Adobe Acrobat Pro DC freezes for several seconds after opening a PDF - Windows 10

Report · Feb 22, 2019

Hi Adobe Community,

Anyone have an issue with Adobe Acrobat Pro DC freezing for several seconds after opening a PDF on Windows 10. I tried uninstalling and installing as well and changing a few settings I saw suggested online like reducing the number of documents listed in the history. This problem just started today after having no issues for a long time. I didn't download, install, or update anything today.

Thanks!

Report · Jul 31, 2019

Hi all,

Sorry for the experience and thank you for bringing this to our notice. We appreciate your patience on this.

I would like to mention deleting Acrocef.exe is not an Adobe’s recommended solution or a workaround for this issue. Deleting the process might lead to malfunction of the various features of the product associated with the process. That being said, we are currently tracking this issue and will keep you posted.

You may help us further by providing logs from your machine to investigate it further. For performance-related issues please follow the following steps carefully and help us with the logs:

Logs from task manager:

Launch Adobe Acrobat Pro or Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Launch Task Manager, by right-clicking on the taskbar of the screen and choose Task Manager. Make sure you have the “Processes” tab available/clicked.
When the issue occurs right-click on Acrobat of Reader process to create dump files (screenshot attached)

Step 1: Download the Procmon tool from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

Step 2: launch procmon.exe.

Step 3: Set the below filter in procmon (optional ), do the required steps/ workflow and save the logs in the end.

The process dumps along with procmon logs will help us investigate the issue in detail. Once the logs are available, please upload the log files to either ( Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive or any other cloud option you have) and share the public link with us via private message:

How to send a private message: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1184148?start=0&tstart=0

Tariq Dar

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Report · Mar 21, 2019

I too have this problem appearing. It was on other versions and now it's back again. Very annoying and neither is Adobe being helpful on this.

Report · Mar 23, 2019

I've had this same problem for weeks. Anytime I open an adobe file while an instance of Adobe is not already running, it will freeze for at least 5-10 seconds. Contacted Adobe and they "remoted" into my computer to witness the freezing. However, as part of the remoting, they required elevated privileges. At this point, the freezing quit occurring. It seemingly relates to startup checks (whether online or local) for which most normal Windows 10 users do not have permission.

This problem has been around for a while, and many people are experiencing it. Adobe needs to address this issue promptly. Creating a "hidden" admin account is not a solution.

Report · Mar 26, 2019

The problem is somewhere in the code. Forget antivirus and similar stuff. If you open a large document and once it is opened scroll down with mouse you have no freeze at all. BUT once you stop the mouse Acrobat try to do something that freeze the document for some seconds. So it is something inside the program that is executed once at program start. Indeed if you leave the acrobat opened you have no problem at all on next files

Report · Mar 26, 2019

I would agree. Everything was working fine up till recently and everyone is having the same problem. It's the update, whatever they did.

Report · Mar 28, 2019

I figured that disabling the Sandbox property minimizes freezing.

Goto:

Preferences->Security (Enhanced)->Enable Protected Mode at startup

and disable this feature.

Probably not the best way concerning security but that bloody annoying freezing is almost gone now.

Report · Mar 28, 2019

Thanks, Thomas, that seemed to work for me. Although, my options in Security (Enhanced) were not quite the same as yours. I didn't have protected mode at startup, but I did disable "enable enhanced security" and voila. Windows 10 Pro and latest version of Acrobat DC.

Report · Apr 04, 2019

It started doing it again. Only thing I really did was restart my computer last night. The same security option is un-ticked but the original behavior has returned.

Report · Apr 12, 2019

Same for me ... 😞 and I just restarted my computer as well.

Report · Apr 12, 2019

Sorry for previous no-head-no-tail post ...

I solved the startup freezing problem by applying Thomas's method. It worked for a week and that after one (might be the first) restart if started freezing at startup again. I wanted to say, that I have the same problem as timmerton.

What are your experiances after few restarts?

Report · Mar 29, 2019

Thanks Thomas, this has worked for me too. That annoying freeze is gone now.

Report · Apr 02, 2019

Thanks thomasl71140592, your settings change and a restart did the trick on my Windows 10 and Acorbat DC -- both current versions. My Acrobat DC is not freezeing any more.

Report · Apr 04, 2019

Thomas, you fixed my problem completely. You are a hero.

Report · Jan 04, 2022

Thanks! This solved the problem for me:)

Report · Oct 14, 2022

i look throught everything, Uncheck the Enable Protected Mode at Startup WORKS for me. Thanks thomasl71140592

Report · Apr 04, 2019

my win 10 laptop, no issues. My win 10 desktop, "not responding" as soon as I click on literally anything in the program window.

I can't even try the "fixes" that that has been described in this thread because no matter what I do, it goes into "not responding" mode as soon as I click.....

Report · Apr 12, 2019

Update:

win10 laptop started doing it not long after my initial post...... at least on the laptop it gives me time to go into the settings and remove the signature verification check - so laptop is fixed..... desktop..... not so much

Report · Apr 08, 2019

Same trouble there with Reader DC 2019.010.20098

Removing signature check fix my problème.

Thank you

Report · Apr 16, 2019

Same problem as everyone else. Acrobat DC hangs on launch for 10-20 seconds every time it opens. I disabled enhanced security, and mine still hangs. Very annoying problem for my users, as they open PDF from email all day long, and don't just leave acrobat running all the time. Meaning, they getting the adobe spinning wheel of death 20 times per day.

Windows 10 Pro version 1809

Adobe Acrobat DC 19.010.20100

Report · Apr 16, 2019

I thought about what you posted. So, I figure, open it up and leave it open as I too do this all day long with email and other tasks.

It hangs on launch!

Still waiting....

Report · Apr 16, 2019

I may have a temporary fix - this is working for me:

1) right click the desktop icon for Adobe Acrobat DC, choose "troubleshoot compatibility"

2) choose "troubleshoot program"

3) choose the 3rd option "the program opens but doesn't display correctly", click next

4) choose the 1st & 2nd option: "error message saying the program needs to run in 256....." & "error message....65536", click next

5) click "test program"

6) it will open, options menus look a little funny, but it doesn't crash.

a) while here, go to EDIT-> preferences -> security (enhanced), un-check "Enable Enhanced Security" so it is off

7) go back to the troubleshooter, click next

8) choose: "yes, save these settings for this program"

and then it should work without crashing.... hopefully.....works for me, for now... good luck everyone

Report · Apr 16, 2019

#5 does not come up as 'test program' but as restart. Not sure if it's a different version?

I did find a second icon and deleted that. (I file infrequently used shortcuts in a folder and now recall reinstalling as an attempt to fix so I ended up with two. Perhaps this was my personal issue? We'll see shortly.)

Report · Apr 17, 2019

OK, my Adobe is the Pro version. That may explain why it is different. I'll have to give this a try.

Report · Apr 17, 2019

I just tried and it is not quite that easy to do. I had such a change in my view, as I use two monitors, that I ended up restoring to an older version and after a few moments of complete darkness and chaos I believe I'm back to normal. I didn't panic...lol. But let's see if anything improved.

Report · Apr 17, 2019

I have tried all the previous suggestions.

They all seem to work, but only for a few time.

After several opening the problem remains.

Report · Apr 17, 2019

Restoring to a previous version...back in February...seems to have helped but as noted by danielp68887195 I would not be surprised if after the next update it acts up again. Adobe needs to 'fix' this.