Disappearing icons in Acrobat X toolbar

Report · Jan 23, 2011

Hey,

Anyone encountered this? I'm trying out Acrobat X, love the clean interface; a pity though they did not adopt the slider bar for zoom.

About every few hours or so, the some icons on the toolbar will disappear, leaving a black hole or just the gray background. If I continue using Acrobat, it will eventually hang. I'll have to restart the PC, and eventually face the same problem again.

This is a screenshot (before things got worse):

You can see that a number of icons are gone. The ones I missed are the hand and the highlight tool

Then it hangs:

Thanks,

Jay

Report · Feb 25, 2011

SimonATS,

Reference original post by qhumdinger, this is exactly what I get, I too have provided all the tech specs for this computer, but here is the screen shot. Also I have a question about Forum settings, who do I talk to privately or on email?

Report · Feb 28, 2011

Question to all with this issue,

before the icons dissappear have you been scrolling through ht eopen pdf files using the mouse scroll wheel?

And possibly also have the search field open (CTRL-F) in at least one of the open pdf files?

Report · Feb 28, 2011

Definitely have had search field open. Probably also used scroll wheel. I do a large number of searches. Use scroll wheel randomly.

If it is helpful, I have video of last time icons disappeared. Shows icons disappearing under cursor and the task manager info. They may be too large for upload to forum. If so, and you would like to see them, tell me how to upload.

Report · Feb 28, 2011

No need, I can already reproduce this, just wanting to check and make sure everyone else does the same thing.

For now I can only say to use the missing icon (Create button seems to go first) as a que to save your work and restart Acrobat.

And obviously my apologies for the inconvenience this causes.

Report · Feb 28, 2011

Yes to having the search field open.

Create is always the first button to go.

This can be triggered by scrolling, opening another pdf or choosing the print button.

Report · Feb 28, 2011

Congratulations Simon,

I believe you have isolated the cause/ one cause. I opened 2 PDFs. Scrolled up and down, opened the search box, and within 2 minutes the create button was greyed out.

I scroll a lot in my normal usage too, though I use the find box less often. I will continue to observe if the disappearing icons only occur after the find function is used.

Cheers

Jay

Report · Feb 25, 2011

I am having exactly the same problem. Sometime the icons will disappear and I will get the message about an internal error. If I keep clicking ok then I can continue with my work and the icons will start to re-appear if I hover over them with the mouse. However Adobe will fail again and again until finally I have to ctrl+alt+del to kill the program.

I notice no one from Adobe has responded to this forum.

Are they aware of the problem?

Are they just ignoring it hoping the next update will fix it?

Please could someone from Adobe respond so that we know its being dealt with otherwise you leave people with no choice other than downgrading or changing to another software.

Report · Feb 25, 2011

Hi all,

This is just to report that I am having the same problem from my Acrobat X (icons disappearing, program locking up, error messages, etc). I do love the product and all of its nifty feature, and I do not want to revert back; so I am hoping the manufacturer can come up with a solution soon. I have Windows 7, 64.bit, and that is all I can tell you about this system. I am completely illeterate when it comes to computers so I cannot tell you anything else. I not only hope they can figure out this problem soon, but post the solution in a "Acrobat for Dummies" way. Thank you!

Report · Feb 25, 2011

Oh, there is something else I can tell you about my computer: it is a Toshiba laptop. I'm so proud I could figure that out all by myself!

Report · Feb 28, 2011

We (not I) are experiencing the same issue. I have a customer on a Lenovo T400 and another on a Lenovo M58 both running Intel based gpu chipsets/drivers. According to http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405218.html, if I'm reading it correctly, the Intel Q965 Chipset is the only one that is officially supported by Acrobat X. This probably explains why none of my 2D options are available under Edit>Preferences>Page Display or Edit>Preferences>Rendering, or anywhere else under Edit>Preferences. If I have no optiosn to modify my 2D rendering are there any steps I can take to fix this issue?

FYI: I am unable to duplicate the issue. I've tried on a Lenovo T400, X200, and M58 all running Intel GPU Chipsets/drivers. I've had multiple PDF's open using the Find feature and also utilizing the scolling function on as many different types of mice as I could try.

Thank you for all the info alreay posted here and for all future info to come. I'm new to forms and app testing/development so all the help I can get is appreciated.

