Acrobat is Unusable

[try67]

I have been using Acrobat for something like 20 years now, and it's the worse it's ever been. 

I can barely use it for two minutes before it completely hangs up. The application is not responding to anything, no matter what I do, and I have to shut it down via the Task Manager.

I tried a fresh install, the cleaner tool, and everything else I can think of. Nothing works.

I'm just about to give up on the tool I've used for my work for a long period of time and that I have stood up for for many years and defended it as the "Industry Standard". I think I know my way around it, and if I can't get it to do the most basic tasks (like open a PDF for more than 2 minutes), how can you expect anyone else to be able to?

Adobe, you've managed to make me hate your applications. I'm just about to uninstall it for good, or at least until you get your act together. Maybe spend 0.001% of the time and resources you spend on the "AI Assistant" to make the core functionality of your software actually usable for the people who (used to) use it on a daily basis? A far-fetched idea, I know, but one can dream.

It's version 2025.001.20813* on Windows 10, if anyone has any tips. Same issue happens in both the old and new UI**s, by the way.

* And to add insult to injury, I just discovered that the About Acrobat window closes by itself each time you move to a different window, and of course there's no way to copy the version number directly from it... And why would there be? It's just the most basic piece of info you need whenever you try to debug any problem... Why make it easy when you can make it difficult, forcing the user to memorize the number each time? 

** Why is there a new UI that's riddled with bugs in the first place? Why does it not have support for some of the functions of the old UI? Why release to the public something that half works? You know it's terrible. That's why you left the old UI there... Sort it out first, then release it. We're not your beta-testers! Sorry, needed to rant some more...

[try67]

And another thing... Why the hell does Adobe need to run multiple services on my machine constantly?

Here's just a small selection of the ones I'm seeing running right now:

* Acrobat Collaboration Synchronizer 25.1 (2 instances)
* Acrobat Licensing Service
* Adobe Content Synchronizer
* Creative Cloud Interprocess Service
* Adobe Notification Client

And there are probably more I haven't spotted...

All of them taking up resources and slowing down my computer, even when no Adobe application is running!

[Tariq Ahmad]

Hello @try67,

First and foremost, we sincerely apologize for the delay in responding to your post. We greatly value your patience and the effort you put into sharing your experience.

I can imagine how frustrating it must have been to encounter issues with Acrobat – that is certainly not the kind of experience we wish for our users, particularly for community members. We appreciate you bringing this to our notice.

Could you please verify if the issue persists after installing the latest updates? As you are aware, Adobe frequently releases fixes and enhancements, and your input will help us ensure that everything functions correctly.

If the issue continues, please provide any recent error messages or actions you have taken so far. We will do our utmost to assist you swiftly.

Please share the diagnostic logs and memory dump.

To collect the logs:

1. Download and run the Diagnostics Utility from:  https://adobe.ly/3LAVfgZ
2. Click on Start Diagnostics. Ensure advanced logging is checked.
3. Launch Acrobat, reproduce the issue with your file.
4. Once done, click Stop Monitoring.
5. Copy the Log ID and share it with us.

For a crash or freezing issue, we would require crash logs: https://adobe.ly/47WghOi

• Upload logs to any Cloud Drive(One Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc)

Thank you for your ongoing support and patience.

Best regards,
Tariq | Adobe Community Team

[try67]

Hi Tariq,

Thanks for your reply. Better late than never... I have since tested it on another machine and experienced the same issues. When a client of mine reported the same thing happening to them we concluded it was related to the presence of folder-level scripts. They seem to cause this issue when they are installed in the app's JavaScripts folder, and it returns to "normal" when they are gone. This happened consistently on multiple machines. When we moved the code to an Action or Custom Command it worked fine.

I will run the diagnostic tool when I can and send you the results, though. Hopefully this is something that can be solved quickly as it's extremely inconvenient for those of us who develop and use scripts, as you can imagine. 

[William_Robert3460]

"You're absolutely right — Acrobat has become so heavy that even simple tasks feel impossible. I’ve seen the same freezing and non-responsive behavior, especially after the newer updates. Until Adobe stabilizes things, I sometimes switch to lighter online tools for quick tasks just to avoid dealing with constant crashes."

[JR Boulay]

I have the same problem. I haven't been able to use Acrobat on my PC for over two months.

Acrobat is an astonishing piece of software which continues to run 3 to 6 instances in the background consuming 12% of the processor's resources after I forced it to quit because it was no longer responding.

[try67]

Same here, pretty much. Do you happen to have folder-level scripts installed? I suspect this issue is related to them.

[JR Boulay]

"Do you happen to have folder-level scripts installed?"

Yes

[try67]

Try removing them and see if it still happens.

[Tariq Ahmad]

Appreciate your response @try67 @JR Boulay 

Hi @JR Boulay, while I am waiting to receive logs from Try67, would it be possible for you to share the requested logs as mentioned in my previous message on this thread? Once I have the logs, I will escalate this issue to the product team to investigate as soon as possible. Also, please let me know if this is the latest version of Acrobat that is installed. Please share the Acrobat version number.

~Tariq