Adobe Acrobat Reader is *incredibly* slow & keeps hanging

[MarcusH]

Hello folks,

Does anyone know why Adobe Acrobat Reader is so *incredibly* slow & keeps hanging please?

I keep getting the 'not responding' message; have to close it down & try again.

Documents load *really* slowly, if at all!

I have a fast PC with 16GB of memory, so that shouldn't be the problem...

Any ideas on speeding it up please?

Maybe Adobe you coudl do so?!

[Eric Chicago]

Get yourself the latest version of Firefox.  Go to "open file" and open a pdf file.  Voila!  Firefox now has a pdf reader.  It's fast and without all the b.s. overhead that Adobe had built into its reader.

[N29900526auqn]

I have found a way to fix a problem that I had, but I don't know if this will fix the problem of speeding up Adobe Acrobat Reader's ability to function faster in all aspects. I had an issue where Adobe's search function was incredibly slow to find text within a PDF document or multiple documents. I found a way to make regular searching and advanced searching for text in PDF documents faster to the point where the search results are displayed almost instantaneously. Before this fix, searching could take 2 to 3 minutes to find all the strings of text within a folder containing 5 PDF files that were each about 700 pages in size.

Here are the steps to perform the fix:

1.) Open Adobe Reader directly (do not open it by opening a file such as a PDF to open. If Adobe Reader is already open, close it and make sure it is completely closed [not running in the background]).

2.) Go to Edit > Preferences.

3.) Under Categories: click on Documents.

4.) Under the "Open Settings" make sure that the "Restore last view settings when reopening documents" box is unchecked. If it is unchecked, continue to the next step. If it is checked, uncheck it, click the OK button at the bottom, and restart Adobe again directly.

5.) Under Categories: click on Search.

6.) Under the "Fast Find" area, click on the "Purge Cache Contents" button, then make sure the "Enable fast find" box is checked, and lastly, increase the Maximum Cache Size: to at least 1000 MB. (the default size should be 100 MB).

7.) Click the OK button at the bottom, and restart Adobe again directly.

8.) Open all of the documents you want to search text for and type a string of text that will appear somewhere in the document, or documents. (the searching might take 5 to 10 minutes or longer for big documents or when searching a folder with multiple PDFs).

9.) Wait for the searches to complete.

10.) Go back into Edit > Preferences > Under Categories: click on Documents.

11.) Under the "Open Settings" check the "Restore last view settings when reopening documents" box, and click the OK button at the bottom.

12.) Repeat steps 8 and 9.

13.) Restart Adobe again directly.

(note: increasing the Maximum Cache Size from 100 MB might be optional, I am not 100% sure about this.)

I have different versions of Adobe running on different computers including reagular Adobe Acrobat Reader, and Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. On all of the versions I have, this fix worked for me. I hope this helps.

[AkanchhaS]

@N29900526auqn Thanks for sharing your findings with us.

~Akanchha 

[Jeff26852940im76]

Just to let you know I feel your pain and frustration; the replies here from Adobe remind me why I choose to avoid this program, and when I can't, I pirate it. Forever.

[Samuel30930304ywnh]

same issue, I'm essentially running a super computer and it's still slow and hangs/not responsive.

[itduong260m71804606]

i have never seen such a stupic PDF reader like Adobe acrobat reader

[32162202jbxc]

I am hoping someone comes up with an alternative to Adobe....my files take FOREVER to load (literally hours sometimes) and often I get a NOT RESPONDING message.  The ADOBE SIGN is much more difficult than the older way of gathering signatures.  The "upgrades" have tripled my time to get work done.  I hate it.  

[igordugonjic]

Thank you, I just could not believe how slow it is, it was completely unusable until I read this advice.

It is hard to believe that a company like Adobe makes this a default, I had problems with Acrobat for years, I just thought that the software was slow and buggy.

[erikb7240238]

I though i was the only one with this issue but it seems not. i basicly also have a super computer this software fails to even open a one page PDF text document. What a joke adobe has become. Time to switch to open source softwares.

[Amal.]

Hi there

What happens when you try to open the PDF? Do you get any error messages? If so, please share the screenshot for more clarity. Also, make sure you have the recent version 23.08.2042X  installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

~Amal

[erikb7240238]

I'm going completely nuts, my whole high end PC is crashing becouse of this f*cking acrobat, i cannot even combine 3 png images to a PDF. what the heck is wrong with this software

[Amal.]

Hi there

Hope you are doing well and sorry to hear that

Is this an issue with a particular file or with all the files? Please try with a different file and check.

What is the version of the Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version go to Help > About Acrobat and make sure you have the recent version 23.08.20533 installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

Also try to repair the installation from the help menu (Win Only) and see if that works.

Please try to reset the Acrobat preferences as described here https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-reset-acrobat-preference-settings-to-defau...

Let us know how it goes.

~Amal

[Sayel30721079921v]

AR super slow... couldn't find the security enhancements recommended to make it do its basic work (read a small PDF)... I'm moving to Foxit reader... it's not my job to make sure Acrobat Reader can read a normal PDF

[slabman3000]

Easy fix, always run it as Administrator and the problem will be solved.

[jaburmester]

Does not work same issue even if you run as Administator.