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kims24994979
New Participant
August 23, 2018
Question

Acrobat Reader DC will not open on Windows 10.

  • August 23, 2018
  • 16 replies
  • 149175 views

Hi ,

I have windows 10 and acrobat reader DC.  Acrobat will not open, just spins and then stops.  PDFs will not open unless I open through email.  I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling, I have tried trouble shooting.  not sure what else to do.  I have read other threads that suggest opening Acrobat and changing settings but I cannot even open to get to settings.

Thanks

      This topic has been closed for replies.

      16 replies

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      philip35048120151o
      New Participant
      January 26, 2024

      I had this same problem for ages but what I did to rectify the issue was to open regedit and delete everything I could find that was adobe related then reinstalled adobe reader now it works fine again no issues whatsoever.

      K
      Kevin27569540jdxh
      New Participant
      December 14, 2022

      Does anyone have an update on this by any chance?

      I'm having the exact same problem i.e. I'm running Windows 10 and I'm unable to open pdf's directly from folders.

      I did finally manage to get Adobe Reader itself to open by opening it in unprotected mode with compatibility set to Windows 8. (I'm not sure which of these is allowing me to open Adobe by the way!)

      And I can then open pdf's from there. But this is really quite inconvenient. You don't have to open Word first before opening a Word file do you?

      I've had Microsoft run all of their truoble shooting techniques and I've uninstalled / re-installed Adobe Reader several times now. But with no positive result (other than to waste a lot of time).

      Any further solutions / suggestions would be most welcome otherwise it will be time for me to bin Adobe as a pdf reader.

      D
      Davian242818205iln
      New Participant
      December 14, 2022

      Did you try my method of fixing the issue?

      K
      Kevin27569540jdxh
      New Participant
      December 14, 2022

      I can't find a file named 'Pfxengagement' anywhere. So I can't commnet on that method.

      D
      Davian242818205iln
      New Participant
      May 2, 2022

      I found that deleting the PfxEngagementx.api file under Adobe installation folder then running a repair resolved the issue.

      mollykitti
      mollykitti
      Known Participant
      April 16, 2022

      I had this same problem and none of the prescribed troubleshooting worked for me either.  I tried every solution I could find on the internet, even some of the sketchy sounding turn off all your security suggestions - nothing.  Compatability mode and admin mode did nothing.  The "are you friggin' kidding me" fix ended up having to do with the uninstall/reinstall.  When I selected "I have a serial number" option, it came up with a serial number which I confirmed on my Adobe account was correct, but the reinstall never worked.  Finally, I deleted and re-typed this serial number.  Suddenly everything works fine.  No admin, compatability mode, regedits, etc needed.  Why would anyone think to re-type a serial number that's already there?!?  Seems like Adobe could save their customers a lot of headache, by either fixing this or at least explaining this.

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      Petr238100450j53
      New Participant
      March 29, 2022

      This thread is about two years old, but is there any working solution? I have new win10 installation with all updates, new version of Adobe Acrobat reader DC installed. Program is running in compatibility mode, but only when I run the program directly. But when I want to click on my PDF nothing happends. There is DC proccess in task manager, but DC wont start. I tried to uninstall-clear-reinstall but nothing helps. Any suggestions?

      Meenakshi Negi
      Community Manager
      Meenakshi NegiCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      March 30, 2022

      Hi Petr,

       

      Thank you for reaching out, and sorry about the trouble.

       

      Please try to remove the application and run the cleaner tool (https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/cleaner.html). 

      Reboot the machine and install Reader DC from the following page: https://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/.

      Check if you still experience the same behavior.

       

      Let us know how it goes.

       

      Thanks,

      Meenakshi

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      Petr238100450j53
      New Participant
      March 30, 2022

      Hi,

      thank you for the manual, I tried it, but it doesnt help.

      On download page I tried to choose ENG version, because CZE is 2019 version, but that not help too. And instalator from that page installed only 32 bit version instead of 64 bit (there was no selection to choose version to install). Any other suggestions?

