When Acrobat/Reader DC crashes, freezes or hangs, create a process dump to debug the cause. The process dump allows you to save a snapshot of the application at the point when it crashes or freezes.
- Crash - A crash is when the application or the system stops working and then closes.
- Hang/Freeze - A hang or freeze occurs when either an application or the system ceases to respond to user inputs.
Crash dumps are not enabled by default on Windows. Enabling this feature requires administrator privileges. Below are the steps to enable and collect Acrobat/Reader DC crash dumps. For more information, see Microsoft | collecting user-mode dumps, or contact Microsoft support.
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Create LocalDumps key.
- Navigate to the location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting
- Select the Windows Error Reporting key and create a new key named LocalDumps if it is not there already:
1. Right-click Windows Error Reporting.
2. Select New and then Key.
3. Name the key as LocalDumps.
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Create registry values in the LocalDumps key. Select the LocalDumps key and create three registry values as mentioned below:
- DumpFolder registry value
1. Right-click on the blank area on the right side and select New > Expandable String Value.
2. Name it as DumpFolder.
3. Double click it and enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps in the Value data field.
- DumpCount registry value
1. Right-click on the blank area on the right side and select New > DWORD (32-bit) value.
2. Name it as DumpCount.
3. Double click it and enter 10 in the Value data field.
- DumpType registry value
1. Right-click on the blank area on the right side and select New > DWORD (32-bit) value.
2. Name it as DumpType.
3. Double click it and enter 2 in the Value data field.
- DumpFolder registry value
When Acrobat/Reader DC hangs or freezes, create a dump file to save program information. The dumps are useful for further debugging the issue. Take two to three dumps at different time intervals when the application hangs/freezes so that it captures the complete snapshot while it is in the unresponsive state.
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The Dumping Process dialog will display the location of the dump file once it is created. Note the location and click OK. The location of the dump file is \Users\{UserName}\AppData\Local\Temp.
If you are unable to see the AppData folder, see how to show hidden files and folder in Windows.
Note:
For more information, see how to create a user-mode process dump file in Windows.
If Acrobat/Reader DC application crashes frequently, crash logs are required to help diagnose the issue. Crash logs contain information about what the app was doing preceding the crash. Whenever Acrobat/Reader DC crashes on your Mac, it automatically generates a crash report.
When Acrobat crashes, a warning dialog is displayed that says, “Acrobat Pro DC has quit unexpectedly.” The crash report is available to read immediately when you click the Report... button.


The Adobe Crash Reporter collects a log of what the application was doing preceding the crash. It uploads the information into a database that Adobe engineering team uses to analyze crashes and develop solutions. Adobe Crash Reporter is an invaluable tool that helps the Acrobat engineering team to track and fix the crash related bugs.
Note: Do not confuse the Adobe Crash Reporter with either the Apple or Microsoft crash reporters, which do not send any information directly to Adobe.
If you don't see the Adobe Crash Reporter dialog, you may have selected an option to not show the dialog. To enable Adobe crash reporter, do the following:
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In the left-pane, click User Reports, and then click the crash report you want to view. All the files end with .crash extension. The filename includes the name of the crashed application and the date. The details of the crash report are available in the right-pane.
The following information is required when you submit the logs to Adobe Support:
- Provide a detailed description. If you can consistently reproduce the problem with specific steps, list the steps in detail. Even if exact sequence of steps is not known, provide as much detail as you can about what you were doing when the problem occurred.
For example, what operation were you performing when the problem occurred? What type of document were you using? Did you recently use any plug-ins? If the problem is specific to a particular file, feel free to share the file via Adobe Document Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud, Dropbox, or some other file sharing service and include a link to the file in the problem description. - Include your email address. Engineering team might want to contact you to collect more information, or the team can notify you of a fix or a workaround via email.
- Always send crash reports to Adobe. There is a preference in Acrobat to Always send crash reports automatically to Adobe.