Adobe Reader "(Not Responding)"

Report · Jan 14, 2012

I have had this problem for awhile now.

Whenever I try to open a PDF document on my compuuter Adobe Reader opens it, but when I go to scroll or click on one of the tabs I get (Not Responding) in the title bar. I wait for a short time but it just hangs, and when I click anywhere in the window it goes opaque leaving only the red X cancel button clear.

I was running the latest version of Reader, but uninstalled it and installed an earlier version (9.4) thinking it might fix things, but still getting the same problem.

My system details: Win7 Home Premium 64-bit OS

Report · Jan 10, 2013

I am running a Lenovo T61 with XP pro 32 bit with Acrobat 8. For years Acrobat 8 ran flawlessly. Then suddenly several months ago it began having the same problem as described above. Why now. I thought perhaps I had corrupted the Adobe installation somehow so I ran a repair, (no good), followed by an uninstall & reinstall, (no good), followed by an uninstall and upgrade to Acrobat 9, still no success. Then I read forum after forum related to Acrobat and this issue with no success. Out of frustration I took a very closed look at how and when the problem occurred. It turns out that the unresponsive behavior always followed an updating of the display. Sometimes even the smallest screen change triggered the problem. A quick check of forums associated with my video module pointed the root cause directly at the video module, the primary complaint being the video module substantially slowed or stopped altogether, causing applications to hang. This can be seen, at least in my case, where prior to Adobe going unresponsive the display acted erratic. The proposed fix called for updating the display drivers. After updating my display driver from v2.14 to v6.14 the problem disappeared altogether. I have tested every possible condition for the past several days and have not had a reoccurrence of the problem.

Report · Feb 23, 2013

Glad that you solved it; for me it cuts across several different computers that have very little in common. I removed the nVidia video card from one computer and it still does this. Awful.

Report · Feb 25, 2013

I'm trying to work out how to install and run this tool properly.

Report · Feb 25, 2013

I'm trying to work out how to install and run this tool properly.

Ok... You won't be able to run it until you install it. So let's start with install.

What exactly are you trying to install, what version, and what system?

And, what is going wrong when you try?

Report · Apr 03, 2013

I am having the same Acrobat is unresponsive problem with 32bit Windows Vista and Acrobat 11.0.2 dated 2/15/2013. So far I have renamed the plug-in directories. Acrobat becomes unresponsive as soon as I click General in Edit/preferences, or click

3d-Multimedia this is just opening Adobe/Reader11.0/Reader/AcroRd32/. The latter only does a partial display of the 3d-multimedia choices. Network detection on or off has no effect. Nice time of the year to not even be able to read the irs.gov tax forms.

I installed 11.0.2 because 10.1.6 was not working. 11.0.2 worked for some simple pdf files from the net.

Now I read that 11.0.2 only supports XP with SP 3, or Windows 7 or 8.

Back to where 11.0.2 hangs on the net for simple files, time to deinstall..

Google Chrome wants 11.0.2 so now adobe crashes.whether or not edit preferences 3d is software and not direct x9,

Going to chrome://plugins and disable Chrome PDF viewer and can now read internet PDF files. ( Note on March 24, chrome user advice was to "enable" chrome PDF viewer.

Reading disk PDF files also works, although there is about a 20 second delay, perhaps as discussed earlier on this thread.

Even after closing all PDF files in chrome and from desktop, task manager indicates 5 acrord32.exe are running.

Report · Apr 28, 2013

I had this same issue with adobe 11.0.0 X1 not responding. I uninstalled and installed the next version 11.0.2, but had same issue.

I did Mike_GN's resolution 1. This fixed my issue. Thanks Mike.

Problem 1 Resolution: Uncheck the "Enable Protected Mode at startup" checkbox, I found this in Adobe's settings under Preferences, Security (Enhanced).

Report · May 16, 2013

I have been encountering Problem years use of Adobe Reader and I got fed up last week and used Sysinternals to debug the process. It was very obvious what the problem was once I identified where it hung. Adobe Reader goes through each file in the recently used list and does a check on the file status. Of course if the network drive (e.g. F:\ or N:\ ) is not connected, then Reader hangs on the file status check till the network connection attempt times out. Adobe Readeer then does this for every file in the recently used file list, so the more files on a network drive you have in your recently used list, the longer Adobe Reader hangs.

