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

[gspice1980]

Hi @tobym, I have seen this issue as well.  On mine it was caused by a signature issue, however it was possible to clear the dialougue by pressing the esc key and I could then get back into acrobat.

The difference was that I only saw the"spinning box" come up when I tried certify a document, so it may not be the same issue.

For the amount of money we pay per user per month for acrobat, some of the bugs that seem to go unfixed is bad.

[michaeld41589159]

Can confirm we are having these issues across the board on every CC installation. Adobe Reader is freezing up at load or closing and often cannot open multiple PDFs without crashing. The problem is spilling over to peripheral apps like Illustrator and Photoshop. I have seen improvement after disabling new Acrobat, turning off Enhanced Security, and running a repair.

[michaeld41589159]

correction - meant on Acrobat Standard (not Reader)

[networka45947651]

We're having the same issues. 3 of our users have reported the freezing already. Any permanent fix???

[networka45947651]

Happening on v 23.006.20380

[MatsGunnarsson]

Don't remember where I found this bu it helped for me. My Acrobat have been freezing and crashing for about a week now. These steps fixed it for me.

1. Edit>Preferences>General>uncheck "Show online storage when saving files"
2. Edit>Preferences>Security enhanced>uncheck "Enable Protected Mode at startup".
Restart Acrobat.

If that doesn't work.
Help>Repair installation

[Amal.]

Hi All

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out.

Would you mind collecting the Crash/freeze logs https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/collect-logs-crash-freeze.html and share them via any cloud storage. Just upload the log file to the cloud and generate the link and share that link with us for further investigation.

Regards

Amal

[gnomedog]

Acrobat crashing sometimes, very slow when it does work, hanging and having to close it in Task Manager and restart.  I live in Acrobat all day to process bills, pulling pages out of the docs, and this is seriously affecting my productivity.  I've uninstalled, reinstalled, run the repair numerous times, tried every suggestion offered here and still isn't working. Please get this fixed!

[Bailey34552160n04k]

Happening to us too.  Adding this in hopes that they'll put in a patch with the next update...

[Brent27625313cta3]

Also happening to us, several users within the org are having this issue.  The only thing that has worked has been disabling Protected Mode at startup.  So here we are disabling a security feature to get Adobe Acrobat working correctly...  Not a fan!  We have rebuilt and completely reinstalled Windows on certain machine and the issue still rears its head.  How is this an issue on completely fresh Windows OS & Adobe Acrobat installs?

[Brent27625313cta3]

Also happening to us, several users within the org are having this issue.  The only thing that has worked has been disabling Protected Mode at startup.  So here we are disabling a security feature to get Adobe Acrobat working correctly...  Not a fan!  We have rebuilt and completely reinstalled Windows on certain machine and the issue still rears its head.  How is this an issue on completely fresh Windows OS & Adobe Acrobat installs?

[Amal.]

Hi there

Hope you are doing well and sorry for the trouble.

Would you mind collecting the Crash/freeze logs https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/collect-logs-crash-freeze.html and share them via any cloud storage so we can investigate the issue for the fix. Just upload the log file to the cloud and generate the link and share that link with us for further investigation.

Regards

Amal

[Edited Response]

[Alex32659157oe38]

I would love to! 

Except I can't. Acrobat will not load a log after having to force close the application from task manager.

Is this really the best answer Abode has?

[michael brandwein]

Dear Amal: I am a subscriber who teaches customer service nationally. Please understand that this comment is presented with respect--When you work for a company that is providing a high cost product that is not working and costing your customer time and aggravation, it is best to begin your reply with a simple apology followed by a commitment to communicate what you find out to customers as soon as possible. "Hi there" is not acceptable. Better: "I am so sorry that you are having difficulties and (restate the issue so we know this is not a generic response) this will be investigated by our team immediately. It would be helpful if you could provide the following information to help us research this... (provide link.) I promise to post here on a daily basis with the status of our work on this problem. Again, please accept my apologies, and be assured this will be my top priority. Thank you."

[Lisa345733857m3m]

Everyone at our company and my daughter's law firm is having this issue. Adobe, you have a real problem that may be related to recent updates on Windows 10 and later with which you are not now compatiable. It is a huge productivity issue. Please address the group regarding when you are going to resolve this issue. I would suggest you send an email  out to all your subscribers, as the issue in my case and many others with whom I am speaking is that bad. 

[Alex32659157oe38]

This is Adobe we're talking about; they'd rather take our money every month and release unoptimized garbage and tell us to "figure it out". I'll be SHOCKED if this is fixed, or they actually communicate with their customers. 

Shame to see this company's downfall, but at this point I don't feel bad anymore. 

[Bridget34327285vr0h]

We are all experiencing this issue in my firm. We used Acrobat reguarly for converting, organising, editing and protecting documents and this is really impacting our work times. We have tried all the suggested solutions re protected mode and reinstallations but the problem persists. This needs a quick fix or we will need to look for another solution. 

[Nicholas K]

We've already found another solution, if it's not resolved within 1 month we will be permanently sticking to the alternative

[woe-is-me]

do tell please

[Dianne at Allegra]

Same problem. Started happening occasionally a month or so ago and has gotten steadily worse the last 2 weeks. Very Frustrating! Thanks for those who have posted solutions - ADOBE - how about a FIX???

[Amal.]

Hi there,

I appreciate you reaching out, and I understand that experiencing issues can be frustrating. I'm here to assist you in resolving this matter.

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you're experiencing. I know technical issues can be inconvenient. However, your cooperation in collecting and sharing the crash/freeze logs will greatly help us in understanding the issue and finding a solution tailored to your situation.

To make this process as smooth as possible for you, please follow the instructions provided in the link (https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/collect-logs-crash-freeze.html) to collect the necessary logs. Once you've done that, feel free to upload the log file to any cloud storage of your choice (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.)

After uploading, please generate a shareable link and share it with us. This will enable our team to investigate the issue thoroughly and work towards a fix.

~Amal

[Rajendra21907769u181]

Hi Amal

I am not sure why you want others to do the job for you. Adobe should have self analysing tools being the biggest mega ssoftware provider. The whole internet is libve with this stupid problem. I am looking for alternate products as Adobe seems to care less for customers. It has been more than a month and you still want to collect data. Have you guys worked out a fix to the freezing problem and where can I find it?

[Amal.]

Hi there,

Please update the application to the latest version 23.08.20470 from the help menu > check for updates and reboot the computer once and see if that works.

~Amal

[Scott26155732ejm9]

Seeing this same issue at several clients

[CorbyB838]

all clients at our office are experiencing this issue. Going to try to disable protected mode. Not thrilled to turn off security features, but I am getting a bunch of complaints.