Acrobat scrolling is incredibly laggy and slow

[acrobatty_user]

Hello,

For the last two years I have had consistent problems with Acrobat Pro DC being extremely slow/stuttery while scrolling, highlighting, commenting on a document. This happens no matter what the size of the PDF is from less than 1 MB to 10+ MB. It appears to be very poorly optimized compared to other professional software titles which all run smoothly on macOS: Word, Excel, Pages, Numbers, etc. I have tried deleting the prefernce files outlined in other topics, which did nothing to alleviate the issue at all.

My computer is a relatively powerful: 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro connected to an eGPU with Radeon RX 580 and an LG 4K monitor (more than enough power to edit PDFs). I am running the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and macOS Mojave and have never seen these issues alleviated by two years of updates.

Given the cost of this software, I would really appreciate some help from Adobe's support team, as well as an indication that they are planning on doing something about what is clearly an egregious lack of concern over glaring optimization issues. Having spoken with other macOS users (I work in I.T.), this is not merely an individual user issue but a broader problem plaguing Adobe Acrobat in general.

P. S. I have disabled the Show Online storage while opening and saving files, as suggested in other threads to no avail.

[Daniel24045049ja1e]

I have a huge spec PC and have 64GB RAM - the lag is horrendous.  Opening in Revu or any other PDF viewer results in no issues.  Soemthing to do with the layers and fonts I suspect.

[Dave__M]

That's crazy... but if it works?  GREAT!!

Dave

[Dada50]

Sorry, but nothing works on Mac, none of the tricks mentioned here on the page improved the sluggish scrolling both of Acrobat Pro AND Reader (both 2021.007.20099). It gets worse when the comments panel is open, and new markings/comments are added.  Please do not suggest updating drivers for peripherals, since everything is from Apple and regularly updated (Latest Big Sur update).

This problem is especially virulent when commenting documents, not with other tasks.

Shift Cmd-H and "automatischer Bildlauf" are dimmed and inactive. switchin the smoothing options (don't know English names) in page view preferences does not change anything.

What's the problem? Where do I find any solution?

[Dada50]

I've made a movie since the company reps here were not able to reproduce the effects. One can clearly see that (1) scrolling goes haywire and (2) some effect might be fun but do not really increase productivity.

[kevinm89743258]

Same issue here for years on MacPro Tower and MacPro laptops using the magic trackpad. Just trying to fill out an 8 page form and its taking forever, due to scroll redraws. Ridiculous this has not been addressed.

[ls_rbls]

Dada50,

Seems to me  like a  bug with memory handling.

I couldn't appreciate in your video the total number of pages for this document, but it looks like it is  a very large PDF that contains well over 1,000 pages.

Do you get the same issue if the PDF is less than 60 pages, for example?

Also, I couldn't see very well in that video how many users are you sharing this large PDF for review  with, or where is it accessed from? (a network folder, a cloud space, over regular Internet service user accounts?).

I am thinking if it would do any difference with the slow scrolling if you save the file immediately soon after you insert a comment, and  I would also check if it would be any different if you just work with this file completely offline before you share it for review. Doing so may avoid the experienced lag that is commonly produced by the background and file synchronization services, specially when sharing and editing a PDF online (like using "Review for Comments", since the  PDF is downloaded in the background one page at a time).

[Dada50]

The document is NOT very large, 24 pages, 4.3 MByte, basically a student essay submitted for evaluation and correction, presumably that was written in MS Word but I do not know for sure. I used two different desktop computers, the home computer with Reader, the office computer with Acrobat Pro, both from the internal copies saved on the hard disk (noooo - it is NOT filled to the brim), and nobody else was sharing that, and there is NO synchronization.

It does get worse when numerous comments have been added but that's what correction functionaliy is for and should not affect the performance of the program. And for saving: I can return to a saved versions with corrections and get the all the effects including the sluggishness immediately after klicking / highlighting one of the comments or searching for text.

I tried for example with more or less randomly chosen file, an MSDS from a lab and chemical company ( https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiD3a-m4MT0AhXD-qQKHVwmAI4Q... ) which you can easily load to your desktop an try yourself. After adding one or two markings, the same happenes again.

Moreover, there are numerous complaints from the last years here in the forum and elsewhere in the net, so why has Adobe been unable or unwilling to solve any of that? All I can read from company reps is that they cannot reproduce it, which is weird. None of this happenes when I open the same corrected file in Apple's Preview (which is however less convenient/versatile to do corrections and other editing). So that seems to be a true Adobe fault.

[Afroditi22050792l7n1]

I have stopped using Acrobat Pro DC for reading pdf docs and switched to Preview. It has been impossible for the last month or so, with absolutely no improvement.

[soroush23231108nrv5]

get worse!

[Hugo Bergevald]

Thank you so much!!! I can't believe there's a proper solution to this yet

[mehta5FAF]

It didn't for me. In fact, it made it 10fold worse. I can't believe how incredibly frustrtating this software is. Tons of unsolved issues with XD too. I only use it because my IT provides me this for free.

[Meenakshi Negi]

Hi All, 

Thank you for reporting this issue.

We see that this has been an ongoing issue and long-tailed.