I use TrueCrypt to create virtual encrypted drives too and the problem also occurred with pdf files in the recently used list that were located inside the virtual encrypted drives (e.g. Z:\ or X:\ )

This is obviously a bug, as there is no reason to do a state check on a file in a recently used file list.

But in the absence of a quick fix, there is an easy workaround. Simply reduce the number of files in "Edit->Preferences->Documents" item "Documents in the recently used list" down to 1. The 1 is always the current open file, so you effectively don't get any history any more. There is not much need of the history in Windows 7 as Windows stores the list of last opened files anyway. After that simple Adobe Reader has never hung with me again since.

Report · May 16, 2013

Thank you for the feedback on this - very useful, as it seems that a number of users are experiencing this same issue.

Report · May 17, 2013

If you open Adobe Reader without specifying a file, then it will still hang of course (as the last used file on the network drive is still in the list (but I usually double click on the pdfs and avoid this). I have enclosed a screenshot from the procmon where the hang takes place. The selected line is where it gets into trouble, attempting to open the location with full control attributes:

ate & Time: 17/05/2013 15:33:20

Event Class: File System

Operation: IRP_MJ_CREATE

Result: NAME NOT FOUND

Path: C:\Windows\CSC\v2.0.6\namespace\M

TID: 7860

Duration: 0.0000411

Desired Access: Read EA, Write EA, Read Attributes, Write Attributes, Delete, Read Control, Synchronize

Disposition: Open

Options: Synchronous IO Non-Alert

Attributes: n/a

ShareMode: Read, Write, Delete

AllocationSize: n/a

In case you need to reproduce, you can always use Truecrypt:

1. Create Truecrypt archive on local file system and mount and format the volume.
2. Put pdf file into the archive and open pdf with Adobe Reader.

3. Close Adobe Reader and unmount Truecrypt archive.

4. Restart Adobe Reader

5. Bang!

Report · May 22, 2013

Wowbagger,

I wanted to try to try your solution for a few days before getting excited and blowing the horn of victory.

After 6 days, I can confirm that it works, you are brilliant, Adobe owes you bigtime for doing their work for them.

It is really amazing that this debilitating bug has persisted in multiple versions of Acrobat and Reader for so many years. It's no wonder why malware writers have a field day with Adobe products...but that's another story.

Thank you very much.

Report · Aug 04, 2013

This is exactly the problem. I was using Windows 7 and it kept hanging after I closed out all the documents. Reducing this to 1 saved the day! Thanks!

Report · Sep 19, 2014

I have both Adobe Reader XI and also Adobe Acrobat Pro X installed.

Whenever I would click a link to a PDF in a Microsoft Word 2013 document, for some reason, it would load the PDF in Reader, not in Acrobat, even though Acrobat is set to be the default program to open all PDF documents on my system. Then, when I clicked the button at the top right of Reader to close Reader, then Reader would freeze (become unresponsive). If I opened Windows Task Manager, you could see 2 copies of AcroRd32.exe in the list and one of them was racking up higher and higher memory usage with each refresh of Task Manager (i.e., about every second). It was rapidly exceeding 2 gigs and climbing. If I opened the same PDF from Windows File Explorer (manually selected to open in Reader instead of the default Acrobat) there was no problem closing the PDF.

The solution that worked for me was, in the Edit/Preferences menu, in the "Documents" category, I reduced the "Documents in recently used list" to 30 (instead of the default 100; although initially I reduced it to 8 and then changed it later back up to 30).

Also in the "Security (Enhanced)" category, I unchecked the "Enable Protected Mode at startup".

I don't know which of those fixed it, but thanks to everyone on this thread because this thread is what directed me to change those 2 options. Now, CTRL-clicking a link in Word will allow me to close Reader without freezing up Reader.

I still don't know why Word chooses to show the PDF with Reader instead of Acrobat, but at least Reader does not crash now.

Report · May 14, 2015

Thanks Mike, I tried this but it didn't help. See my LONG detailed writeup. Hey it was worth a try.

Report · Jul 06, 2014

Solution from Wowbagger-TIP worked for me (Adobe Reader 11.0.07):

"Simply reduce the number of files in "Edit->Preferences->Documents" item "Documents in the recently used list" down to 1.

