Fix Adobe Acrobat Freezing on macOS Mojave (Spinning Wheel)
Question details
The user's Adobe Acrobat 2020 becomes unresponsive on an iMac running macOS Mojave, displaying a spinning colored wheel and preventing further operations.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat 2020
- Device & OS
- macOS Mojave 10.14.6
- Scenario
- Working with or opening PDF documents on an iMac.
- Observed behavior
- The application freezes and displays an extended spinning colored wheel (the macOS wait cursor), preventing any further interaction.
Before troubleshooting, test if the issue is isolated to a single document by opening a different PDF file. Also, ensure your iMac has sufficient available RAM and storage to handle demanding applications.
Check for and Install Acrobat Updates
Updating Acrobat to the latest available version (such as 2020.009.20067) often patches known freezing bugs and stability issues on macOS Mojave.
Software conflicts between Adobe Acrobat and macOS Mojave are frequently resolved by official patches. Running an outdated version of Acrobat makes it highly susceptible to performance drops and unresponsiveness.
Launch Adobe Acrobat on your Mac. If it freezes immediately upon opening a file, try opening the application without loading a PDF.
Go to the top macOS menu bar and click on the 'Help' tab.
Select 'Check for Updates' from the dropdown menu to communicate with Adobe's servers and check if a newer version is available.
Follow the on-screen prompts to download and install the update, then completely restart Adobe Acrobat to apply the changes.
Force Quit and Check System Resources
If Acrobat is completely locked up by the spinning wheel, you must force quit the app and verify your Mac's resource usage to ensure it isn't running out of memory.
Open and Edit PDFs Smoothly with WPS Office
If Adobe Acrobat consistently freezes and slows down your Mac with the spinning colored wheel, WPS Office provides a highly optimized, lightweight PDF reader and editor. It handles large and complex PDF files on macOS effortlessly.
- 1. Download WPS Office for Mac: Visit the official WPS website and download the macOS version of WPS Office.
- 2. Access the PDF Tools: Launch WPS Office and click on the 'PDF' tab on the main interface to open the dedicated PDF environment.
- 3. View and Edit Seamlessly: Drag and drop your PDF into the application to instantly view, annotate, or edit the document smoothly without encountering system lag or unresponsiveness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my Mac show a spinning colored wheel when using Adobe Acrobat?
The spinning colored wheel, often called the 'beach ball', indicates that a macOS application has become unresponsive. This typically happens when Acrobat is waiting for system resources, processing a highly complex PDF, or encountering a software bug.
Will reinstalling Adobe Acrobat fix the freezing issue on macOS Mojave?
If updating the software does not work, completely uninstalling Acrobat using the official Adobe uninstaller tool and reinstalling a fresh copy can resolve underlying file corruption that frequently causes application freezing.
How do I check my current version of Adobe Acrobat on a Mac?
Open Adobe Acrobat, click on 'Acrobat' in the top macOS menu bar, and select 'About Adobe Acrobat'. A window will pop up displaying the exact version number, which can help you identify if you are running an outdated build.
Can corrupted PDF files cause Adobe Acrobat to freeze?
Yes, if a specific PDF file is corrupted, improperly compressed, or contains poorly formatted vector graphics, Acrobat may get stuck attempting to render it, resulting in the spinning wheel. Try opening a different, simpler PDF file to test this scenario.