We have tried to replicate this issue on our end. However, the issue cannot be reproduced in-house. That is why we need a few details for further investigation on this. It would be helpful if you can share the following information:

- Please share any sample PDF on which the issue can be reproduced.

- If possible, share the screen recording of the issue occurring on your end.

- Application (https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/identify-product-version.html) and OS version used on the machine.

- If you are using the Windows machine, please collect the Process Monitor logs. Download the Process monitor tool from this link: https://labs.adobe.com/downloads/acrobatmonitor.html on your machine and run it. Then reproduce the issue and save the logs. Share the logs with us.

We will be waiting for your response.

Regards,

Meenakshi

[R5CB3]

I also am having this issue. I am a lawyer and often have 3 or 4 large PDFs open on the screen. I often highlight a few lines/ paragraphs. I've noticed recently that laggy scrolling is becoming a really big problem - sometimes several seconds pass between moving the wheel on my mouse and the screen finally juddering down to where it's supposed to be on the PDF. 

Very surprising that Adob cannot replicate this problem in-house. I'd have thought all you need to do is get any PC and start opening a few big PDFs and highlighting etc. 

I have wondered if the issue is caused in part by high-def screens. My laptop has a 2560x1440 screen, so the processor has a fair bit of work to do to keep PDFs sharp when they're moving around. But I think really the issue is with Adobe Acrobat, not the computer - it is a fairly recent i7, with 16GB Ram.  

I think Adobe need to look into this problem in more detail. I have already become so frustrated that I am trying alternative PDF readers. They do not seem to render PDFs quite as sharply - but they certainly scroll more smoothly. 

[kaadeewee]

No, on Mac it is NOT FIXED! I am a CC-subscriber, but for reading PDFs I am using Apple Preview because the stuttering choppy scrolling of PDFs is unbearable on an iMac with a Radeon Pro Vega graphic card. Latest version, all accessibility features turned off… 

In Preview scrolling through pages is smooth as butter, in Acrobat the page jumps in 40 pixel jumps or more…

It's rididulous. ADOBE, show some love to the Adobe Acrobat on MAC!!!

[Mahmoud5DD6]

Same here. I'm not hoping this will be fixed soon.

[testt68221009]

Same here, on a Macbook Pro 2019... On my five year old Windows computer it runs smooth.

[planetf1]

I'm on a 2016 Macbook Pro, but same issue - just trying to scoll and navigate a relatively short pdf is a misery. Scrolling is very difficult, jumpy.

The same pdf opened in 'preview' can be smoothly navigated. Also Acrobat Pro DC on Windows works fine too.

For me acrobat reader DC is unusable on macbook, which is quite astounding when it attracts a premium price.

[ML-Orion]

My solution might work for you too!

Context - Very slow PDF scrolling, whick become Painfully slow when screensharing over videoconferencing.  

Hardware - MacBook Pro 16 (top specs)

Software - Adobe Acrobat Pro 2017 (version 2017.011.30180) on macOS Catalina (version 10.15.7)

Solution - which work for my configuration...

 Under Acrobat preference;

 Categories: choose display (left scrolling pane)

 1. On the right side of the pane Resolution offers two choices (system OR customized resolution)

 2. CHOOSE: customized resolution and in the FIELD for Pixels/inch (or mm) you need to increase this...

 3. I took the proposed system default (133 pixels/inch) and multiplied it by 2 or 4.

 4. For my system, the increase in scrolling speed was dramatic by doubling the pixels/inch,.

       (above 4 x system default pixels/inch had a small speed gain for me). 

 5. GOOD LUCK !

[default9j5knbcy7ykh]

It worked, thank you for sharing!!!

[nicks77013501]

This also worked for me, thank you so much!

[defaultv6mg4r0g8b0v]

I have been suffering from this issue for sometime and have tried several of the "fixes" posted on this board.  My 2014 Mac Mini running MacOS Big Sur and Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Version 2020.013.20074 is scrolling very, very slowly.  Essentially unsable.  But, thankfully, I finally found a sure fire solution.  I cancelled my 14.99/month Adobe account in favor of a free PDF reader that actually works.

[BackRiot]

Having this same problem on my iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021)

The scrolling, stuttering, Lagginess and chopiness is UNBEARABLE.  

I tried the a couple of the solutions on here but nothing 😞

[BackRiot]

UPDATE: Since my last reply the problem is now more severe on my M1 chip iMac.

Can't use it on the machine anymore, it's more stable on my older 2013 iMac.

(Processor 3.1 GHz Intel Core i7)

Today I'm likely gonna pull the trigger and purchase PDF Expert (which works great)🤷‍:male_sign: but sucks because I pay around $70. per month for CC.

[andrews11502512]

I tried PDF Expert, but it displays a checkerboard pattern when scrolling reasonably fast. That makes it unusable for me.  I don't know why it is so hard to implement a basic feature like scrolling.  Apple's Preview scrolls fine but lacks most of the features of Acrobat and PDF Expert. 

[Jay5C2A]

I had a similiar issue, very laggy, on just a text pages , and images.

The problem for me was the Acrobat/Preference/ Resolution setting.  I had switched to "use system settings" which screw it up.

I now put in a 'custom' resolution.  Try what # works for you.  110 was good for me. I'm on a Mac Pro 2019, using a 27" monitor.