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JemShaw
JemShaw
Inspiring
April 29, 2021
Answered

Acrobat Unusably Slow on windows 10

  • April 29, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 13736 views

I recently reinstalled Windows and so also needed to reinstall all my CC apps. All is OK except Acrobat DC, which is unusably slow. Opening any PDF causes a hang of 15-30 seconds. If I then scroll, it'll again freeze. Any action is followed by the program becoming unresponsive. It also occasionally hangs completely and has to be force-closed. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, repairing the installation, deleting all AppData and removing the registry entry, all to no avail.

 

I run a 9th Gen i7 with 32GB RAM and a GeForce RTX 2070. All drivers fully updated.

 

I can open PDFs in Chrome, word etc, and Illustrator and Photoshop also open them fine. I need Acrobat DC to edit PDFs, and currently am unable to do that.

 

Any ideas?

    Correct answer JemShaw

    Will do Karl, many thanks for your advice so far.


    For the benefit of anyone else with a similar problem, a LONG session with Adobe Support eventually cracked the problem. Although I'm signed in as an Administrator, Acrobat wasn't picking up those privilieges. Running the program as Administrator cured the problem.

    2 replies

    A
    Anointing Productions
    Participant
    May 15, 2023

    This works for me, I had the same issue.

     

    1. Open Adobe Acrobat Pro · 2. Got Edit -> Preferences · 3. Go to Security (Enhanced) -> Unchecked Enhance Security box -> Click OK.

      U
      Unknown Arthur
      Participant
      June 12, 2023

      I have been trying to fix this Acrobat lag bug for at least a year with no success - but having just tried your suggestion it works immediately! I have no idea what this setting does or why it's enabled by default, but having it ON literally makes Acrobat unusable for me (on both my Windows 10 and 11 installs). Turing this 'feature' OFF makes it run like a dream. I could kiss you.

        Karl Heinz Kremer
        Community Expert
        Karl Heinz KremerCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        April 29, 2021

        I would try to run Adobe's Acrobat Cleaner: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/acrobatcleaner.html - This will remove anything related to Adobe Acrobat from your system, and after that, a new installation should behave just like on a brand new system (all the things you've tried will not get rid of all application data). 

          JemShaw
          JemShawAuthor
          Inspiring
          April 30, 2021

          Thanks very much for the speedy reply, Karl.

          I’ve run the Acrobat Cleaner and reinstalled, but no difference I’m afraid. After starting and following any action, it hangs for 20-30 seconds. I do hope this isn’t yet another CC product that Adobe has broken.

          Karl Heinz Kremer
          Community Expert
          Karl Heinz KremerCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          April 30, 2021

          I just re-read your original question, and here is one more thing to try: In Acrobat's preferences, go to the "General" category and turn off he two "Show online storage..." options. Does that make a difference? 

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