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 · Apr 13, 2012

Clearing the Enable hardware rendering for legacy video cards did NOT resolve the problem. It's a race against time. Start Adobe Reader X and everything works fine for about 5 seconds, then it hangs.

I am NOT happy about this.

Report · Oct 11, 2013

I am using XP SP 3 with Adobe Reader XI Version 11.0.5

Tried all tricks suggested in this post.

This: uncheck "Enable hardware rendering for legacy video cards" did the job, but only for one specific PDF file.

All other files give me the same behaviour.

After forcing termination of the acrobat window I noticed that there is still a AcroRD32.exe in the tsak manager. Trying to "End Process" does not terminate the process.

Any suggestions?

Report · Oct 13, 2013

Finally.

Removed the installation (through the control panell).

Deleted all Acrobat folders under program files

Downloaded and installed the software from scratch.

Seems to have helped (until now, at least)

Report · Feb 22, 2012

I have the exact same problem as the original post. I'm using Windows 7 64-bit. I have removed version 10.1.2 and put version 9.5 back on and that has sorted the problem.

Not ideal but I too don't have time to mess about with it.

One thing to add, don't know if its relevant but I have reader installed on a Sold State drive. (as before It was on a normal sata2 platter drive working without issue)

Cheers

Report · Jul 12, 2012

I am also using SSD drive for OS and Programs. Data is on hard drive.

Removing support for legacy video hardware did not fix it.

AnHoBe suggestion did not seem applicable--<user>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\10.0 was not empty.

Report · Jul 12, 2012

Go to the Acrobat Plug_ins folder and remove all the .api files (cut and paste them elsewhere). One of these preload api's is causing the hangup.

You can put the api files back one at a time if you want to identify the culprit

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 10.0\Acrobat\plug_ins

Path could be different on your PC depending on OS and Acrobat version

Report · Jul 12, 2012

Go to the Acrobat Plug_ins folder and remove all the .api files (cut and paste them elsewhere). One of these preload api's is causing the hangup.

You can put the api files back one at a time if you want to identify the culprit

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 10.0\Acrobat\plug_ins

Path could be different on your PC depending on OS and Acrobat version

Report · Jul 12, 2012

There are 34 API's in that folder. It literally could be ANY of them?

Note that I do not have a problem opening Acrobat. It's only opening a file that causes a hang-up.

Report · Jul 12, 2012

Not sure which exact one's it would be in your case, but try removing the following

Acroform.api

Updater.api

Annots.api

DigSig.api

Escript.api

PKKLite.api

If everything starts working, you can put these back one by one to find the one which causes adobe to hang

Report · Jul 12, 2012

Also, to check if the hang-up is being caused by one of these (there could be other issues), you can start adobe in safe mode (acrobat /safe) from the run prompt and then open any acrobat file from within acrobat. There will be no hang-up if one of the api's is the culprit

Report · Oct 10, 2012

I've had a similar problem with Acrobat 10 hanging on opening a file. As the file opens, I see "(Not Responding)" in the title bar. After about 15 seconds, I'm able to get a response again. Under Edit>Preferences>General, I unchecked the box "Show me messages when I launch Acrobat". This seems to have reduced or eliminated the delay for most files.

Report · Mar 09, 2012

Here is what I found: go to

Documents and Settings\<user>\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\10.0

In my case this folder was empty and that caused exactly the described problem. I just copied the contents from another user's folder:

\Cache

AdobeCMapFnt10.lst

AdobeSysFnt10.lst

SharedDataEvents

UserCache.bin

That fixed the prob.

Good luck

Report · Apr 27, 2012

I spent hours trying to fix this problem for a user. AnHoBe's post finally fixed it. I don't know why though.

Report · Apr 27, 2012

I am away April 27 through April 30, back May 1.

Report · Jul 12, 2012

I was having a similar problem with Acrobat. When first opening just about any pdf, the program hangs for 10 to 20 seconds. I have disabled support for hardware rendering for legacy video cards and changed the preferred Rendered to software. We'll see whether that fixes it.

Report · Jun 18, 2014

I am having the same issue....I am operating on Windows 7. I WAS using Adobe Reader version 11.0, but uninstalled and then installed Version 9.0. I am still waiting a very long time to get a document to open. Please advise as the directions given by you earlier didn't seem to apply to my computer.

HOPELESS!

Report · Oct 25, 2012

Same issue here. Latest version of Adobe Reader, latest windows updates (Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit). Adobe reader says "Not repsonding" for about 10-15 seconds every time I open a document. Reinstalling it doesn't change the situation.

Report · Oct 27, 2012

OK, I've just spent the last two hours messing around with this. First, I had two distinct problems...

Problem 1: if I double-click on any PDF file, PDF Reader hangs for 10-20 seconds without opening. After the delay, PDF Reader opens and I can see the document.

Problem 1 Resolution: Uncheck the "Enable Protected Mode at startup" checkbox as previously described in this thread. With this box unchecked, Adobe will open quickly every time.

