Acrobat very slow to start up and very laggy when using it on Windows 11

[peterd92713239]

Acrobat (as stated in the subject title) is very laggy. It even shows what I think is a Windows Vista skin for the application window frame. I uninstalled and reinstalled. Not sure if this is a common issue? Unfortunately I need it to edit acrobat files... 

[AkanchhaS · Accepted solution]

Hi @peterd92713239 @swantx 

We sincerely apologize for not being able to address your issue on time.

Is the Acrobat version you are referring to above the Modern UI? 

Acrobat and Reader official update  23.003.20244 is now available. This update will be automatically pushed to all existing installations of Acrobat and Reader. If you want, you may manually trigger the update early by opening the application and going to Help > Check for Updates>reboot Acrobat.

More information about this release is here: Release Notes | Adobe Acrobat, Reader

If its the latest version and you continue to experience slow performance, then

Navigate to Acrobat>Preferences(Ctrl+k)>Security (Enhanced)>disable "Protected Mode at Start-up", "Protected View," and "Enhanced Security">OK>close and reopen Acrobat

Or

• Click on the hamburger icon in the upper left corner.
• Click on Disable New Acrobat

Let us know if this makes a difference

Thanks,

Akanchha

[swantx]

I am having similar issues. I just installed Acrobat on a new computer running Windows 11 and Acrobat is extremely slow and frustrating. It is operating much more slowly than it does on my 6 year old computer.  Acrobat also repeatedly freezes with the "program not responding" displaying at the top of the window. This is totally ridiculous, as this pretty much never happens on the 6 year old computer. Adobe needs to get these glitches figured out ASAP. Windows 11 has been out for a while, so there is no good excuse for this.

[AkanchhaS · Accepted solution]

Hi @peterd92713239 @swantx 

We sincerely apologize for not being able to address your issue on time.

Is the Acrobat version you are referring to above the Modern UI? 

Acrobat and Reader official update  23.003.20244 is now available. This update will be automatically pushed to all existing installations of Acrobat and Reader. If you want, you may manually trigger the update early by opening the application and going to Help > Check for Updates>reboot Acrobat.

More information about this release is here: Release Notes | Adobe Acrobat, Reader

If its the latest version and you continue to experience slow performance, then

Navigate to Acrobat>Preferences(Ctrl+k)>Security (Enhanced)>disable "Protected Mode at Start-up", "Protected View," and "Enhanced Security">OK>close and reopen Acrobat

Or

• Click on the hamburger icon in the upper left corner.
• Click on Disable New Acrobat

Let us know if this makes a difference

Thanks,

Akanchha

[michael_2376]

This solution appear to have worked for me. I upgraded from windows 10 to 11 and suddenly when opening pdfs it would take atleast a minute and adobe reader would not respond. I applied them changes appears to have fixed it for now. Thanks.

[S. S]

Hi @michael_2376,

Hope you are doing well. Thanks for writing in!

While switching to the Old UI worked for you, would you mind letting us know the type of files you were working with? This would help us investigate the issue further.

Also, if you could share a sample PDF where you experienced this issue would be great.

-Souvik

[JeiT]

I was having the same issues, with the latest version of acrobat. Disabling the security settings worked.

[mtnrunner2]

Akanchha,

Thanks, changing those 2 security settings totally fixed it for me, like night and day; Acrobat is very responsive now. I use Norton security and typically download PDFs from official sources so it should be fine. And hopefully a longer-term solution will be found.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Red Point]

When I start Acrobat (no matter how small the document), the program freezes with a black screen for 20-30 seconds. Then opens normally. Off all the CC apps, Acrobat is currently the least responsive of all my apps. It's very slow and quite honestly, pretty annoying. I am currently using a competitor product to open PDFs when in a hurry.

Please fix.  

[S. S · Accepted solution]

@Red Point Sorry for the experience!

You might want to try the following:

Go to Preferences-> Security (enhanced)-> uncheck the option "Run in AppContainer."

Once done, restart the app.

Let me know if this works.

-Souvik

[ThorstenMUC]

Disabling AppContainer solved my issue on an older notebook (Intel Core i5-8265U) Adobe Reader being painfully slow (>>1min Startup, and again some >30s wait-time for some interaction).

Sounds like some kind of virtualization, which might need hardware-support not present or so?

Runs fine with AppContainer on my newer systems.

[S. S]

@ThorstenMUC We are working with Microsoft on this.

Allow us some time to get this through, and I will update the thread.

-Souvik

[Sunny_Flutter15A7]

Thank you! This worked for me, too. As soon as I disabled it and restarted Acrobat, it was fast.

[S. S]

@Sunny_Flutter15A7 Thanks for sharing the feedback.

-Souvik

[peterd92713239]

thank for your relpy - turning off protected view worked resolve the lag time.

[mcbane998]

I encountered the same issue.  Disabling security seems to resolve the problem, though you have to wonder what the hazard is that results from that configuration change.  I would post my exact version number but that isnt available within the app.