Report · Feb 28, 2011

As a reply to my own post, I was able to recreate the issue on all models of our Lenovo hardware. (M58 Desktop, and X201, X200, T410, and T400 laptops.) In order to replicate the issue I did what was previously mentioned. I had 5 or so PDF's open. PDF's ranged in size from 5 pages to 500 pages and file size was from a few KB to 20 MB. Each time, the Create PDF button would be the first to go while scrolling. I noticed that if I used the middle scroll wheel as a button and held it down while I moved the mouse up and down, there wasn't an issue. When I scrolled (or rolled) the middle button with my finger up and down in a relatively fast motion, the disappearing icons issue was quickly noticed.

Report · Mar 04, 2011

My two cents:

1) I am seeing this, too. A lot! Even though I have only 2 PDFs open. I did usually make

use the search tool before but I never use the scroll mouse.

2) Even more often I notice that the vertical scroll bar is frozen, i.e., the "cursor" in it

remains stuck at the top no matter which page I am on. It jumps to the right position

if I place the mouse right over the scrollbar. Very annoying that, too, esp. in a long

document.

3) Disabling 2D acceleration has no effect

4) System: Intel Core2 Duo CPU E8400, Nvidia Quadro FX 370, Windows XP SP3

32 bit fully patched; the Nvidia driver is probably not up-to-date, though.

5) The reason so few people are posting is the high barriers you have erected around

the forum: not only we must register but the registration process is interminable

and even *requires* a street address! Some cheek you have.

Report · Mar 06, 2011

Same thing here. I am using multiple monitors. Wonder if that has anything to do with this. But is horrible. once I get the black boxes I know that acrobat is going to crash with no decent way to cleanly shutdown.

I just love the way Adobe provides no feeback, no bug tracking, no way to keep the end user in the loop. Hell, you have to login twice to these forums just to post. Adobe must have hired some real morons. I am getting really sick of their products. Photoshop cs5 has a copy bug, Acrobat has a stability issue with disappearing icons, Flash crashes my chrome browser when I play and then scroll in another tab.

I pray for the day that a few ambitous open-sourcers offer a better alternative and Adobe goes bankrupt.

Report · Mar 10, 2011

I spent two hours on the phone with Adobe support yesterday regarding this issue. There is no known work around and/or resolution at this time. It's officially a bug and engineers are aware of it. Bug number: 2818025 It will be fixed in an update/patch. Although 10.0.1 has been released and it didn't resolve this particular issue. Come on Adobe...we need you! This is one frustrating issue!

Report · Mar 15, 2011

Just wanted to confirm GDC12947 post. That's indeed the bug I logged and it looks like it will be fixed in the 10.1 pending testing and what not.

10.1 is currently scheduled to be released on the 14th of June:

http://blogs.adobe.com/psirt/

Report · Mar 15, 2011

from http://blogs.adobe.com/psirt

Because Adobe Reader X Protected Mode would prevent an exploit of this kind from executing, we are currently planning to address this issue in Adobe Reader X for Windows with the next quarterly security update for Adobe Reader, currently scheduled for June 14, 2011.

=====================

Is the release schedule the same for Adobe Acrobat as Adobe Reader?

Report · Mar 15, 2011

Yes quarterly releases are for both Acrobat and Reader. They have the same schedule. The issue discussed in this thread will be address in the quarterly release.

The blog is about a vulnerability issue which has been found. In essence the forthcoming update will not be for Reader X, as that version comes with the sandbox mode, which prevents the vulnerability.

Report · Mar 10, 2011

Crashed again. It doesn't seem to give you much of a chance to save. such a POS. Does anyone use Foxit? I hear they are 100 times better than Acrobat. How good is their annotation?

Report · Mar 24, 2011

I have the same problem on both desktop and laptop.

Desktop is Dell Vostro 410, Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHz, 4GB, Vista 32 Business SP2 fully patched, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with 2 monitors; Logitech MX 600 Cordless Mouse with scroll wheel

Laptop is Sony Vaio VGN-SZ70WN, Intel Core2 Duo T9300 @ 2.50GHz, 2GB, Vista 32 Business SP2 fully patched, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, no external mouse and no scroll wheel

Crash generally happens after minutes or hours with several PDFs open. I use Find a lot, and typically navigate using the scroll wheel on my desktop and trackpad on my laptop. I usually have Outlook 2007, Word 2007 and IE8 open at the same time

Don't know if this is relevant, but scrolling upwards with the Find box open top right tends to produce a series of blue ghosted rectangles down the right side of the screen.

