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Resolve errors related to the AcroCEF/RdrCEF processes of Acrobat or Acrobat Reader

Last updated on May 13, 2024

Acrobat User Guide
Introduction to Acrobat
1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
2. Introducing the new Acrobat experience
3. What's new in Acrobat
4. Keyboard shortcuts
5. System Requirements
6. Download Adobe Acrobat
7. Download Acrobat | Enterprise term or VIP license
8. Download Acrobat 64-bit for Windows
9. Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Windows
10. Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Mac OS
11. Install updates for Acrobat and Reader
12. Update your Acrobat to the latest version
13. Download Acrobat 2020
14. Release Notes | Acrobat, Reader
Workspace
1. Workspace basics
2. Opening and viewing PDFs
3. Working with online storage accounts
4. Acrobat and macOS
5. Acrobat notifications
6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
8. Adobe Acrobat for Outlook
9. Set Acrobat as default PDF viewer
10. Explore Acrobat tools
Creating PDFs
1. Overview of PDF creation
2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
5. Converting web pages to PDF
6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
8. PDF fonts
Editing PDFs
1. Edit text in PDFs
2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
4. Edit scanned PDFs
5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
6. Optimizing PDFs
7. PDF properties and metadata
8. Links and attachments in PDFs
9. PDF layers
10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
11. PDFs converted to web pages
12. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
13. PDF articles
14. Geospatial PDFs
15. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
16. Change the default font for adding text
17. Delete pages from a PDF
18. Edit a signed PDF | FAQ
Scan and OCR
1. Scan documents to PDF
2. Enhance document photos
3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
Forms
1. PDF forms basics
2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
3. Create and distribute PDF forms
4. Fill in PDF forms
5. PDF form field properties
6. Fill and sign PDF forms
7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
9. PDF form field basics
10. PDF barcode form fields
11. Collect and manage PDF form data
12. About forms tracker
13. PDF forms help
14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
Combining files
1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
4. Crop PDF pages
5. Add watermarks to PDFs
6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
Sharing, reviews, and commenting
1. Share and track PDFs online
2. Mark up text with edits
3. Preparing for a PDF review
4. Starting a PDF review
5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
6. Participating in a PDF review
7. Add comments to PDFs
8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
9. Approval workflows
10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
11. Importing and exporting comments
12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
Saving and exporting PDFs
1. Saving PDFs
2. Convert PDF to Word
3. Convert PDF to PPTX
4. Convert PDF to XLSX or XML
5. Convert PDF to JPEG
6. Convert PDF to TIFF
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8. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
9. File format options for PDF export
10. Reusing PDF content
Security
1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
2. Securing PDFs with passwords
3. Manage Digital IDs
4. Securing PDFs with certificates
5. Opening secured PDFs
6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
11. Protected View feature for PDFs
12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
14. Attachments as security risks
15. Allow or block links in PDFs
16. Edit secured PDFs
Electronic signatures
1. Sign PDF documents
2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
3. Send documents for e-signatures
4. Create a web form
5. Request e-signatures in bulk
6. Collect online payments
7. Brand your account
8. About certificate signatures
9. Certificate-based signatures
10. Validating digital signatures
11. Adobe Approved Trust List
12. Manage trusted identities
Printing
1. Basic PDF printing tasks
2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
3. Advanced PDF print settings
4. Print to PDF
5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
7. Scale or resize PDF pages
Accessibility, tags, and reflow
1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
2. Accessibility features in PDFs
3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
6. Creating accessible PDFs
7. Cloud-based auto-tagging
Searching and indexing
1. Creating PDF indexes
2. Searching PDFs
Multimedia and 3D models
1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
4. Interacting with 3D models
5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
7. Enable 3D content in PDF
8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
11. Add comments to videos
Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
1. Print production tools overview
2. Printer marks and hairlines
3. Previewing output
4. Transparency flattening
5. Color conversion and ink management
6. Trapping color
Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
2. Preflight profiles
3. Advanced preflight inspections
4. Preflight reports
5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
6. Output intents in PDFs
7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
11. Preflight libraries
12. Preflight variables
Color management
1. Keeping colors consistent
2. Color settings
3. Color-managing documents
4. Working with color profiles
5. Understanding color management
Troubleshoot
1. Troubleshoot PDF printing in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader
2. Adobe Acrobat license has either expired or not been activated
3. Edit PDF forms created in LiveCycle Designer
4. Insufficient data for an image error on Adobe Acrobat
5. Resolve errors related to the AcroCEF/RdrCEF processes of Acrobat or Acrobat Reader

