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January 12, 2012
Answered

10.1.2 Displays grey, blank page (Fixed with 10.1.3)

  • January 12, 2012
  • 28 replies
  • 156410 views

Adobe 10.1.2 I have the blank grey screen

show large images however is already checked...

what else could cause this?/

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer prisciliana_

    The 10.1.3 update to Acrobat X and Reader addresses this issue. You can install it automatically from within Acrobat X or Reader.

    1. Open Acrobat or Reader.
    2. Choose Help > Check For Updates.


    Acrobat or Reader installs the update automatically

    If you prefer, you can download and install the update yourself. Click the appropriate link below and locate the 10.1.3 update.

    Reader updates (for Windows)

    Reader updates (for Macintosh)

    Acrobat updates (for Windows)

    Acrobat updates (for Macintosh)

    28 replies

    Participant
    February 3, 2012

    Adobe...any update on this issue which has been widely seen?  Is it an issue with Adobe Reader 10.1.2 or and issue with the websites hosting the PDF's over HTTPS / SSL?  In all the posts about this, nobody from Adobe is providing any insight or commentary.  Any information would be greatly appreciated by all.

    EnterpriseHelp
    Inspiring
    February 6, 2012

    The Acrobat team is aware of the 10.1.2 bug that impairs PDF browser-based display in certain workflows. While a fix is ready for the next quarterly update, customers can help by attaching affected files (or by providing a public URL, if any) to a forum post here. Alternatively, click my user name and send the file privately with any details about your workflow you think might be pertinent.

    Adobe would like to verify the fix across a wide variety of files to assure that it covers the broadest number of scenarios and users.

    Ben

    Participating Frequently
    February 6, 2012

    Based on our own experience with this bug and everyone else's findings and workarounds presented in this forum post, it does not seem to be related to a particular PDF, but rather in the way that the server serves that PDF to the browser (i.e. what HTTP headers are returned and if the response is gzipped, etc.)

    For example, here are two pages on our site that contain links to a lot of PDFs where we experienced this issue (with all of the PDFs on these pages):

    http://www.portlandonline.com/bes/index.cfm?&c=50289

    http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/index.cfm?c=38306

    We were originally serving the PDFs with no content-length header but with an 'accept-ranges: bytes' header. These PDFs wouldn't display with the Reader 10.1.2 plugin in IE. We tried adding a content-length header which fixed the problem in 10.1.2, but seemed to break it in older Reader versions. We then discovered that removing the accept-ranges: bytes header fixed it in 10.1.2 (and didn't break older versions either.)

    Also, to reiterate, there were never any issues when accessing the same PDFs from other browsers. It was only the Reader plugin for IE that was affected. In addition, you could right click on a PDF and save it to your desktop and then open it in the full Reader 10.1.2 application without issue. But the same PDF wouldn't open directly in the IE Reader plugin.

    Participant
    February 2, 2012
    Participating Frequently
    February 2, 2012

    This is what happens when you have three-party compatibility requirements.

    I suppose what's going on is something like this:

    Microsoft: "it's not our fault, it was working before!"

    PDF content owners:  "it's not our fault, it was working before!"

    Adobe: "it's Microsoft's fault, they didn't implement the standard correctly"

    With so many variables it's no wonder there are major breakdowns with some configurations.

    If you are hosting the PDFs you should try messing around with the headers, in particular the accept-bytes one apparently worked for some people. What worked for me was to follow the advice in this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293792

    Good luck

    Participating Frequently
    January 31, 2012

    We've been experiencing similar problems with PDFs served from our database when requested from IE and Reader 10.1.2. After much troubleshooting, I finally discovered that our code was returning the PDF along with the HTTP header 'accept-ranges: bytes' header, even though our server does not support that HTTP feature. I don't know why that header was included in our code, but removing that header fixed the problem for us.

    I thought I'd share this in case it helps anyone else.

    Participant
    January 24, 2012

    ADP has maded a change on the backend, so now the Paystubs will open for our 800 plus users.

    Participant
    February 2, 2012

    I received a reply form our ADP rep who stated they basically certified 10.1.2 and did not give any more details as to any changes to get the Paystubs PDF's visible again in the browser.

    Chris 

    January 24, 2012

    We are having issues with user's not being able to view their W2's. A workaround that you can try is to hold down Ctrl while clicking on the link for the certain PDF you are trying to view. Question is...why does holding down Ctrl allow the PDF to load?

