PDF freezing problems seem to have increased many times over in the last year, and as such the number of questions we receive in regard to PDF freezing or the dreaded PDF crash has also increased which is a good indication of this.
The most common question of the moment being why is my Adobe Acrobat freezing when trying to open a PDF within Internet Explorer.
There are of course a list of things which can cause this, some being on the Adobe Acrobat side and others being on the Internet Explorer (or whichever internet browser you are using)
To begin with delete all of your internet temp files
Internet Explorer – Tools – Internet Options – General tab – Delete
Firefox – Tools – Clear recent history
Ensure Adobe Acrobat is set to display PDF documents within your internet browser
Launch Acrobat – Edit menu – Select Internet and ensure display PDF in Browser is ticked
One of the most common causes for PDF freezing problems
If the problem still occurs download a PDF document and check if you can open it directly from Adobe Acrobat.
This will highlight any issues directly with Acrobat itself, and help to pinpoint the PDF freezing
From the Start / Run menu or the Windows ribbon type appwiz.cpl now find Adobe Acrobat Reader, select change and then the repair option, this will change Adobe Acrobat to its default settings. (Make sure your Internet browser is not open)
If the issue is still occurring running a repair over your Internet browser is the next step.
For Firefox simply download and reinstall it, Internet Explorer – Tools menu – Internet Options – Advanced – Restore Advanced settings and Reset – This will cause Internet Explorer to revert to its original settings, and hopefully fix any related problems.
Remember – making any major changes to Windows could require a reboot before changes take effect.
If you are still encountering PDF freezing problems this could be due to another add-in causing the problem.
Launch Adobe Acrobat – Edit menu – Preferences – Internet, now make sure Display PDF in browser is not selected so it should not be able to open your PDF files within your browser now.
Launch your Internet browser and test a PDF file again, does it open? Or still freeze?
From Internet Explorer go to Tools – Manage add-ons – now disable all Adobe add-ons, to do the same for Firefox go to Tools – Add-ons.
Try to open a PDF document from the browser now
You should get a message advising it could not open the document, now close your browser, open Adobe Acrobat – enable to Display PDF in browser option and try again