The 1 is always the current open file, so you effectively don't get any history any more. After that simple Adobe Reader has never hung with me again since."

Report · Oct 13, 2014

Barrychopper and Wow-bagger-TIP:

I am trying to follow your suggestion " Simply reduce the number of files in "Edit->Preferences->Documents" item "Documents in the recently used list" down to 1"

I am not sure where the Edit function is but I assume you mean it is Edit in Adobe program. If so, I am not able to click on Edit as Adobe will immediately hang once I open it (it does not matter whether I am trying to open the program or trying to open a PDF file).

As such, the solution does not work for me.

Any tips?

thank you

Report · Oct 14, 2014

hkv48: I would recommend trying to repair your installation of Adobe Acrobat--that has solved a number of problems for me in the past.

How to repair the installation (in Windows 7):

Launch the Control Panel
Under the "Programs" heading, select the "Uninstall a program" subheading (I know--seems odd to select the option to uninstall when you want to repair, but, that's what you need to do)
In the list of installed programs that appears (it could take a minute to add all the installed programs to the list), locate "Adobe Acrobat {version} Pro" or a similar item referencing Acrobat. Left click that item
Now, at the top of the list you should see options for "Uninstall" and for "Change". Click the "Change" option.
Read and follow the instructions in the dialog boxes that appear to repair your installation.

Hope this helps solve the problem you are having.

Report · Nov 18, 2014

hkv48 when Adobe starts to hang up don't touch anything else and leave it for about 4-5 minutes. In my scenario I thought Adobe was crashing when actually it is just taking a VERY long time to respond. Once it does respond it works normally until the program is closed. Unfortunately, I'm still working on a solution but this might help you troubleshoot moving forward.

Report · Jan 10, 2015

My issue with Adobe Reader 11.0.09 is that after start, it runs for a few seconds and then it freezes for 10-30 seconds (different timings on different servers). The thing is that the servers are blocked from all Internet usage, and this is what causes the start-up delay. I have reproduced it in a VMWare workstation VM. As soon as I either open up the firewall or remove the Weblink plugin, the problem goes away.

Funny thing is that if I on my test server open up the firewall, start Adobe Reader, then shut it down and again block the Internet access, next time I start Adobe Redaer it doesn't hang? This is however not possible on the production servers, which need to be shielded from the Internet at all times.

Removing the Weblink plugin is also not an option though, this also removes the pane on the right in Adobe Reader, which several of my customers are using.

Surely there must be a sensible solution to this problem? Expecting access to the Internet and delaying the start-up must be a serious case of shit programming?

/Patrik

BTW, screenshot from Process Monitor. Looking at the entries next to the blue bullets, you can tell that there is a delay of 7 seconds. Judging by the info given by Process Monitor, my guess is that Adobe Reader is trying to suss out how to access the Internet...

Report · Jan 13, 2015

Thank you for the hint with the weblink.api!
Renaming the weblink.api in the plug_ins folder saved the problem in my case as the problematic pc has no internet access.

Report · Jan 14, 2015

No problems. There might actually be Another solution to this, by disabling AR to pone home. Check out NSA:s recommendation on how to lock down Adobe Reader on the link below. The registry entry that did the trick for us was the "bDisableADCFileStore".

/Patrik

https://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/app/Recommendations_for_Configuring_Adobe_Acrobat_Reader_XI_in_a_Windo...

Report · Jan 21, 2015

I was having the same issue at work. Right click on the adobe icon. Click on the compatibility tab. Click on Run this program in Compatibility mode for, and then click on the drop down menu and click on windows 7. Then click apply and then click ok. I was able to open several pdf's quickly and was able to print quickly.

Report · Feb 09, 2015

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

This worked for me!

Report · Feb 17, 2015

I have experienced same start-up lag and application "not responsive" twice in our office and it confirmed that this is NOT an Adobe's fault.

Simple re-install will most likely NOT address the issue because somehow the user's data has got corrupted and will remain that way after re-install.

In order to check if the fix is applicable, first create a new user account on the affected machine and re-logon as the new user.

