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Participating Frequently
January 25, 2013
Question

Acrobat X keeps crashing in Edit Forms mode

  • January 25, 2013
  • 16 replies
  • 32987 views

Hi!

I use Acrobat primarily to edit forms I made before I started using LiveCycle.  I have recently used the adobe cleaner and reinstalled all of CS.5 (because I couldn't figure out how to uninstall Acrobat alone), I am on Windows XP 64 bit--- Acrobat stopped crashing for a few days after the reinstall, now it's crashing when I try to edit form fields.  I have a deadline to meet for some form edits... please help?

Many thanks,

Laura

This topic has been closed for replies.

16 replies

August 17, 2017

I'm using Adobe Acrobat XI Pro...same Form Edit crash issue.  I believe form edits must be made in *.fcdt design file and not the *.pdf file.

-open Acrobat

-select "Create Form" on left under Select a Task (even though you're not creating a form...)

-select "from Scratch or Template" and "Launch."  This opens "Adobe FormsCentral" and shows a separate app open in the desktop tray.

-select "My Forms" tab -the form I've been building is listed there.

-double click open; form opens in "Design" tab view with the Form Editor and features I used to create it (this form editor was not showing when I tried to edit pdf that kept closing). 

Now in this Design view of Adobe FormsCentraI I can edit my form.  I'm also keeping backup copies as I go. File menu has option to "Export Design File..."  --this exports as *.fcdt file, not a pdf.  If I double click to open a *.fcdt file it launches "Adobe FormsCentral" and allows me to Import it to "My Forms" tab list of forms.

New Participant
March 7, 2017

This worked for me:

Find a PDF that doesn't cause Acrobat to crash when entering Prepare Forms mode. I had to try several files before I found one that worked. Then, while keeping that file open, also open the file that was originally causing it to crash and go to Prepare Forms there as well. Then I closed Acrobat, opened the problem file by itself one more time, and then it finally let me edit the forms.

New Participant
March 9, 2017

andreweder

Thanks!  That solution worked for me.  Appreciate the help.

New Participant
January 22, 2017

I FIGURED IT OUT!!!!!!!!! ask me how everyone

New Participant
January 23, 2017

YES PLEASE!! How did you get it to work? I just found this thread and have the same issue. As soon as I click a field to edit it shuts down.

New Participant
January 22, 2017

I have been building a large form filler over 19MB all custom from scratch using word. As a side project I have been working on this for over a month, I would save (save as) a new version ever time I put in over 3 hours of progress because I like to refer back to my older saves to start over if I break my project or decide to trash what I have if I don't like it. I am at a point were my editor crashes every time I want to edit the filler properties. If I open an earlier version that I saved I am able to edit without a crash. What does that mean? that means something I did in the latest version has a glitch or a conflict and the previous (3 hours worth of work in the past)  does not. I was lucky enough to save separate versions every few days or 3 hours of work to go back to the ones that are stable and not start completely over.

I have a feeling that there is something wrong in the current form and not the Adobe program.It is still perplexing as to why it is crashing at a certain point because I don't know where the problem is or what I edited last to cause the problem. but I tell ya, I can go back to a saved previous form and continue my project with no problems. I don't want to resort to that and I am trying to find a solution. I see here that this common problem is not an easy fix. I hope my experience helps or makes sense. 

madeleines93775679
New Participant
January 6, 2017

Hi Laura

did you find a solution to this problem? I am experiencing exactly the same - in forms editing mode Adobe X Pro closes down as soon as I try to edit.

New Participant
January 22, 2017

I have a question. How many hours did you get into the editor before it started crashing? how much of your work has been done before the problem?

New Participant
September 6, 2016

This poor guy has had this issue for OVER THREE YEARS, and NOBODY from Adobe has addressed the issue yet???

It's one thing to charge an exorbitant amount of money for software, BUT PEOPLE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO DOWNGRADE THEIR SOFTWARE TO GET IT TO ACT AS EXPECTED!  GET ON THE STICK, ADOBE, THIS IS INEXCUSABLE!!! 

I also have this issue, and I thought it was something that I did wrong.  I became so exasperated, I searched for a solution online, only to discover that the marvelous Adobe developers have been sitting on their hands!

New Participant
October 26, 2016

I am having a very similar issue with Acrobat DC Pro (desktop version). I have been using it for a year with absolutely no problems. Then, when it updated with the last on 10-11-16, I can no longer enter text into any form fields. When I try to edit a field, Acrobat crashes and shuts down. I have tried repairing, I have uninstalled and reinstalled twice, all to no avail. I then installed Acrobat DC Reader and can enter text in the fields with no problem. Unfortunately, I need to be able to create form fields and edit them as needed. I am extremely frustrated. Anybody else have this problem with DC or a solution? Thanks

paul-h
Participating Frequently
November 4, 2016

I'm having the same problem on OS X 10.10.5 with Acrobat Pro DC 2015. I can edit a form without any problems with Acrobat X, but when I try to edit in Acrobat DC Pro it crashes every time. Luckily, both can be installed, but it would be great to have this fixed so that forms are editable in the newest version.

Kris Hunt
Brainiac
January 30, 2015

It seems to happen only when there are groups of checkboxes or radio buttons present in the form. I made a test form with only text fields, and I was able to rearrange the form fields repeatedly with no crashes — even while dragging the text name of the field. As soon as checkboxes or radio buttons entered the picture, it started crashing again.

Kris Hunt
Brainiac
February 2, 2015

I fixed the problem by downgrading to Acrobat X.

New Participant
December 4, 2014

I had the same issue with form editing crashing Acrobat xi.  I tried all of the solutions provided in this forum, including creating a new form from scratch...same problem...Acrobat crashed at first attempt to edit form.  I finally downloaded a trial of Nitro PDF software, made my edits to the form in Nitro, then saved the edited form with new file name.  When I opened the newly saved form with Acrobat xi, form editing worked fine with no crashes. I am still evaluating Nitro for long term use. Hope this helps someone.

New Participant
July 23, 2014

Actually i got this figured out today.  This is on a windows 7 machine. It seemed to work on another login profile, so i deleted all the adobe folders under c:\users\"username"\appdata\local\  c:\users\"users name"\appdata\roaming\   and c:\users\"users name"\appdata\localnow\.   Then when i logged back on as the user it seemed to work ok.

Dreamy_77
Known Participant
July 23, 2014

Having the same issue. The workaround from Rob8989 is working for me:

Solution:

When moving the fields in the tab order window DO NOT CLICK ON THE TEXT. Click on and move the icon only and it does not crash.

Cheers Rob.