Advanced search is slow even embedded index

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.

Hi there

Hope you are doing well and sorry to hear that.

Is this an issue with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs? Please try with a different PDF file and check. If the file is stored on a shared network/drive please download it locally to your computer and check.

Also go to Edit > Preferences > Search > Under fast find select 'Enable fast find' and click on 'Purge cache contents' > Click OK and reboot the application and check. 

You may also go through the help article https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2014/07/29/speed-up-pdf-search-with-an-embedded-index and check.

Regards

Amal