We are supporting a real time product that needs only the Acrobat Reader as one of its components. No new "cool features" and "enhancements" like "collaborations" are required.
Adobe updates were turned OFF and no problems.
Then Adobe hacked each of the installations with its "updates".
We cannot replace the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
How to disable/remove "collaboration" and the Adobe Acrobat Reader "updates" for ever?

Bumping. I can't believe this is still happening!

I'm sure there would be many more upvotes, but the vast majority aren't savvy enough to search the forums and instead just reboot their computer.

Honestly, this is amateur stuff. Just unlock the **** file when it is closed FFS!

Lousy programmers now and forever. That is what these people are. Even if he/she is lousy programmer it still can be respected if they are try to improve toward customers. But seems that customers are only slaves forced to use their software, there is no point to take a notice of what they say ...

2/12/2022 This is also happening on Windows 11 with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Version 2021.011.20039 64-bit.

Windows Explorer preview is not enabled.

Even without Windows explorer preview turned off, the bug happends all the time.

We generally have to kill any "Adobe AcroCEF" and "Adobe Collaboration Sync" running process.
When in doubt, kill every Adobe running process.

Then we regain control over the file : renaming, moving, deleting, overwriting the file itself or parent folders.

I confirm It happend almost ALL THE TIME when NO ADOBE APP IS RUNNING.
Which is honestly a bit outrageous, someone who doesn't know how to manually kill running process would have to restard computer entirely just to rename a PDF.

Also I think we should be able to use preview on windows... release file lock when not previewing the file ? don't lock the file when it's only a preview ?

It has been reported and discussed on many threads on community forums
https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/permanently-disable-adobe-collab-sync/m-p/12648210#M345108
https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/we-re-going-to-mars-but-i-have-bigger-plans-in-2022-i-want-to-rename-a-pdf/m-p/12648217#M345109
https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader-discussions/disable-file-lock-on-adobe-reader-dc-windows-10/m-p/12661753/page/2#M87519

I too have this infuriating problem, and the issue has plagued Acrobat DC (the full app) for many years through many iterations of Windows. Other software cannot rewrite a PDF file even after the file has been closed in Acrobat. Even closing Acrobat itself does not always solve the issue. Windows Task Manager proves it is the processes AdobeCollabSync.exe and/or AcroCEF.exe that is/are keeping a handle on the file even after after it has been closed in Acrobat. Only ending these processes in Task Manager releases the lock on the PDF file and allows external software to delete/rewrite the PDF file. Please fix this amateur file handling issue and allow me to use Acrobat as a professional tool without it constantly spoiling my workflow!

ACROTRAY.EXE keeps files open and handles reserved, files can't be deleted, moved or external disks can't be ejected until Acrotray task is killed, Why Acrotray.exe opens files that were not opened using Acrobat or even any other Adobe App, images for instance, why?

Bump - Bug still exists. Not only in Reader, also in Acrobat DC

I agree that this has been going on for too long, and I'm stunned that it hasn't been addressed.

This is not caused by Windows Explorer. If you try to remove the file or move it to another folder, the Windows popup says "This action cannot be completed because the file is in use by Adobe Acrobat Reader DC." In other words, we know who is locking the file.

This problem-- where Acrobat Reader locks a file and doesn't unlock it after you have closed that file's tab--has persisted for years. I now have Reader version 2021.001.20150 and it is still there.

The only workarounds I have found are (1) close Acrobat Reader completely or (2) use a 3rd-party file unlocker app. I see here that this problem was reported more than a year ago. Can you tell us if Adobe is even trying to fix it?

Hi TH,

Thank you for your further analysis and getting down to the root cause of the problem being the AdobeCollabSync process. This problem has been driving me crazy for many months, and I really wonder why Adobe hasn't fixed it by now.

Admin Ayush Jain - Please take note of this, and echoing TH I also say, Adobe, please fix this annoying and irritating bug. A process should not continue hanging onto a reference to a file after the file has been closed.

I have the same issue. After opening and closing a file in Acrobat, the file is locked down (it cannot be renamed or moved) and the folder it is in cannot be moved with File Explorer. I do not have Windows Explorer Preview turned on; this is not the problem.

In order to unlock the file, I have to use Sysinternals Process Explorer to hunt down the Adobe process responsible for locking down the file even though it is closed. This is done by opening Sysinternals Process Explorer, going to "Find", pasting the locked file directory name next to "Handle or DLL substring", and clicking "Search".

The results return as explorer.exe, which is to be expected, and then AdobeCollabSync.exe. Terminating AdobeCollabSync.exe unlocks the file, and I can do with it what I want, which should have been done just by closing Acrobat. This kind of application behavior is unacceptable.

Please refer to the following link as well, which details how to deactivate AdobeCollabSync.exe (at least until it is updated again). Adobe, please fix this issue.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/creative-cloud-services/adobe-collaboration-synchronizer/m-p/10718289?page=1

Hi Ayush, thank you for replying.

I do not have Windows Explorer Preview turned on. I also tried to close the Explorer window and perform the operations on that file in a different Explorer window, including previously opened and newly opened Explorer windows, and in all Explorer windows I got "Close the file and try again."

One thing I noticed in my experiments is that if I just open a PDF file and read it and close it, the problem does not occur. However, if I print the file and then close the file, or if I use the Comment tool to add a comment to the file and then save and close the file, then the "Close the file and try again." problem does occur after the file is closed.