CN2105AR

Driver version 4.0.

I am not getting a "quit unexpectedly" prompt so no crash log.

My issues are the exact same as OP.  Thanks!

[joel_1381]

Any update on this?  Info provided below.  Thank you.

[gary_sc]

Hi, , FWIW, I've been doing things this way for as long as I can remember. The whole issue (to me) boils down to whether it's better to do something the way it's supposed to be done, albeit with a very poor quality tool, or do it a way that works with a vastly superior tool.

To see what I'm referring to, regarding the quality of scanning. Take a photograph, B&W or color, doesn't matter. Open Image Capture (you'll find that in your Applications folder) and do whatever enhancements you feel are necessary to improve the quality of the scan and save that to your desktop. Now, scan the same image with the scanning software that came with your scanner (make sure you're using the latest drivers; companies that make scanners do not do a good job of checking if your software is up to date; you have to look at their website). Now, scan the same image and enhance it as best as you can. Save that to your desktop. 

Finally, compare the two images. There is no question that your scanner's software will do a better job. Look at the regions where there is a gradation from dark to light, look at folds in fabrics, and look at the clouds. Image Capture cannot capture that properly. 

Simply, the needs of an excellent scan are pushed to the limit when it comes to OCR. Why rely upon dreadful software when the result of a scan may determine whether all of the text in your document is at risk?

Inefficient? Not at all when you consider what you're trading for to achieve greater accuracy for that slight bit of extra processing.

[Kerry34000007b0k6]

Any update on this.  My Acrobat scanning (on a mac) stop working at about the same time as the original poster (in May of this year) after some software (not sure what) automatically updated.  I can scan to other apps - but Acrobat presents the blanks screen (just as in the original post).  I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Acrobat (from Creative Cloud).  I am currently on Acrobat 2025.001.20577 and I gave "Full Disk Access" (to Acrobat) in System Settings/Security.

I'm on Mac OS 14.7.6.

[joel_1381]

No update.  Never got a response after my upload of logs.

[danw42365919]

I was the original poster of the question. After being unable to resolve the issue following the suggestions above, I now scan to a PC instead of my iMac.  I'm too old a dog to learn a new scanning method.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I don't bother scanning in Acrobat. Too much trouble. 

If you can scan with the software that came with the scanner, virtually all save to PDF. Then you can edit as needed in Acrobat.

If you don't have the software for some reason, check out VueScan from https://www.hamrick.com/ 

It keeps old scanners that native software won't run on newer computers alive.