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simonbdoc
New Participant
March 27, 2018
Question

the program crashes when i try to make a reduced pdf

  • March 27, 2018
  • 8 replies
  • 16778 views

Acrobat crashes when i try to make a reduced pdf.

i have used both Save as: reduced file size

and

Save as other: reduced size pdf

it has worked ok a couple of times, but more often than not the program closes itself.

    8 replies

    Charles91
    Charles91
    Known Participant
    June 4, 2025

    Same issue 2025.

    work on some pdf, and not other for unknown reason.

    90MB fail to compress..

    Any idea?

    CC

    Amal.
    Community Manager
    Amal.Community Manager
    Community Manager
    July 21, 2025

    Hi there 

     

    We hope you are doing well. Thanks for reaching out. We are sorry for the trouble you are experiencing.

     

    As described, it works for some PDFs but not for others. It seems to be an issue with the PDF file. Would you mind sharing the PDF file in question so we can check it at our end? 

     

    Also go through the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/optimizing-pdfs-acrobat-pro.html and see if that helps.

     

     

     

     

    J
    jason22502340145l
    New Participant
    January 4, 2022

    Bump.

     

    I am just trying to reduce the size of a file that is only 34.1MB, and it crashes.

      A
      Anonymous
      January 4, 2022

      The only solutions i have found are these:

      • use a third party website (if you are using the free option they will keep your files for 24 hours and that is a no-no in my case).  
      • use the online Adobe compression tool. I've found that it works about 60% or 70% of the time: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/acrobat/compress-pdf/ 

      That is my only choice and I have been getting decent results.

      Good luck!

        J
        jason22502340145l
        New Participant
        January 4, 2022

        This is the reason why I bump... I posted and literally 10 minutes later I had my answer. AWESOMESAUCE!

        D
        defaulthwld96iv1z9p
        New Participant
        April 3, 2021

        Same here

         

        tried reducing file size of 200mb doc and just keeps crashing. 

        A
        Anonymous
        December 9, 2020

        And guess what?  I downloaded the same 130MB file into an old computer that has Acrobat Pro X. 
        Saved as Reduced PDF and it took about 4 minutes to produce a 68MB file.  No errors. No crashing.  So this means that in order to reduce the size of my big files I am going to have to use an unsupported version in another computer???? 
        Supper disppointed.

          A
          Anonymous
          December 8, 2020

          Brand new installed program, Adobe Pro 2020 for Windows 10. 
          The very first thing I tried was reducing the size of a file and ... crash crash crash crash.  I have separated the file into two, and it did it again. This is so obnoxious!!! 

          S
          Shimon30358545514f
          New Participant
          June 7, 2023

          I've also been having trouble optimizing databooks recently, and I noticed it was just recent submissions from one vendor. I split one of the databooks up, and optimized one piece at a time. I was able to optimize some but not one piece. I split the problematic part again into several files, and was again able to optimize all but one. I finally narrowed it down to one page that the vendor recently added to their databook template. I don't know why this one page causes the optimization to fail, but I removed it and was able to now optimize the whole file, and then added the one page back into the optimized PDF. I then tried optimizing another similar databook. I removed the page in this second databook that caused the trouble in the first databook, and was able to optimize and add the page back just fine. So now I know what page to avoid optimizing. I wish Adobe would throw some sort of exception with some helpful error code instead of just crashing the program with no information though.

          So for those having trouble with optimizing your PDFs, do the files that crash the optimization have anything in common? Are you dealing with a lot of files that have a lot of similar repeat information? Try optimizing a totally random PDF that has nothing in common with the typical PDFs that crash and see if that works. Split a problem file up into multiple smaller files and check if there is just a page or small set of pages in the mix that may be causing the trouble. You may then find that the problem page is also part of the other files giving you trouble and be able to optimize your files and avoid the crashing. Hopefully this helps someone.

          J
          jne.kat
          New Participant
          September 22, 2020

          I've been having the same problem for a long time, now.  I did all the suggested fixes and nothing.  (Side complaint) I wish there was an alternative to adobe, any time I try to use a feature the app prompts me to pricing for an upgrade and yet I can't do this simplest function with what I'm paying for.  It is totally unclear what features are included for 180$/year. 

          D
          dmdavidson
          New Participant
          July 29, 2020

          I am having the same trouble for a couple of days now.  I'd love to know what the fix is

          AnandSri
          Community Manager
          AnandSriCommunity Manager
          Community Manager
          March 27, 2018

          Hello Simonbdoc,

          We apologize for the inconvenience caused, as per the description above, Acrobat is crashing while reducing a PDF, Is that correct?

          Please check for any pending updates of Acrobat from help>check for updates, restart the machine after installing updates.

          Try resetting the preferences of Acrobat, to reset the preferences refer to How to reset Acrobat Preference settings to default.

          Try repairing the Acrobat from help>repair installation(only for Windows), reboot the machine after repairing the Acrobat.

          If the issue still persists, please share the following details:

          Let us know how it goes and share your findings.

          Regards,

          Anand Sri.

          S
          simonbdocAuthor
          New Participant
          March 28, 2018

          i am working on a newly reinstalled version of the program.

          mac

          version 2018.011.20038

          crashes on attempt to reduce any pdf

            AnandSri
            Community Manager
            AnandSriCommunity Manager
            Community Manager
            June 6, 2018

            Hello Simonbdoc,

            Sorry for the delayed response and inconvenience caused. Please install the latest patch of Adobe Acrobat from help>check for updates, reboot the machine after updating the Acrobat and see if this brings any difference.

            You can also download and install the latest patch of Acrobat from DC Release Notes — Release Notes for Acrobat DC Products

            let us know how it goes with the latest update.

            Regards,

            Anand Sri.

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