Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Suddenly Not Opening

[ariellew18013129]

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?

[ariellew18013129]

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

[Janet23]

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

[Vishnubhai71]

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.

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

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.

[ariellew18013129]

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

[helen1977]

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!

[ronoevan]

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.

[masons54682109 · Accepted solution]

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.

[bryand_netarchs]

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

Thanks man!

[ahughesgrizz]

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

[xzito_marketing]

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

[garretts76233884]

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

[Star_Taiwan]

and it was as easy as that! thank you!

[IT_GAL]

Thank you! This helped me

[jessicaa40937155]

This worked for me. Thank you!

[marsian]

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

[JoseQuinta]

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

[springboro42]

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

[chloee28116879]

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

[michaelh46009823]

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

[brianm83065902]

Yep. Exactly. Fixed it for me. Thanks.

[Vishnubhai71]

adobe reader is not found by windows system.  

[hi!t74090393]

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!

[webstercs]

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