How much disk space does your Acrobat installation take?

[RickAstley]

I noticed this morning that my installation of Acrobat DC currently uses 3.03GB of disk space on my Surface Pro 3 with Windows 10 Pro. I think this is excessive - it is nearly 4 times as large as the entire Microsoft Office Suite (850MB). Is this a typical installation size for most people?

Unrelated: Surely I can't be the only one who noticed that the "Complete FAQ" link is dead (the green button) on the start page for this sub-forum. Come on Adobe, where's the QA/QC?

[AadeshSingh]

Hi slavrenz,

Acrobat DC is a bulky application with so many features, that's the reason it consumes so much space after installation.

Mine has occupied 3.72GB.

Acrobat DC FAQ link is active, please check FAQ | Adobe Acrobat DC

Regards,
Aadesh

[b_d_graphics]

I couldn't see any help in the FAQ section to reduce the install size.

My Adobe Acrobat DC install is now being reported as 7.4 GB on Windows 7 64 bit, quite an extreme size considering.

[Dov Isaacs]

Something sounds very wrong if you have that much space being used. The installer not only installs the executables, but also a copy of the installer itself is maintained in the directory. If your Program Files (x86)=>Adobe=>Acrobat DC directory is 7.4GB, maybe you also have a copy of Reader installed as well? If so, dump Reader since Reader is simply a subset of Acrobat. That would reduce your disk space requirements.

              - Dov

[johnt53587302]

I had to install reader because Fileopen wouldn't work with Acrobat.

[Test Screen Name]

‌You shouldn't see that much in Program Files but you will in Add/Remove Programs. Each update  least adds 3x its download size. Normal if painful.

[b_d_graphics]

Thanks for the quick replies.

The 'inaccurate' reported sizes may be correct as I was looking in the add/remove programs section.

The total files are a bit over the place, being in program, common and user data, so a bit harder to just sum up.

I un-installed and re-installed, which is reporting back as 2.37 GB.

[Test Screen Name · Accepted solution]

By far the biggest consumer is the Windows Installer database, which keeps a complete copy of the installer so you can repair. A single version sounds about right at that figure, but each update will add a lot more. If you get a lot of updates, an uninstall then reinstall, and the one latest update, will reduce space.

[jrunions]

Yep, my Adobe Acrobat DC via Creative Cloud was sized at a whopping 13.8Gb this morning when looked at using the Windows 7 Uninstaller. Whaaat...

I uninstalled and reinstalled and now it's down to 2.44 Gb. Still huge but more reasonable. The program seems to grow with every update.

[Test Screen Name]

Yup, because each update is stored at least twice.

[humanoid57281032]

My Acrobat DC is 15.2 GB (via the Windows Program list). It's one third larger then even my most bloated program. johnr65973011​ Did you unintall from Creative Cloud or via the Windows control panel? Thanks.

[jrunions]

Hi Seth,

I think I did both uninstall and reinstall using the Creative Cloud control panel. Certainly the reinstall was via CC.

Good luck.

PS - I just realised that this thread was started by Rick Astley. There's a real danger of getting rickrolled in this situation!

Rickrolling - Wikipedia

[nickf511205]

Hi, over 16gb here after installing updates.  Is there a way to reduce the file size without uninstalling and reinstalling?  I don't need all of the backups on backups for the original install and updates.  I'd rather have a clean hard drive.

[laurensl47680794]

The Windows uninstaller on my PC claims Acrobat DC takes up 15.9GB but the entire Adobe folder is less than 3 GB large. Maybe Windows simply makes a mistake by reporting a bloated installation. Did you check actual disk space usage?

[Test Screen Name]

The size is not accurate, but it's important to realise that installing software uses space in a lot more places than the "Adobe folder". A key place is the Windows Installer Database on C.

[JR Boulay]

Acrobat Pro DC on MacOS 10.11, aka El Capitan : 1,2 Gb

[Test Screen Name]

Yes and on Mac there is no installer database.