Fix Adobe Acrobat Crashing and Slow Copying on Mac
Question details
The user needs to resolve an issue where Adobe Acrobat is freezing during text copying and frequently crashing.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat
- Device & OS
- macOS (2015 iMac)
- Scenario
- Copying text from a PDF document to paste into other design or text editing applications like Pages or Illustrator.
- Observed behavior
- Text copying takes several minutes to process, and the application crashes multiple times a day. Reinstalling the software through standard methods has not solved the problem.
Ensure you have your Adobe account credentials ready and save any unsaved work in other applications before performing updates or reinstallations.
Update Software and Isolate File Issues
Verify that you are running the latest supported versions of both macOS and Acrobat, and test different files to rule out document-specific corruption.
Older versions of Adobe Acrobat may struggle with compatibility on newer macOS updates, or vice versa. Additionally, PDFs with complex fonts or heavy OCR (Optical Character Recognition) layers can cause the application to hang during text extraction.
Go to the Apple menu > About This Mac to check your macOS version. Then, open Acrobat and go to Acrobat > About Adobe Acrobat to verify your software version.
In Acrobat, click on the Help menu and select Check for Updates. Install any available updates and restart your iMac.
Open a plain, text-only PDF that does not contain custom fonts or scanned OCR layers. Try copying text from this file to see if the delay or crash still occurs.
Reset Acrobat Preferences
Clear corrupted application preferences that may be causing performance bottlenecks and unexpected crashes.
Perform a Clean Reinstallation
Use the official Adobe removal tool to completely wipe lingering installation files before reinstalling.
Copy PDF Text Fast and Safely with WPS Office
If your current PDF reader continues to freeze or crash on your iMac, switch to WPS Office. The built-in WPS PDF tool is highly optimized, handles large documents smoothly, and allows you to seamlessly select and copy text without system lag.
- 1. Install WPS Office: Download and install the free WPS Office suite for Mac from the official website.
- 2. Open your PDF file: Launch WPS Office and drag your PDF document into the main workspace, or use the 'Open' button to locate your file.
- 3. Select and copy text: Highlight the text you need using your cursor, then press Command+C or right-click and select 'Copy'. You can immediately paste it into your design or text application without delays.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my PDF reader take so long to copy text?
Slow text copying is often caused by overly complex fonts, unoptimized OCR (scanned) layers in the PDF, or corrupted application cache files. Heavy documents require more RAM to process clipboard data.
Will adding more RAM to my iMac stop application crashes?
If the crashes are caused by memory exhaustion from heavy PDF files, upgrading your RAM can help. However, if the issue stems from corrupted software preferences or OS incompatibility, hardware upgrades alone won't solve it.
Is there a way to recover unsaved work if my PDF editor crashes?
Most modern PDF editors, including Adobe Acrobat, have an AutoSave feature. You can usually recover unsaved work by reopening the application immediately after a crash and following the recovery prompt.
