adobe acrobat seems to be frozen

I'm having trouble with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. It was working fine until yesterday, when it seemed to seize up -- I cannot open it to read any PDFs at all.

  • When I double-click on the icon in the apps folder, a pop-up box informs me that the app "is not open anymore" (this, even though in the dock, the little black dot appears next to the Reader icon, which normally indicates an app is open).
  • However, if I try dragging the Reader icon to Trash, I'm informed by a second pop-up box that the app "cannot be moved to Trash because it's open."


Force-quit does not work, regardless of how I try:

  • When I click and hold the icon in the dock, and the dialogue box pops up, I select Force-Quit, but nothing happens.
  • When I go to Force-Quit from the Apple menu and select Acrobat, then click to force-quit it, nothing happens.


At this point, I simply want to remove it so I can re-install the app and be able to read my PDFs again.


I'm running El Capitan (vers 10.11.3) on a MacBook Pro. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

MacBook Pro

Posted on May 6, 2016 3:34 AM

Reply
3 replies

May 6, 2016 4:36 AM in response to vagoughs

In case it helps, this is what I got when I ran EtreCheck (paired down to protect some privacy):


Launch Agents:

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2015-12-28) [Support]

[failed] com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a...plist (2016-02-02) [Support]

[loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist (2012-02-12) [Support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (2013-01-01) [Support]


Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (2016-02-02) [Support]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (2016-02-02) [Support]

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist (2012-02-12) [Support]

[failed] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (2016-04-15) [Support]

[loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist (2012-04-30) [Support]

[loaded] com.malwarebytes.MBAMHelperTool.plist (2015-12-13) [Support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (2010-08-25) [Support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (2013-01-01) [Support]


User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2012-02-19) [Support]

[failed] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist (2012-03-10) [Support]

[running] com.akamai.single-user-client.plist (2015-09-25) [Support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-03-03) [Support]


User Login Items:

(...)


Other Apps:

[running] com.adobe.PDApp.AAMUpdatesNotifier.155552.BBF964E7-A2C2-4E67-B1E4-E4F1C4630641

[loaded] com.adobe.Reader.49632

(...)

[loaded] 396 Apple tasks

[running] 184 Apple tasks

[killed] 19 Apple tasks


Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: 21.0.0.226 - SDK 10.6 (2016-04-22) [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-01-29)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 15.010.20060 - SDK 10.8 (2016-03-08) [Support]

AdobePDFViewer: 15.010.20060 - SDK 10.8 (2016-03-08) [Support]

Flash Player: 21.0.0.226 - SDK 10.6 (2016-04-22) [Support]

Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-01-29)

(...)

May 6, 2016 6:33 PM in response to vagoughs

reboot into safe mode

Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support


  • Drag the Adobe Reader folder containing the application icon to the Trash in the Dock. Drop it when the Trash icon darkens.
  • Click on your main hard drive, usually labeled “Macintosh HD,” under “Devices” in the Finder. Double-click on the “Library” folder in the main part of the Finder window. Double-click on the “Preferences” folder.
  • Select the files called “com.adobe.Reader.plist” and “com.Reader_x86_9.0.plist.” The name of the second file may be different if you have a version of Reader other than 9.0 installed. Drag the preference files to the Trash. Drop them when the Trash icon darkens.
  • Go to the “Finder” menu and select “Empty Trash.” Confirm that you want to empty the Trash in the onscreen window.

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adobe acrobat seems to be frozen

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