If the Acrobat reader issue is gone, then this is the right time to get a copy of good files located in user's profile folder:

1. View System and Hidden files :

Open up Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder options > View > Check "Show Hidden files" and uncheck "Hide Protected Operating System files" > hit OK

2. Copy Adobe configuration data located in User's Application data folder :

Press WIN key + R > type appdata and hit Enter. Browse each folder, find the folder named "Acrobat" inside the folder "Adobe" and copy to a new folder located ether on the Root e.g. C:\ drive so that any user can access later on, or on a USB stick

The folder and files structure must remain unchanged, so make a note where each set of files originally belongs.

Once you have got the files copied, log off and log back on with your primary account.

Press WIN key + R > type appdata and hit Enter. replace the files located in Adobe/Acrobat with the ones you have previously copied .

If this does not work, consider re-installing the application using third party uninstaller like IOBit uninstaller - This will cleanup all configuration files and traces..

Another option to speed-up the overall performance is to disable unnecessary plug-ins :

Manage plug-ins

Plug-ins add more functionality, but they also increase the memory needed. To minimize memory requirements, you may want to install only the plug-ins that you use. To load a plug-in correctly, you must place it in the plug-ins folder. You can temporarily disable plug-ins when starting your software.

Disable a plug-ins

Do one of the following:

(Windows) Open the plug_ins folder (Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader\plug_ins)
(Mac OS) Control-click the application icon, and choose Show Package Contents. Then double-click the Contents folder and open the Plug-ins folder.
(UNIX) Move the plug-in out of [location of install]/Adobe/Reader9.0/Reader/plug_ins.

Select the plug-ins you do not want to load, and move them out of the folder. Some of the plug-ins may be in folders nested inside the plug-ins folder.

Disable all plug-ins temporarily

Press the Shift key immediately after starting Acrobat.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Report · May 14, 2015

I was really glad to find this thread and have tried some of the solutions. For one, I disabled 3d rendering, and I also tried pressing shift as soon as I started Acrobat. Here is what is happening.

Acrobat Reader 10.1.14

Windows 7 service pack 2

Protection disabled.

File history set to 1.

Repair installation didn't work.

All Acrobat add-ons are enabled so that isn't the problem.

From the Start button, clicked left on Acrobat, go to Properties, Compatibility tab, Compatibility mode set to Windows 7.

Open Acrobat. Fine.

Open file. Fine. I can scroll. If I enter 100% in the zoom window, I can zoom. If I enter a page number in that window, I can page to there. I can also use the page buttons.

Use menu bar with File, Edit, View, Window -- FINE.

Use navigation pane with Create icon, open icon, setting icon NOT FINE.

Use left panel with bookmarks NOT FINE

What happens is the CPU usage zooms to 25% in Task Manager, and I can't do anything else until I use End Now on Acrobat.

In the meantime, if I go to the File/Edit/View menu and select File, it begins blinking rapidly. It stops within a minute, but it's useless until I kill and restart. Also on the top right the minimize icon blinks rapidly and is useless until I kill and restart.

One question I had was whether Active X filtering in IE 11 had anything to do with it. It doesn't. Tried it both ways.

Second situation.

When I run from hard drive and go out say to Internet Archive to look at a file before "buying" so as not to clutter up my hard drive too much here's what happens.

The floating navigation bar disappears after at most 5 seconds.

If I try to click the Adobe logo to pin the navigation panes, it freezes. I tried this because it would let me type in the zoom factor or page number like I can do when I run from my hard drive.

I have the hand tool and I can't do anything about it.

I can use a keyboard command to download the file to hard disk.

The CPU and memory usage once again are out of sight.

So this isn't just about the hard drive or about the file history. It's about something involving the navigation panes including the bookmark panel. Those are what drive both the hard drive version and the online version crazy and makes the file/edit/view menu blink like crazy.

The next question I had was this. I'm using FiOS. When I do this:

Edit -> Preferences -> Internet -> Internet speed

The value for this is set to 56kbps.

That doesn't seem right.

Has anybody tried this if everything else didn't work?

I would appreciate if other people would try this out and if the api solution means they don't see these things happening, let me know. I'd love it.

But it's nonsense for the two features that make Acrobat Reader THE most convenient to freeze the whole application. What on earth did they do?

Report · Feb 22, 2015

I am having the same issue