I spent hours on the phone with Support last month, who thought it was a permissions issue, but they didn’t fix it.

Deeply frustrating and costing me plenty. I've just updated to 10.0.2 but no change. Any chance of a fix quicker than June?

Report · Mar 29, 2011

In partial answer to my own post, and for the benefit of anyone reading this thread before the issue is fixed, here is a workaround: I find no problem arises if I use Advanced Search (Shift+Ctrl+F) instead of Find (Ctrl+F). I can keep the Advanced Search window open indefinitely and scroll as much as I wish, and Acrobat X doesn't crash.

A word of warning though: to search within the current document, be careful to click the radio button at the top of the Advanced Search window and enter the text to be searched in the Advanced Search window text entry field. Do not click "Find a word in the current document" at the bottom of the Advanced Search window as that opens Find, whereupon the demons return and sooner or later the program will crash if you scroll.

Report · Apr 05, 2011

I have been having the exact same problem and this is the first time my Google searching has found anything. It is a relief to know that this is an actual problem, though frustrating to know that there is no answer. I had not connected the problem to the ctrl-f find and mouse scrolling, but in retrospect that is just what I was doing when it happened this time, and it is very likely that it is what typically happens since I am often doing those two things. This is the most maddening problem I have ever come across and I have wasted countless hours of time either searching for a solution, trying to recover from the lost work, reinstalling and/or repairing Acrobat (a ridiculously long process in itself) or generally taking Adobe's name in vain. It has gotten so bad that I actually concluded that my problems must relate to my computer and have purchased a new tablet pc in the hope of fixing it.

Win7 Professional 64-bit, 4GB RAM

HP TC4400 tablet PC

Intel Core2 T5600 1.83 GHZ

Intel Mobile 945 Express Chipset

I don't hold out any hope that Adobe will come up with a solution for this anytime soon, so I will try the suggestion of using shift-ctrl-f instead.

Thanks everyone for posting.

Report · Apr 05, 2011

Or just switch to Foxit. Foxit seems to do almost everything you would want: OCR, PDF Optimization, etc. But you know what the best features is: programmers who know what the hell they're doing .

Report · May 08, 2011

Hi there,

I too have been experiencing this disappearing issue.

I am running:

Acrobat X (10.0.2)

Win XP SP2

Quadro FX580 video card

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU

E6850 @ 3.00 GHz

3.00 GHz, 7.93GB of RAM.

I have been finding in the last week that buttons have been disappearing as I am working, but they come back as I run the mouse over them. Then today, I needed to use the "Find" feature for the first time, and it has started to become more problematic since then.

I thought I would give this information now, and I'll add more pending a driver update for the video card that my IT guy is going to do this afternoon. He said that some of the Engineers have been finding that this particular graphics card does funny things with their displays when they are modelling... but it has improved with a driver update.

This may also be relevant/important to other readers to check.

Report · May 09, 2011

Hi everyone,

I've done some very quick and crude testing to see if I could replicate the behaviour I've been seeing in the last week now that I have updated drivers for my video card.

As yet, I haven't been able to get anything to go wrong...(I'd better be careful not to jinx myself perhaps?!)...

SO... if people come to this thread having trouble still with their version of Acrobat X, from my (limited) experience, it may be worth looking at making sure you have the most recent update for Acrobat, and also the most recent update for video card drivers.

I'll post more if I manage to get it to fall over again!

Talk to you later,

Kristan.

Report · Jun 13, 2011

I'm still having the problem of disappearing tool bar icons even after Adobe updated the app. And it's not just the icons in the toolbar that disappear, sections of Acrobat may become black rectangles and the open document may be displayed as a smear when scrolling or sections of pages may disappear. They generally reappear when the document is scrolled past the missing pages/sections.

The tool bars may display nothing but when I mouse over the tool bar the function label is displayed and can be used, if I remember where it was located or slowly mouse over the tool bar. The icons disappear when I scroll through the only PDF open, come back to the PDF after using another app for a moment, or mouse over the icons. Closing the current document and opening another restores visibility of the disappeared icons, most of the time. The internal error appears to occur when I try to open a second file while one is already open and the tool bar icons are not visible. Internal errors may occur at other times, but this is when I noticed it happening.

Come on Adobe, I understand that the interplay between OS and the apps is complex, but this shouldn't happen. You should have a much more stringent testing program or leave testing open long after realease. This isn't the first time I've suffered from Adobe app flakey behavior.