Permanently disable Adobe Collab Sync?

[marks22690129]

Is there a way to permanently disable Adobe Collaboration Synchronizer?

For reasons beyond my control I am not allowed to use cloud storage. The Collab Sync process holds files open, meaning I often cannot regenerate a PDF file if I've viewed the previous version of this file in Acrobat. 

I can get around this by using task manager to shut down the Collab Sync process, but it's a pain to keep doing this.

I found a different solution which was to locate and delete the AdobeCollabSync.exe file - which works for a while. But Creative Cloud is constatnly pushing updates which include reinstalling this file.

I'm looking for a permanent solution to eliminate this process.

[defaulty8qhobf8w3hv · Accepted solution]

I worked with an adobe tech. AdobeCollabSync was locking my file even when I closed it and caused other processes to not work correctly, such as deleting the file.

This worked and I havent had an issue since: He had me delete "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\FullTrustNotifier.exe" and "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\AdobeCollabSync.exe"

[XO_billmichael]

AS A LONG TIME USER OF ACROBAT (20+ YEARS) I CAN TELL YOU ADOBE KNOWS ABOUT THIS PROBLEM AND THEY DON'T CARE. ADOBE WANTS YOU TO INSTALL THEIR PRODUCT AND NOTHING WILL WORK RIGHT UNTIL YOU DO. I WAS DOING JUST FINE WITH ACROBAT PRO 2020 UNTIL ONE DAY I COULD NO LONGER DO "PREVIEWS" IN WINDOWS 11 EXPLORER. AFTER MUCH ANGST I DISCOVERED I MUST HAVE ACROBAT READER INSTALLED EVEN THOUGH I DON'T NEED OR WANT IT. MY PEEVE IS THERE IS NO LONGER A PERPETUAL VERSION OF ACROBAT PRO AS EVERYTHING ACROBAT OFFERS NOW IS ONLY AVAILABLE ON A RENTAL BASIS AND EVERYTHING CONNECTS TO THE ADOBE CLOUD WHICH, AGAIN, I DON'T WANT. AS SOON AS ANOTHER COMPANY RELEASES A COMPETITOR TO ACROBAT PRO 2020, WITH CATALOG INDEXING, I AM GONE. I HAVE NEVER GROWN SO MUCH TO HATE A SOFTWARE COMPANY AS I HAVE ADOBE AND I WILL NOT REWARD THEM WITH MORE OF MY MONEY.

[panorama2]

I'm a multi-decade long Adobe user (many progreams) and think the company is a virus at this point.

This collab file prevents Outlook from working correctly, sends the CPU usage sky high, and is such an unnecessary thing. Personally, I'm hoping Adobe meets an extremely ugly end soon. It's a toxic scourge of a company and everything they do is from a "customer be damned" perspective.

[tdhofstetter]

Interesting. Adobe permits me to reply but not to upvote.

[peter_kyler]

Thanks Bro! 

It was useful for me;

 I appreciate you, as long as life lasts! I wish you the best in life..!

[kt2656]

Your instructions do not work. Stand-alone Win 11 Acrobat DC (whatever the latest version is), no cloud service, no collaboration or sync ever needed. Logging into Adobe and changing the sync setting unchecks the pref, but the sync service still starts up when Acrobat launches. Adding bNeedSynchronizer to the registry does not stop it either. Renaming the .exe file only works until the next update. Do I have to disable updates to get this thing to permanently die? What a PITA.

[BuzzCats333]

Perhaps finding another basic PDF reader would be in order?  Ask an A.I. engine (Twitter-X Grok, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, etc...to help you out.

[kt2656]

Problem solved by uninstalling Acrobat. 🙂

[tdhofstetter]

You actually have to disable quite a lot of stuff to make it die. You have to delete files and reclaim permissions to the directory so Adobe can't just replace them when you turn your back. It's a whole lot of trouble to go through.

[iudith_0973]

Hello,
I tried to follow the above steps for disabling the sync servies, but it is not possible.
I have no [MENU] option at all at the top left of the screen, I just have an horizontal menu line and the [Help] option does NOT have any entry for signing in ...

On the [Edit] -> [Preferences], the "Adobe Online Services" does NOt appear, already since I added the entry 
HKLM/SOFTWARE/Policies/Adobe/Adobe Acrobat/DC/FeatureLockDown/cServices

bUpdater = 0.
In the past, this entry was enough to cancel the appearance of the SYNC *.exe processes,
but it does not any more.
Also, adding 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\Workflows
bNeedSynchronizer = 0
has no effect, even after a machine restart.