Problem 2: if I double-click on any PDF file (on my hard drive, in an email, etc.), Adobe Reader opens the document and is responsive for about 5 seconds. It then goes unresponsive ("Not Responding") for between 10 and 20 seconds. If I wait, it does come back and works normally until I close and re-open it. When I re-open by double-clicking on any PDF file, I again get the 5 seconds responsive, 10 to 20 seconds unresponsive pattern.

What I Tried: I tried every single suggestion in this discussion up to this post. None of them solved this problem.

Problem 2 Resolution?: Most of the time, I have my computer linked to my company's server via a VPN. I have found that if my computer is connected to the VPN and has all of the network drives mapped, then I do not experience Problem 2 - everything works fine. If my computer is not connected to the VPN and does not have the network drives mapped, then I experience Problem 2 almost every time I open a PDF file. For some reason, Adobe Reader is looking for network drives a few seconds after it starts - if they are not mapped, then it hangs for 10 to 20 seconds.

Adobe, please consider why Reader is doing this.

OS: Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit

Adobe: Version X (several versions), Version XI (11.0.0)

Hope this helps someone...

Report · Oct 28, 2012

This is a monumental problem. It occurs on 2 Windows 7 computers. It has been happening for months on both of them. I tried all of the fixes and nothing worked.

I upgraded both computers to Windows 8, clean install. For first day and a half, all was good, but now it's happening again. One system is a 64 bit desktop, the other is a 32 bit taptop.

I cringe whenever anyone sends me a pdf. Is this what Adobe wants?

Report · May 17, 2015

If you look at post 72 you'll see that I had some weirdness going on.

Today it all disappeared.

The only difference is that I uninstalled a game that I had downloaded years ago.

For two years, there was no problem. All of a sudden, Wednesday May 13, problem.

Uninstall game, problem disappeared.

Both running from hard disk and running over the net.

There's no proof that the game caused the problem. There's only the coincidence that uninstalling the game was followed within 24 hours by the problem disappearing.

If you are responsible for office computers and somebody is upset because they can't load games, this might be an object lesson besides the fact that the computer doesn't belong to them and is not provided so they can play games.

Report · Oct 29, 2012

You might be on to something Mike_GN. I turned off Network Discovery last night and haven't experienced problem with Acrobat X.

Mike_GN wrote:
OK, I've just spent the last two hours messing around with this. First, I had two distinct problems...
Problem 1: if I double-click on any PDF file, PDF Reader hangs for 10-20 seconds without opening. After the delay, PDF Reader opens and I can see the document.
Problem 1 Resolution: Uncheck the "Enable Protected Mode at startup" checkbox as previously described in this thread. With this box unchecked, Adobe will open quickly every time.
Problem 2: if I double-click on any PDF file (on my hard drive, in an email, etc.), Adobe Reader opens the document and is responsive for about 5 seconds. It then goes unresponsive ("Not Responding") for between 10 and 20 seconds. If I wait, it does come back and works normally until I close and re-open it. When I re-open by double-clicking on any PDF file, I again get the 5 seconds responsive, 10 to 20 seconds unresponsive pattern.
What I Tried: I tried every single suggestion in this discussion up to this post. None of them solved this problem.
Problem 2 Resolution?: Most of the time, I have my computer linked to my company's server via a VPN. I have found that if my computer is connected to the VPN and has all of the network drives mapped, then I do not experience Problem 2 - everything works fine. If my computer is not connected to the VPN and does not have the network drives mapped, then I experience Problem 2 almost every time I open a PDF file. For some reason, Adobe Reader is looking for network drives a few seconds after it starts - if they are not mapped, then it hangs for 10 to 20 seconds.
Adobe, please consider why Reader is doing this.
OS: Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit
Adobe: Version X (several versions), Version XI (11.0.0)
Hope this helps someone...

Report · Oct 29, 2012

Someone should contact Adobe Support, since they're obviously not reading their own forum.

Report · Oct 29, 2012

Sadly, I just tried disabling Network Discovery, File and Printer Sharing, and Sharing of Public folders in my Windows 7 Network and Sharing Center "Advanced Settings", and it made no difference for me, at least with Adobe XI.

Basically, if I'm on the VPN and have my network drives mapped, Adobe works fine. If I'm not on the VPN and don't have the network drives mapped, I get the 10-20 second hang-up after Adobe starts. If I had to guess, I suspect that Adobe is trying to go out on the network and look for previously opened files (I often open PDF files directly from the network drives). This really sucks because the most common time I am not connected to my VPN and network drives is when I'm at a customer giving a presentation... Hate making them wait while Adobe hangs-up for 20 seconds.

Hopefully somebody will figure out what magic switch to pull on this problem...

Thanks,

Report · Dec 18, 2012

I am sad to report that I still have this problem with Acrobat on more than one computer and operating system.

Report · Dec 27, 2012

I have exactly the same problem as you guys, I'm using a 64-bit Windows 7... Since I installed Adobe Reader XI, the problem occurs frequently, previous version was somewhat better. I hope to hear a solution soon!