PDF file hangs when opening.

[shirleym49699223]

I've seen this problem in an older post, but mine is a bit different.  When opening a .pdf file in Adobe Reader, it hangs for about 2-5 minutes before letting me do anything like enlarging or going to another page. I'm using Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 on a laptop if that's important to know.  I've checked to make sure I have the updated version & it's up to date.

What's causing this? I've tried another PDF reader & it doesn't hang. 

Thanks for any help with this.

[AnandSri · Accepted solution]

Hello shirleym49699223

We apologize for the inconvenience caused, as per the description above, Adobe Reader DC hangs when you open a PDF file, Is that correct?

Please check for any pending updates of Adobe Reader from Help>Check for updates and reboot the machine after the installation of updates.

You can also repair the installation files of Adobe Reader from Help>Repair installation. Reboot the machine after the repair.

Try resetting the preferences of Adobe Reader, refer to How to reset Acrobat Preference settings to default.

Reboot the machine and see if this brings any difference.

You may also refer to Troubleshoot Windows system errors, freezes | Adobe software

If the issue still persists, please share the following details:

• Dot version of Adobe Reader DC installed, to identify refer to Identify the product and its version for Acrobat and Reader DC
• Is Adobe Reader is crashing while opening all the PDF files, or is it specific to one PDF file?
• If it's specific to one PDF file, try opening any other PDF file and check.
• You may try removing Adobe Reader DC using the Acrobat cleaner tool Download Adobe Reader and Acrobat Cleaner Tool - Adobe Labs Reboot the machine and install Adobe Reader from Adobe - Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Distribution

Let us know how it goes and your findings.

Regards,

Anand Sri.

[Heile305447142ucn]

Who set this as "correct answer", when this clearly does not help and solve the problem??

[Art25279295bwxz]

NO NO NO    THIS IS NOT AN ANSWER-  THAT IS AN INSULT BY SOMEONE OVERSEAS COPYING AND PASTING FORM A GUIDE              AND WHY ADOBE SUX

[32810659]

I have tried reinstalling ADOBe and that solves the problem for a little while and then it happens again.  This is a very frustrating problem

[elkhan_alishanov]

Hi,

I have the same issue, and it comes from the list of recently opened documents.

I use a laptop at work, and if the network that I open the documents from is not available, then Adobe Reader hangs for few minutes and then works normally. If you clear the list, Adobe Reader opens up right away.

It seems like Adobe Reader is searching for location of the recently opened files, and it takes a long time for it to give up.

I have Acrobat Pro at the same laptop, and it doesn't have this issue.

Hope, that helps.

[32810659]

@elkhan.alishanov Thank you!  The default was set to 100!  I set it to 5 and problem solved. 

[MyAdobeAccount19]

Elkhan: you're a genuis!

This post thread is marked as resolved, but none of the official Adobe proposed solutions actually worked. I reeduced the recently viewed list to 3 items. Worked like magic!

Whatever hourly rate Adobe pays its tech support staff, they should send to you! Thanks.

[glauxtheowl]

Yep, that fixed it! Thanks for this solution, nothing else worked including reinstalling everything. Completely disabled recent items list and signature verification on opening and saving, no more freezes!

[Pavel5FF4]

Wow and thanks! 

I've been waiting hours for Vodafone invoice opening. Deleting the history and switching signatures checks off helped.

[#11]

This solved the issue for me, too.

Thank you for not giving a useless generic answer like "uPdAtE YoUr SoFtWaRe LOL" or using the repair utility and actually providing a solution!

[Woozel Workz]

You are a god, my goodness this has been plagueing me for months.

[benrich]

2023 here, still an issue - and your answer was the "fix"!

Thanks a lot!

[Scott33719190edqs]

Hello - And thank you very much to elkhan_alishanov. Your suggestion was the only one that really made sense and IT WORKED. All the other (reinstall, reboot, get updates..etc.) are what tech support says when they have no clue. 

[benrich]

As Adobe is unfortunately not able to fix this issue after 5(!) years and now the use of Acrobat seems impossible (the entire application keeps hanging for several seconds), I have canceled my subscription.

[childrensclinic]

It is December 2023. This is an old thread but the problem persists.

Based on solutions I saw elsewhere, this seems to be the best: In Acrobat, go to Profile and Settings > Preferences > Documents > Open Settings > Documents in recently used list. The default value is 100. Change the value to 5, or whatver number suits your situation. I haven't had the 10-20 second hang after first opening since this change.

Prior to this change, I noticed that although the first PDF I opened caused the hang, it did not hang on opening subsequent files, as long as any other PDF was already open. So, the first thing I did each day was to open a random PDF and keep it open all day. The hang was avoided after that.

[#17]

Spot on! Thanks, it may be a very old problem but it still seems to apply.  I suspect it has to do with the very slow response when Acrobat Reader is looking across my network to locate old files.  It's another topic, but I find having a home network with different flavours of Windows on it seems to result in very very flaky connection.

FYI in mine the number of documents in the recently used list was already set to; but I have reduced it to one, which seems to have sorted it out.