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How to Fix Adobe Acrobat Highlighting Slow and Laggy on iPad
Question details
Users experience significant delays and freezing when using the highlighting tool in the Adobe Acrobat app on an iPad.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat
- Device & OS
- iPadOS
- Scenario
- Reading and annotating PDF documents by highlighting text for study or review purposes.
- Observed behavior
- The highlighting feature works normally for the first 5 to 10 highlights, but then becomes extremely slow. Closing and reopening the app temporarily fixes the lag, but the delay quickly returns upon further highlighting.
Before proceeding with any app reinstalls or system resets, ensure that your locally saved PDFs and annotations are securely synced to Adobe Document Cloud or backed up to iCloud to prevent data loss.
Update Apps and Clear System Memory
Applying the latest software updates and clearing active RAM can quickly resolve temporary memory leaks causing the highlighting lag.
Continuous highlighting in Adobe Acrobat can consume a significant amount of device memory over a short period. If the application is poorly optimized or experiencing a caching glitch on iPadOS, freeing up system resources and updating the software often provides a reliable fix.
Open the App Store on your iPad, search for Adobe Acrobat, and tap the Update button if a newer version is available.
Navigate to Settings > General > Software Update and install any pending system updates to ensure optimal app compatibility.
Swipe up from the bottom of your screen and pause to open the App Switcher. Swipe up on Adobe Acrobat and any other memory-heavy applications to close them completely.
Hold down the power button and volume button until the power off slider appears. Turn off the iPad, wait 30 seconds, and turn it back on.
Reinstall Acrobat and Disable Extra Features
If standard updates fail, a clean installation and limiting background features can stop Adobe Acrobat from lagging.
Use WPS Office to Annotate PDFs Smoothly
If Adobe Acrobat continues to lag on your iPad, switch to WPS Office. It features a highly optimized and lightweight PDF reader designed specifically for mobile and tablet devices, allowing you to highlight, draw, and annotate your documents without any frustrating delays.
- 1. Install WPS Office: Download and install WPS Office for free from the Apple App Store on your iPad.
- 2. Open Your PDF Document: Launch the WPS Office app, navigate to the 'Files' tab, and open your PDF from local storage or cloud drive.
- 3. Select the Highlight Tool: Tap on the 'Annotation' menu at the top or bottom toolbar and choose the 'Highlight' icon.
- 4. Highlight Without Lag: Select your desired color and easily drag your finger or Apple Pencil across the text to highlight smoothly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Adobe Acrobat get slower the more I highlight on my iPad?
Continuous highlighting accumulates cached action data in the device's RAM. If an app has a memory leak or poor caching optimization, it struggles to manage the data from consecutive annotations, resulting in severe performance lag.
Will reinstalling the app delete my locally saved PDFs?
Yes, if your PDFs are stored locally within the Adobe Acrobat app's folder and not backed up to a service like iCloud or Adobe Document Cloud, they will be deleted upon uninstallation. Always back up your files before removing the app.
Is this highlighting delay caused by a hardware limitation on older iPads?
Not necessarily. While older hardware has less RAM, users have reported identical highlighting lag issues on top-tier iPad Pro devices. This indicates that the problem is primarily an app-specific software optimization issue rather than a hardware constraint.
