Adobe Acrobat Freezing constantly.

[Rodney34355046q1uf]

Over the last few days, everytime I and a few other Adobe Acrobat users just open the app, it hangs and we need to wait for it to respond. Sometimes it works, but it is unpredictable. This was not an issue last week. I have updated to the newest version via updates yet it still happens. I paused virus scanning w/o any improvement. 

I also tried to disable enhanded security and protected mode, but that does not seem to help either.

Do you have any suggestions, this is quite annoying. 

[j.calo · Accepted solution]

Adding this setting to our environment (via a GPO) seemed to have resolved our slowness/freezing issues with Acrobat Pro. 

Edit>Preferences>Security enhanced>uncheck "Enable Protected Mode at startup".

A few years ago, we applied this setting to Adobe Reader using a group policy setting. Back then, Adobe Reader was exhibiting slowness and freezing when launching PDFs from one of the financial application that gets used across the enterprise. However, it seems that we never applied this same policy for Acrobat Pro. We noticed this on Thursday, and then updated our policy to include the same reg key for Acrobat Pro. 

These are the reg keys in question that configure the policy:

Path (for Reader): SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockDown
Path (for Acrobat Pro): SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown

Reg Value Type: DWORD
Reg Value Name: bProtectedMode
Reg Value Data: 0

I don't expect this to work for most folks in this thread since it seems that many have already tried, but I wanted to mention it anyways. 

[Jared35141547qmz3 · Accepted solution]

So was able to get the issue resolved after a couple of additional contacts with support. It involved:

- disabling "New Acrobat"

- in Add/Remove programs in Windows, repair any and ALL Microsoft Visual C++ reistributables that allow you, any that don't allow the repair simply remove

- run the Adobe Acrobat repair install

And that's pretty much it. Reboot the computer and it was good to go. Running as fast as it did before all the bugs started popping up. Hope this helps

[TremainEvent]

We have switched software. Acrobat turned into a brick for us. 

[Nin316611376og8]

im in the Architecture idustry and I constantly experience this too and all the acrobat support can do is always ask me to uninstall and reinstall over and over again. Adobe does not seem to care about their customers. Acrobat is more often useless than useful nowadays. 

[Steve37524759h2is]

Yeah, it’s time to switch to other products now Adobe has out used. It’s usefulness as it’s crashes and freezes. Make it non-efficient despite having certain functions we’re moving to something else either blue beam or there’s several other options that read and write PDF files

P. Stephen Long, MD Prop.Line Surveyor

Land Survey Supervisor
Survey Group
3D Scan Data Manager - McP3DSETI

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[shabbir291]

Just give it a try

[douglas34384451zb7p]

happening to me too, just started this week

[maryanns96133176]

Same problem here and same troubleshooting steps.  Happening on a good few of our users.

[IT02u4ijfdfa]

We're having the exact same issue - dozens of reports. I've gotten some prelimary information that the issues may have some correlation with Outlook being open - possibly the Actrobat Outlook plugin?

[Nicky265666147l7y]

I totally just closed out Outlook and it worked!  

[Robert30843443rp6y]

It is indeed Outlook! Close Outlook, reboot... product works.  Some slowness... but at least it doesn't entirely freeze. Definitely close Outlook.

[j.calo]

We have users who are also experiencing freezing. It seems to be isolated to Acrobat Pro and not Adobe Reader.

Users have been running one of these two builds:

23.008.20421

23.006.20380

[j.calo · Accepted solution]

Adding this setting to our environment (via a GPO) seemed to have resolved our slowness/freezing issues with Acrobat Pro. 

Edit>Preferences>Security enhanced>uncheck "Enable Protected Mode at startup".

A few years ago, we applied this setting to Adobe Reader using a group policy setting. Back then, Adobe Reader was exhibiting slowness and freezing when launching PDFs from one of the financial application that gets used across the enterprise. However, it seems that we never applied this same policy for Acrobat Pro. We noticed this on Thursday, and then updated our policy to include the same reg key for Acrobat Pro. 

These are the reg keys in question that configure the policy:

Path (for Reader): SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockDown
Path (for Acrobat Pro): SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown

Reg Value Type: DWORD
Reg Value Name: bProtectedMode
Reg Value Data: 0

I don't expect this to work for most folks in this thread since it seems that many have already tried, but I wanted to mention it anyways. 

[craigg15814085]

This solved the issue for me. Thank you!

[Cathy McInnis]

This worked for me!  Thanks!

[bradleyj10479271]

This worked for me as well

[Torquil1945]

This seems to have worked. Thank you. Fingers crossed.

[A.Ozel]

This is worked like a charm. Thank you so much.

[tylers54271005]

Worked perfectly as a direct add to the registry on a non-domain joined machine for my client.

[Jennifer34857374ldmi]

Do we need to turn this setting on or off? I have this turned on and my adobe freezes constantly! 

[j.calo]

The registry setting in my post will turn off Protected Mode on Startup. 

Setting bProtectedMode to "0" will turn off Protected Mode on startup. If the policy is not set, then the setting is as the user's discretion. If it is set to 1, then it will be forcefully enabled. 

[Carrie35216485yblh]

oh em gee! thank you so much for this, it worked after trying everything else recommended this worked.

[oscar_3147]

Hi Everyone. This solution is working. I just followed the route and unchecked the option. Edit>Preferences>Security enhanced>uncheck "Enable Protected Mode at startup". 

Thank you!

[Cathy McInnis]

did that.  no difference.........

[sandy_0911]

Unchecking "Enable Protected Mode at startup" fixed Adobe going to "Not responding" when I open a file.

I tried other fixes that did not help:

1) Adobe cleaner, reboot, install acrobat reader - did not help

2) Preferences, Signatures, Verification, uncheck Verify, require cert, use epired - also did not help

[przone]

I am getting it with the latest version of PhotoShop as well - REALLY annoying

[josephc83792183]

This fixed mine as well. Thank you!