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

View solution in original post

Report · Nov 29, 2019

Remove it and Install Foxit PDF Reader

Report · Mar 23, 2020

dgdeepak64@gmail.com

Report · Feb 13, 2021

I'm having similar issues with Adobe acrobat reader DC stalling or freezing up when opening a file. What worked for me is right clicking on the desktop icon and go to properties. Then click the compatibility tab and select Windows 7 from the drop down. That worked for me.

Report · Feb 14, 2021

That is actually a great workaround. That is why that feature exists in Ms Windows.

Report · Jan 12, 2024

I tried all the solutions until I came to this solution and it really worked for me.

THANKS!

Report · Feb 17, 2021

Hello, I followed advice in the this thread and turned off Signature Verification upon opening and that eliminated the annoying 10-second freeze upon opening a PDF in Adobe Acrobat. If you then want to sign (which I do from time to time), the application will freeze for a few seconds before allowing me to select my signature. Fixed!

Report · Mar 16, 2021

Have the latest version of everything. Tried all the solutions in the thread, nothing helped. Still freezes on open and while using it.

Report · Nov 17, 2021

Same here, I recently upgraded to a 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700K and since then Acrobat freezes everytime straigt after opening a file. The problem is constantly occuring and can be reproduced every time I open Acrobat. Also when opening Acrobat without a file, it freezes when loading the preview of all the documents within the "last used"-start screen.

Report · Oct 26, 2021

Im having the same issue. When I try to digitallys sign a document, the screen goes grey and Acrobat stops responding. The only way to get it to close is to use ctrl/alt/del and close Acrobat from there.

Report · Feb 08, 2022

I'm having similar issues with Adobe Acrobat DC stalling or freezing up when opening a file. What worked for me is right clicking on the desktop icon and go to properties. Then click the compatibility tab and select Windows 8 from the drop down. That worked for me

Report · Jun 29, 2022

29th June 2022 - I'm getting the same problem. 8 second hang every time I open, or try to open a PDF. It only started a week or so ago, and may (or may not) have come after a Windows 10 update. I've tried uninstall and re-install. Problem persists. Hey Adobe please can you take a look and provide a fix (again) - this is literally costing me money - on top of my CC subscription fee.

Report · Oct 26, 2022

Same for me....

suddenly startet.

I tried cleaner tool - reinstalled - nothing.

I cant go to settings or anything it instantly freezes after opening

Report · Oct 26, 2022

If you ever are able to get into your Acrobat Preferences, try my answer on this thread:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/acrobat-pro-dc-constantly-freezing/m-p/13217905

Report · Oct 26, 2022

To all concerned,

I've seen this behavior occur a few times on Microsoft Windows 10 but not as much as with Windows 11.

I've observed that, soon after an unattended update installs through the operating system (not through the Adobe Acrobat's service updater background process), a system process that is labeled

<Unknown> creates itself as a User account with full read/write access over the Adobe Acrobat user folders and PDF files.

You can try and see for yourself if this is happening.

Right-click on the "Adobe Acrobat DC" shortcut icon, select "Properties"; in the Adobe Acrobat DC Properties" dialogue window that will open up, select the "Security" tab.

Note in the "Group or user names:" section it should only appear listed:

SYSTEM
Administrators
INTERACTIVE
or any current user accounts that you've created when you first installed Windows, for example

When you click once, to select a Group or a user name from that list, the permissions will be displayed in the next section "Permissions for".

NOTE if your user account's permissions appear greyed out and only allowing:

Read & Execute
Read

If it is, try changing those attributes to "Full control".

If you're not able to adjust this for your own user account while you're signed in with that current user account, you may need sign out and do it with the Administrator account (provided that this configuration setting is not controlled/blocked by your organization).

In addition, when you sign in as Adminsitrator note also that these settings shouldn't appear greyed out.

You should be able to click on the "Edit..." button to change those permissions.

And this is the tricky part:

If your current user accounts appear greyed out and inaccessible when you're using the Administrator account, and you also notice that <Unknown> has full read/write control but none of your other user accounts, delete those <Unknown> accounts.

A reboot may be required to verify that these changes stayed commited and to verify that this weird system process doesn't recreates itself again during boot up.

The way I fixed this on my end, was by uninstalling the Adobe Acrobat Pro completely, then using the Adobe Labs Cleaner tool before reinstalling and manually cleaning some temp folders and chache folders (including the Acrobat hidden folders in the Appdata directory)

Then I reinstalled Adobe Acrobat from the Administrator account, and granted full control to each of my legitimate user accounts.

So far, it has remained with no issues, but I have to constantly keep an eye on Windows unattended updates to see what is triggering these <Unknown> system processes that act as if they are legitimate user accounts in these security settings.

Report · Nov 22, 2022

And why do we need to go through all this?

Let's change this bad software!

I have been suffering this problem for long time and it is extremely annoying.

Report · Nov 22, 2022

Any suggestion of a better replacement please ?

Report · Nov 22, 2022

And why do I even care to come here to try and help people with their software issues everyday (FOR FREE!) ?

I think we share the same frustration.

Report · Nov 22, 2022

I have read through the entire exchange of claims and notes. Those people don't even talk to us.

Report · Jan 04, 2023

I have been having similar issues for several years now. It intermitently freezes up every few seconds endlessly. Since I noticed that, I have changed systems, updated the app several times and even changed my computer for a better one, and the issue is still the same.

I think it's some kind of connectivity issue. What I do is close through the Task Manager most connectivity tasks running (Acrobat tasks relating to synching, updates and even the Creative Cloud app). Then I can use it.

It's infuriating.

Report · Jan 04, 2023

Have you tried the solution on this thread?...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/acrobat-pro-dc-constantly-freezing/m-p/13427342

Report · Apr 14, 2023

I just tried the part there abotu disabling protected mode on startup - so far it seem to ahve resolved the issue for me. Lets see.

Oh and bny the way the "suggested solution" on the top of this page is absurd - it is not a solution but rather a "dont do this" warning.

Report · May 15, 2024

Same issue in april 2024. Before, Adobe Reader reported some internal problem for some time. I hope that .pdf becomes more emacipate from Adobe.

Report · May 16, 2024

Hi there

Hope you are doing well and sorry to hear that

Is this an issue with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs? Please try with a different PDF file and check. If the file is stored on a shared network/drive please download it to your computer locally and then try again.

What is the version of the OS and the Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version go to Help > About Acrobat and make sure you have the recent version 24.02.20759 installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

Also try to repair the installation from the help menu (Win Only) and see if that works.

Please try to reset the Acrobat preferences as described here https://adobe.ly/3yifIQO

~Amal

Regards
Amal