Acrobat Pro DC 64-bit soaks up all memory and causes memory errors

[Daniel Schwab]

Hello friends,

TLDR: 64-bit Acrobat Pro DC uses an unfair amount of RAM and crashes my computer. Skip to the end for some more stats.

My workflow requires me to open multiple large PDFs and cross reference them while using other Adobe and Autodesk products. I am on an updated win10 machine, and have 32gb of RAM. Some of these PDFs are large files generated by CAD software, often exceeding 10mb. Naturally, 32-bit Acrobat was unable to handle the load and I wan into constant "out of memory" errors. This problem is not resolved, but after reading several support articles by Dov Isaacs, we downloaded the new 64-bit version that has recently been made available. Previously, I had been opening multiple large PDF files with Google Chrome (and have never had Chrome fail), but I like Acrobat, and we use Acrobat's features, and using Chrome causes me to split my workflow.

The initial result was wonderful! Large PDF files would nolonger crash Acrobat, and my workflow improved. I could open 10 large PDFs and not worry about needing to restart Acrobat and find them all again. Perfect - until the first time my computer experienced a memory error which instantaniously closed most of my programs.

But, whatever, I'm running Autodesk software, and this stuff happens once in a while, right? Fast-forward 2 weeks - I am on a different machine (Dell instead of Boxx) with 64-bit Acrobat and a beefy 32gb of RAM, and I have had the issue 2 or 3 times on both machines. The only major software change was Acrobat. I have had this issue less than 2 hours after a fresh reboot. Today, I checked Control Panel and Event Viewer right after my screen blacked out for 30 seconds and most programs crashed.

stats:

Some stats on my latst crash:

First: closing Acrobat instantly freed up 80% of my RAM. 80%‽

Second: Event viewer listed the RAM error and some info. Acrobat consumed 117.5gb while Autodesk Inventor only consumed 6.7gb. That is absolutely insane.

What I had open: I estimate that I had 5 pdfs open at the time in Acrobat. The largest file was 10mb, and it had been exported from Autodesk Inventor. I was using the comments feature in Acrobat. I also was running Autodesk Inventor with a few large drawings open, and Autodesk Vault.

Some stats on my current machine: Dell Precision 5820 tower, Intel Xeon W-2123 CPU, 32.7 GB total physical memory, and 44 GB total virtual memory.

Some stats on my OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, version 10.0.19042, Build 19042

Some stats on Acrobat: Acrobat Pro DC, 64-bit, Version 2021.007.20099

Anyone else experiencing these issues? Is Acrobat working on this issue? Can we have clarity on why Acrobat is plagued with memory problems?

[Daniel Schwab]

Hello,

Is anyone experiencing similar problems on either Acrobat Pro DC 64-bit or 32-bit? I have had this issue two more times at least since last week, but I caught it before it crashed my computer. Both times the solution was closing Acrobat. This morning, having Acrobat open with 3 pdf files overnight resulted in a resource error and a slow PC until I rebooted (see screenshot). I ran a test this morning, opened 3 pdfs in Acrobat and 6 pdfs in Chrome. After 20 minutes and randomely scrolling a few times, Acrobat's RAM usage had passed Chrome's (see screenshot). Can someone explain to me why Acrobat needs most of my RAM to view pdf files that internet browsers handle easily?

I will probably downgrade to Acrobat 32-bit soon, but everyone knows I will be plagued with Acrobat's typical internal "out of memory" errors - the reason I opted for 64-bit acrobat in the first place after reading this, and this, and this.