    Participant
    January 20, 2012

    I have been unable to connect adobe to my computer , Is there a way you can explain it to me?

    Participant
    January 20, 2012

    Looks like this is in the "Known Issues list" now on the Release Notes.  No workaround, though.

    Participant
    January 18, 2012

    Hello, could we get some type of response from the moderator from adobe?  Has there been any type of confimration by adobe that 10.1.2 has changed the way secure (https) web sites and adobe reader 10.1.2 work together?  10.1.1 was working fine with secure sites.  The 10.1.2 patch has caused the PDF's either to hang / freeze when opening or it opens to a grey screen on secue web sites.

    Thanks

    Participant
    January 18, 2012

    It would be nice to hear an update regarding this from Adobe besides the usual silence, like maybe even a "we're working on it and will release an update soon" would be SOMETHING.  I'm not thrilled with the idea of ripping Reader off 1800 workstations, and reinstalling just to work around this problem, but that's the point I'm at.  While it's great that several on here have figured out the server-side changes necessary to make it work, having numerous commercial hosts change their code just to correct an issue in a bad patch is not an acceptable solution.

    Participant
    January 17, 2012

    It appears if you toggle Compatability view when you get the below screen shot you can get the PDF to load.  It's like the browser tries to update and then is able to load PDF.   We are having issues with Win7 IE9 on the ADP site pulling up pay stubs. 

    Participant
    January 17, 2012

    I rolled back to 10.1.1 (Win 7 32 bit machine) and the problem went away.

    Used the Upgrade Wizard to configure a 10.1.1 install, selected to not do ANY updates. Couldn't remove previous versions of reader because it was greyed out.

    Deployed that package through group policy.

    (1) Only deploys if 10.1.2 isn't installed. Will not remove it.

    (2) Installs fine on a machine that has no adobe reader installed.

    Unfortunately, I came in this morning to find that Adobe had updated my 10.1.1 with 10.1.2 despite specifically turning off updates in the Config wizard. At this point I just have to laugh.

    If I had any control over the webserver then I would be able to make some of the suggested changes above. However, I do not. I am surprised Adobe hasn't publicly commented on this. Are there that few people looking at embedded PDFs on a secured site?

    Participant
    January 19, 2012

    We have the full Acrobat after upgrading to CS5.5 and the 10.1.2 update has wrecked our ability to display PDFs in popup windows over HTTPS connections.

    We do not have a separate install of Reader 10.1.2 and can't remove anything obvious, apart from the full Acrobat, which we've paid for and need.

    Trying to install Reader 9.4 in the past, as this is not the first time we've seen isues like this, has given us a workaround. This does not work now. Using the FTP download area mentioned above to download and install the full 10.1.1 installer changes nothing - the IE plugins are still al 10.1.2. I.e. it appears that 10.1.2 can't be rolled back without a full removal of Acrobat Pro X (which we haven't tried yet as there are licenses assigned and we've got better things to do than mess about with that on top of all this, if it can be avoided at least).

    Does anyone know a way of disentangling the Reader component of Acrobat, as distinct from simple independent installs of Reader alone, please? The Reader files appear to be in the Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX directory, but you can't simply delete them or rename the folder as it's all in use. I could do a Safe Mode etc boot, but I really shouldn't be having to do any of this. Installing earlier versions of Reader and then removing them makes no difference to anything.

    Any suggestions, especially from Adobe, will be much appreciated.

    As was said above, when will Adobe test their software properly?????

    Thanks.

    Participant
    January 24, 2012

    Replying to my own post above...

    In case anyone is in the same situation of being unable to get the Reader component to uninstall or be replaced by a lower version when full Acrobat Pro 10.1.2 is already installed, this is what I did to get it working again:

    Boot Windows in Safe Mode (or use some other approach to get access to the files before Windows/IE grab them)

    Navigate to \Program Files\Common Files\Adobe and rename the "ActiveX" folder within that to e.g. ActiveX-10-1-2

    Reboot Windows normally.

    Install Adobe Reader 9.5.0. Other versions between that and 10.1.1 may work, I just reverted to the version that I knew was OK previously.

    Switch off the automatic updates within Adobe so it doesn't keep reminding you about the new version being available.

    We can now open PDFs over HTTPS in popup windows again, and we've still got Acrobat Pro available.

    I hope that helps people in the same situation as we were. I'll remember to test any new version on a non-critical PC next time...