       

      Thank you,

       

      Petr

      EARivera
      EARivera
      New Participant
      August 11, 2021

      By right clicking on Adobe Acrobat Reader Icon, selecting properties, then Compatibility and then selecting to execute this program in compatibility mode for Windows 8 works great for me.

       

      This compatibility workaround worked !!!

      D
      defaultgmwy35pqqyp2
      New Participant
      October 20, 2021

      the adobe cleaner tool link is 404 .I can just uninstall cant. I shouldnt have an issu

       

      D
      Duncan22128837bn8k
      New Participant
      December 7, 2021

      Just to add to this, and apologies if it slightly off topic, but I have documentation that requires the use of Adobe 4.0.

       

      Im running a windows 10vm and the adobe 4, plus all other required files, are stored in the root of the C: drive on the vm.

       

      When double click the app icon, it correctly tries to open adobe 4. The splash screen appears, and then disappears...and then nothing.

       

      Ive tried setting compatibility mode to win 8 (the newest option), and also tried running as administrator. No luck.

       

      There are no other versions of adobe installed on this win10 vm.

       

      Grateful for any advice - I cant repair my car without opening this workshop manual...in adobe 4! 🙂

       

      Thanks - Duncan.

      F
      Furdeedee
      New Participant
      July 23, 2020

      Same problem as everyone else. Compatibility workaround worked.

      F
      FedUpWithReadrNotWorking
      New Participant
      October 22, 2020

      As with the seeminly hundreds of others, HEY ADOBE ARE YOU GOING TO EVEN RESPOND TO ANY OF US?????

      Cannot open any PDF's. Have had to resort to wanky 3rd party apps to even be able to see them.

      I also now get a pop up when ever I try to open a pdf asking for permision for Adobe Acrobat Reader to make changes to my computer. I give it and then nothing happens (that I can see). So what is your software doing in the background on my compter? Are you harvesting data? Spyware? It cetrainly isnt doing the one thing that it is supposed to be doing. It isnt reading pdfs at all.

      Is anyone from Adobe going to respond to any of these? The cleaner does nothing, running as admin does nothing. Running at windos 8 does nothing. The OP was over 6 months ago. WTH are you people doing?

        gorilladoc
        gorilladoc
        New Participant
        December 29, 2020

        I am having this same problem.  I have uninstalled and reinstalled and used the Adobe tool, etc.  I still cannot open PDFs  I also pay for Adobe Acrobast PDF Pack subscription and still PDFs will not open on line.  I chatted twice with on-line help and both times they tell me to ccheck the forums!  Duh - I did that already.  I see many people are still having this problem and am wondering if a fix has been found since the last post in October.

        This is si frustrating and really impacting my business.

        T
        tysonf63598718
        New Participant
        June 17, 2020

        I have finally fotten it to run out of the creative cloud app. It is no longer a standalone application, but it will run without internet connectivity.

        V
        Vishnubhai71
        Participating Frequently
        June 11, 2020

        Hi. I did the acrobat cleaner tool and have downloaded, restarted and reinstalled 3-4 times. Adobe Acrobat is still not working and microsoft support suggests you may be working on a fix to be compatible with their latest update. I got a strange message from windows when clicking on the app to open it (screen shot):

          S
          Sir_Bastian
          New Participant
          June 11, 2020

          Same problem here, can not open pdf-files and acrobat DC and Dreamweaver 2020 on window 10 version 1903 after windows security update of adobe flash player (KB4561600) and cumulative windows update (KB4560960)
          Please help 

            B
            bfewell
            New Participant
            June 11, 2020

            I had a customer experience the same issue after updates both Acrobat and Reader will not open.  I'm having the user uninstall the KB4561600 update first to see if that resolves the issue.  Microsoft needs to go back to more testing before releasing these updates to the public.

              A
              Anonymous
              June 11, 2020

              Hi,

              As you see many people are having problems and though your post has been marked as correct (and closed the case?) it has not resolved the issue. Can you please look into this problem again.

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