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Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Suddenly Not Opening

Community Beginner ,
Jun 28, 2017 Jun 28, 2017

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I'm on MAC Sierra 10.12.5 and just since yesterday, for some crazy reason, I am unable to open/view any PDFs on Reader or even see the Adobe Reader window open.  I can see it in the tray below, so it appears to be open, but there are no windows on my desktop.  I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times.  Any tips?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

New Here , Aug 22, 2018 Aug 22, 2018

I've seen this a lot recently. Before trying anything crazy, while adobe is "open" go to window>zoom. Change some of the window settings. Its likely that Abobe is just out of frame.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 03, 2017 Jul 03, 2017

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Still looking for a response on this... still cannot open PDFs, can anybody help??

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New Here ,
Apr 15, 2020 Apr 15, 2020

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Did it ask for a serial number? I'm trying tech support now.  My adobe is 6 years old.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 09, 2020 Jun 09, 2020

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I have the same issue. It looks widespread on the forum. acrobat disappears and pdfs are unreadable.

I hope it's not a global hack.

 

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Community Expert ,
Jul 07, 2017 Jul 07, 2017

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Unfortunately, Acrobat/Reader on Mac OS does not come with the repair option the the Windows version has, and Adobe also does not have the Cleaner tool that they offer for Windows for us Mac users (Download Adobe Reader and Acrobat Cleaner Tool - Adobe Labs ). Here are the things I would do: Reboot your computer. Sometimes that helps to resolve issues that are caused by e.g. resource shortages. If Reader starts up after that, then you are done. If it's still not working, I would remove Reader's preferences. Before you do that, close Reader. On Mac OS, these are stored in a plist file in your Library folder. To see that in Finder, you need to hold down the "Option" key and then go to the "Go" menu. You will then see the "Library" item - select it and then navigate to Library/Preferences/ Here you should find a file named com.adobe.Reader.plist - rename that file to e.g. com.adobe.Reader.plist.BACKUP and then start Reader again. If that makes Reader behave again, then good, if not, you an rename the plist file back to it's original name after you remove the new plist file that Reader just created (again, do that after you shut down Reader).

If you are still not able to use Reader, then it's time to see if it has something to do with your user account. Use a different account on your Mac (you may have to create a new user account first) and try to start Reader. Is it working? Then there is something off in your first account, and it would require much deeper digging to figure out what that is.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 09, 2017 Jul 09, 2017

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WOW! Thank you so much - this works!  I've been trying to figure this out for weeks!

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New Here ,
Jan 12, 2018 Jan 12, 2018

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I just had the same thing happen with Adobe DC on my MacBook Pro- no PDFs will open. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Then found your reply to similar issue and tried that - the file I found was: Library/Preferences/Adobe/Acrobat/DC/Acrobat WebCapture Prefs. I renamed, etc but no joy.

Any further info would be great!

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New Here ,
Dec 16, 2019 Dec 16, 2019

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Hi Karl Heinz Kremmer,

Thank you very much. It worked for me after renaming com.adobe.Reader.plist to com.adobe.Reader.plist.BACKUP.

 

Great and concise Solution.

Thank you.

 

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New Here ,
Aug 22, 2018 Aug 22, 2018

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I've seen this a lot recently. Before trying anything crazy, while adobe is "open" go to window>zoom. Change some of the window settings. Its likely that Abobe is just out of frame.

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New Here ,
Aug 22, 2018 Aug 22, 2018

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Listen to @masons54682109. He knows what he's talking about!

Thanks man!

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New Here ,
Aug 27, 2018 Aug 27, 2018

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This is what solved the issue for me! Thank you!!

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New Here ,
Aug 28, 2018 Aug 28, 2018

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This is the correct answer..... OMG. Thank you!

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New Here ,
Sep 17, 2018 Sep 17, 2018

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THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!! That worked and so simple- I've been uninstalling and reinstalling for days!

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New Here ,
Sep 17, 2018 Sep 17, 2018

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and it was as easy as that! thank you!

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New Here ,
Sep 28, 2018 Sep 28, 2018

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Thank you! This helped me

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New Here ,
Dec 10, 2018 Dec 10, 2018

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This worked for me. Thank you!

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New Here ,
Jan 10, 2019 Jan 10, 2019

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what a crazy thing to solve the problem.. how can the window get out of context?

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Community Beginner ,
Feb 06, 2019 Feb 06, 2019

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Greeeeeat!!! I was becoming crazy looking for a solution. Simply going to "Window -> zoom" options, and documents will show again! Thank you very much!

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New Here ,
Mar 03, 2019 Mar 03, 2019

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THANK YOU SO MUCH! "WINDOW > Zoom" fixed the problem!

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New Here ,
Mar 05, 2019 Mar 05, 2019

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If zoom doesn't work, select "cascade" under the window dropdown.

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New Here ,
Mar 15, 2019 Mar 15, 2019

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Only thing masons' answer was missing was *mic drop*

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New Here ,
May 08, 2019 May 08, 2019

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Yep. Exactly. Fixed it for me. Thanks.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 09, 2020 Jun 09, 2020

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adobe reader is not found by windows system.  

 

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New Here ,
Apr 03, 2019 Apr 03, 2019

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Wowzer, this had me pulling my hair out. I'm on macOS on a MacBook Pro and no amount of uninstalling, re-installing, updating or playing with preferences fixed this...I had even used the various Window tips to see if that would do the trick (as I sometimes have an external display).

The true fix required both of the suggestions above and then some:

  1. I signed out of Adobe Creative Cloud (the app), and then;
  2. Close the Acrobat Pro DC app
  3. Delete the plist noted above
  4. Re-open the app
  5. Open a PDF
  6. Use Window -> Cascade


It's also worth noting that I may have had plain old Adobe Reader originally, but had then gotten a license for Acrobat Pro DC. I had also been getting errors when trying to use the Help -> Sign-in/sign-out option.

After this, I double-checked Finder for the new plist file and I don't have what was noted above, instead now I have "com.adobe.Acrobat.Pro.plist". Which further leads me to believe there was an issue with going from free to paid.

I hope this helps someone else out there!

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New Here ,
Jan 02, 2020 Jan 02, 2020

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In Safari make sure that pop up windows are enabled and Adobe plug in is also enabled for the site.

 

 

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