Fix Acrobat Pro Hanging When Viewing or Adding Comments on macOS
Question details
The user needs to resolve an issue where Adobe Acrobat Pro 2021 becomes entirely unresponsive when attempting to view or add comments to a PDF file on specific macOS user accounts.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat Pro 2021
- Device & OS
- macOS
- Scenario
- Viewing or adding comments to a PDF document.
- Observed behavior
- The application freezes and hangs specifically on certain macOS user profiles, and the issue persists even after reinstalling the app and running the cleaner tool.
Ensure you have saved and backed up any open PDF documents, and temporarily close all running Adobe background processes using the macOS Activity Monitor to prevent file conflicts.
Reset Acrobat Preferences and Create a Clean macOS Profile
Testing Acrobat in a new macOS user profile helps isolate whether the freezing issue is caused by system-wide problems or corrupted user-level preferences in your current profile.
Often, persistent application hangs on a specific Mac user account are tied to corrupted preference lists (PLIST files) or corrupted local cache data that standard uninstallation methods fail to remove.
Go to the Apple menu > System Settings (or System Preferences) > Users & Groups. Click the 'Add Account' button to create a new Administrator profile.
Log out of your current macOS account, log into the newly created profile, and launch Acrobat Pro. Try viewing or adding PDF comments to see if it still hangs.
If Acrobat works normally in the new profile, the issue is with your original profile's data. Log back into your main account and delete the Acrobat preferences folder located at ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe/Acrobat/.
Open Acrobat Pro, navigate to Preferences > Commenting, and uncheck 'Enable text indicators and tooltips' to reduce the processing load when hovering over PDF comments.
Update macOS and Adobe Acrobat
Running outdated versions of your operating system or PDF software can cause unresponsiveness due to unresolved compatibility bugs.
Use WPS Office as a Lightweight PDF Editor on macOS
If Adobe Acrobat continues to hang or consume excessive system resources on your Mac, WPS Office provides a highly optimized, lightweight PDF alternative. You can view, comment, edit, and sign PDFs seamlessly without performance drops.
- 1. Open Your PDF in WPS Office: Launch WPS Office on your Mac and open the PDF document you wish to review.
- 2. Access the Commenting Tools: Navigate to the 'Comment' tab on the top ribbon to view all available PDF annotation and markup tools.
- 3. Annotate Without Lag: Select the Text Comment or Highlight tool and click anywhere on the document to start adding your notes smoothly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Adobe Acrobat freeze specifically when I click on PDF comments?
This usually happens when Acrobat attempts to render complex comment layers or tooltips, and the user-level cache or preference file responsible for the commenting feature has become corrupted on your specific macOS profile.
Will reinstalling Acrobat completely fix the freezing issue on my Mac?
Not always. If the problem is caused by corrupted files in the user Library folder, a standard application uninstallation might leave those preference files behind. You must manually delete the corrupted preference files to resolve the issue.
How do I use the Adobe Acrobat Cleaner Tool on macOS?
The Acrobat Cleaner Tool removes leftover registry and preference files. You can download it directly from Adobe's official website, run the executable, and follow the setup wizard to ensure a completely clean slate before reinstalling the software.