Issue

AcroCEF.exe/RdrCEF.exe are inseparable processes of Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader. They handle multiple integral aspects of the application, such as network interaction and Adobe cloud storage services, such as Fill and Sign, Send For e-signature, Share for View/Review, and more.

If these processes don't function properly, an error message is displayed while using any services dependent on the processes.

For more information, see What are RdrCEF.exe and AcroCEF.exe processes?

Refer to The Chromium Projects

Steps to troubleshoot

Follow the steps below in the order they appear.

Step 1: Quit Acrobat or acrobat reader and relaunch it

Steps for Windows:

Quit the Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader application.
Open the Task Manager in Windows by doing one of the following:
- Right-click on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and choose Task Manager.
- Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys on your keyboard and then choose Task Manager.
If there are any AcroCEF/RdrCEF processes running, select the AcroCEF/RdrCEF process and then select End Task.

Repeat the step until no AcroCEF/RdrCEF process is running.

End the AcroCEF or RdrCEF process from the Task Manager
Launch Acrobat or Acrobat Reader.

Steps for macOS:

Quit the Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader application.
Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.
If any AcroCEF/RdrCEF processes are running, select the AcroCEF/RdrCEF process and then select Stop.

Repeat the step until no AcroCEF/RdrCEF process is running.

Stop the AcroCEF or RdrCEF process from the Activity Monitor
Select Quit when prompted.
Launch Acrobat or Acrobat Reader.

Step 2: Check for proper permissions to the webresources folder

Verify if you have read/write permissions for the WebResources folder at the specified location.

	Windows	macOS
Adobe Acrobat	C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\WebResources	/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat/DC/WebResources
Acrobat Reader	C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\WebResources	/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Acrobat Reader/DC/WebResources

Step 3: Safelist Acrobat and Acrobat Reader Folders to Protect AcroCEF/RdrCEF Processes

Sometimes, third-party software DLLs disrupt or interfere with the AcroCEF or RdrCEF processes. This is referred to as a DLL injection. To solve this problem, include the Acrobat installation directory in the third-party software's exception list. Once you add it, the AcroCEF and RdrCEF processes will function properly.

Note:

The steps below explain how to add exceptions to Avast antivirus software. If you are using different antivirus software, follow the instructions on the respective website, and add the Acrobat or Acrobat Reader folder to the exception list accordingly.

Steps to safelist Acrobat or Acrobat Reader folder:

Open Avast antivirus and then select Menu > Settings.
Select General > Exceptions, and then select Add Exception.

Add the path of the Acrobat folder as below:

	Windows	macOS
Adobe Acrobat	C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat\	/Applications/Adobe Acrobat/
Acrobat Reader	C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\	/Applications/Adobe Acrobat Reader/

Select Add Exception. The Acrobat or Acrobat Reader folder is now safelisted.

If you are still facing the issue, collect and analyze the logs using Adobe Acrobat Diagnostics to identify the third-party DLLs loaded in the AcroCEF or RdrCEF processes, and then safelist the Acrobat or Acrobat Reader folder in the corresponding third-party software.

Step 4: Repair Acrobat or Acrobat Reader installation (WINDOWS)

Launch the Adobe Acrobat application.
Go to > Help > Repair installation.

After the repair process is complete, restart your computer.

Step 5: Uninstall and reinstall Acrobat or Acrobat Reader

You can sometimes resolve the error by uninstalling and reinstalling Acrobat.

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