The 2 copies of AdobeCollabSync.exe still continue to appear, and they DO NOT disappear
even after closing the Acrobat Reader completely.
They can only be killed from the Task Manager, but then they reappear when I open any PDF file.
Isn't really any way to get rid of all this stuff, except using a different PDF reader 😞 ?

I can even think of reinstalling one of the much, much older versions, which were much more solid
and stable.
Is this the only way to go ?

Thanks a lot in advance,
Iudith Mentzel

[S. S]

Hi @iudith_0973,

Thanks for the response.

To achieve the workflow you are looking for, Acrobat Online services need to be stopped too. 

To know more on how to disable them, you can reference to https://adobe.ly/4m0hDhb

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Souvik.

[iudith_0973]

Hello Souvik,
Following your link, I added the following 6 keys to the registry, here:

HKLM/SOFTWARE/Policies/Adobe/Adobe Acrobat/DC/FeatureLockDown/cServices

bBoxConnectorEnabled 
bDropboxConnectorEnabled 
bGoogleDriveConnectorEnabled  
bOneDriveConnectorEnabled  
bToggleDocumentCloud 
bToggleWebConnectors

and set all the values to 0.

But, this does not help, the AdobeCollabSync.exe still continues to appear each time I open a PDF file and DOES NOT disappear when the Acrobat Reader is closed  !!!

I also found another registry key that seems to be related to this EXE,
namely , under

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/PrefRef/Windows/index.html
choosing AVTracker,   then key "bLoadOnStart"

which is described as follows:
"When enabled, AdobeCollabSync.exe runs on application startup. This process is used for features like shared reviews and forms data collection . Possible values include:

• 0: Start the process.
• 1: Don't start the process.

It is a little weird that, differently from other keys, 0 means "yes" and 1 means "no".
But, anyway, I tried both values and none of them helps either ...

The only thing that makes this EXE go away is using "brute force", aka renaming the file ...

This problem started on July 16, when many of the EXE files in the Adobe folders were replaced, probably during an automatic update ...
And, as I understand from others, the file will probably be put back on the next update ...

It is not clear to me why can't we have a simple preference setting to disable all these features, even more so if we only use Acrobat as a READER, on an individual desktop machine, with no editing and no collaboration activity of any kind.

I don't think that having to tweak around with the files themselves and editing the registry
is somthing that could be demanded from a simple end-user, who is not familiar with software internals ...

All that I can think about at this moment is to disable the update service and scheduled task, to avoid future surprises ...

If not for the multiple tab feature, I would go as far as installing a much older version
( like version 9 , from the pre-Java era ), which was much more stable ...

Thanks a lot & Best Regards,
Iudith

[S. S]

Hi @iudith_0973,

Completely understand your point.

Please feel free to write about it here: https://adobe.ly/4kXZoHE to ensure it reaches the development team for review and future changes.

Regards,
Souvik.

[XO_billmichael]

AS A LONG TIME USER OF ACROBAT (20+ YEARS) I CAN TELL YOU ADOBE KNOWS ABOUT THIS PROBLEM AND THEY DON'T CARE. ADOBE WANTS YOU TO INSTALL THEIR PRODUCT AND NOTHING WILL WORK RIGHT UNTIL YOU DO. I WAS DOING JUST FINE WITH ACROBAT PRO 2020 UNTIL ONE DAY I COULD NO LONGER DO "PREVIEWS" IN WINDOWS 11 EXPLORER. AFTER MUCH ANGST I DISCOVERED I MUST HAVE ACROBAT READER INSTALLED EVEN THOUGH I DON'T NEED OR WANT IT. MY PEEVE IS THERE IS NO LONGER A PERPETUAL VERSION OF ACROBAT PRO AS EVERYTHING ACROBAT OFFERS NOW IS ONLY AVAILABLE ON A RENTAL BASIS AND EVERYTHING CONNECTS TO THE ADOBE CLOUD WHICH, AGAIN, I DON'T WANT. AS SOON AS ANOTHER COMPANY RELEASES A COMPETITOR TO ACROBAT PRO 2020, WITH CATALOG INDEXING, I AM GONE. I HAVE NEVER GROWN SO MUCH TO HATE A SOFTWARE COMPANY AS I HAVE ADOBE AND I WILL NOT REWARD THEM WITH MORE OF MY MONEY.

[tdhofstetter]

I did the full deletion thing outlined in my post above, with permissions altered... and now Acrobat works just fine. No CollabSync. They don't like it, but what - me worry?