Apphang/crashes

[adaml167]

There are three machines in my organization that have been experiencing unexplained crashing of Acrobat DC Pro (File version 18.11.20040.19174). The application opens with no issues, displays PDFs and lets users work, but after a varied length of time will crash. We've tried repair installations, removal and reinstall (without letting updates install) and all the basic troubleshooting one would take with a Windows system to no avail. Among the three systems affected, two are running Windows 10 (build 14393 and build 17134) and one is a Windows 7 VDI accessed through Horizon View Client. However all crash the same way with very similar entries in the event viewer (Apphang, eventual crash or forced stop). I've used the Adobe monitoring tool to capture WER logs on the system that's experiencing it most often and can provide them if needed, but we're stuck on what to try next and have three users that can't use the software effectively. Any help would be appreciated.

[Alison - Clearly Stated]

I have a similar issue. I have Adobe Acrobat Professional 2017. As you, it takes ages to open/close files, and occasionally hangs. A guarantee 'hang', however, is if I right-click on a PDF file because I want to open it in Acrobat as opposed to the reader (which I've switched to the default because Acrobat seems to insist on trying to make the PDF editable even when I don't want it to, and I haven't worked out how to switch it off yet).

I'm using Windows 10 with all the latest updates installed. I do know there is/was an issue with creating PDFs from FrameMaker after a recent Windows update, but I was still able to work with PDFs themselves. This is going to be a real show-stopper soon...

[Alison - Clearly Stated]

I have solved my "hang" with Acrobat. I had to disable a shell extension. I couldn't tell you which one was the culprit, as I disabled any I don't use.

I do now I disabled the Dropbox one, a couple to do with my graphics card (I don't play games, so don't need to be able to do anything clever there) and one called "Play to" which has something to do with streaming. There were others... if I've never used them, I've disabled them. To do it, I downloaded the utility ShellExView from http://www.nirsoft.net (there's also one called ShellMenuView). Read the instructions, as they recommend hiding the Windows extensions so you don't stop something critical from working.

It's safer than editing the registry, although I did find sometimes something seemed to have solved my problem till I rebooted (hence the reason I disabled everything I don't use rather than stepping through one at a time).

Hope this helps someone...

[adaml167]

Is there any way to get support involved? I want to open a support ticket, but it doesn't seem available as an option.

[divyap69359112]

Hi Adam,

As you mentioned all three users are from the same organization.

there is a possibility they all are using a third party app which is causing Acrobat to crash.

You can try Clean boot once https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

Regards,

Divya

[adaml167]

Clean boot doesn't result in any kind of difference in the software. Is it possible that it has to do with reaching out to the network? Are there certain ports that should be opened when using this product? Anything specific that needs to be tweaked in regard to firewall settings?

[adaml167 · Accepted solution]

Disabling shell extensions sounds promising, but I also came across this forum post which mentions required ports and endpoints (URLs) for different Adobe products:

Hi, I need a definitive list of urls and ports necessary to be open for DC to talk behind corporate ...

It turns out a few of them are categorized as file share sites and can wreak havoc with certain firewall setups. Our network admin pulled the relevant ones, edited the firewall and now...we wait.

[adaml167]

Allowing the listed ports/URLs for Adobe DC Pro functions seems to have done the trick. It's been days since the change was made and the random Apphang and 'Not Responding' messages are gone.