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CMeisinger
Participant
May 4, 2011
Answered

Acrobat failed to connect to DDE Server

  • May 4, 2011
  • 14 replies
  • 439360 views

I have a user who is unable to open any PDF's using Acrobat Reader X he has the latest version and is using Wind

ows XP SP3.  When he tries to open any PDF he gets the error "Acrobat failed to connect to

DDE Server" any help with this is much appreciated!

Thanks,

Chris

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer CMeisinger

Thanks David,

I did check the file associations and did a repair and uninstall/re-install and nothing worked but it turned out to be an issue with turning on a security policy in Symantec Endpoint that was causing Adobe to not open so I had to remove that policy in order for Adobe to work again.

Thanks,

Chris

14 replies

danr91670092
danr91670092
Participant
March 9, 2022

I've been on chats and phone calls with Adobe tech support for the past three days. They could not figure it out. The more I thought about it I started to think I need to hide my identity on the web when I try to log in. And it worked!!! I used Virtual Shield but I'm sure other companies can offer the same help. Here is the link to get you back on Creative Cloud https://virtualshield.com/?rfsn=6453576.2a9afc

S
streffj27037157
Participant
December 2, 2017

Hi,

Just thought of contributing to this post as I had the problem of "fatal error no connection to DDE server" I read a lot and non of the post gave me a solution.

My error started when I did a update of Windhows, and it was only after I did a search for the keyword "DDE"  with the tool called Agent Ransak (that is really great!) I found out that there was a few "install.res.1028.dll" (from 1028 to 1042) coming from a VCI_Red.MSI update (and all that is related to it), I deleted them and Adobe Acrobat DC started working again normally.

You can find these "install.res.1028.dll" (from 1028 to 1042) normally in c: / system.

Hope it works for you, as this drove me crazy for a few weeks.

J
johnt58065029
Participant
May 17, 2017

I got a new  computer with Windows 10 in January.  I downloaded my Adobe cS6 with Acrobat 10 Pro.  Since then have had to download to Adobe software 3 times to get Acrobat working.  Randomly, in the middle of a "save as a pdf" from Illustrator, the acrobat quits working and I get a Fatal Error, Failed to connect to DDE server message.  i am not a computer tech, and I can't understand half of what is on this forum, just would like some simple, detailed help in getting the stupid program to work so I can open my files and hopefully avoid uninstalling and then reinstalling the entire CS6 package.  Please.

    I
    iepias
    Participant
    August 17, 2012

    Hi, I have problem in combining multiple files into single pdf. It seems to be hanged forever and finally pops an error window "Fatal Error - Acrobat failed to connect to a DDE server". Does anyone know how to solve it??

    Acrobat version: 9.5.2

    Windows 7

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Legend
      August 17, 2012

      Do you have something called "Symantec Endpoint Security". I just did a search and found some mentions that this stops stuff from working.

      I
      iepias
      Participant
      August 21, 2012

      No, I didn't. Finally I uninstalled and went back to Acrobat Pro 9.0.0 and it worked fine. So I suspect that the problem is due to some problem in version updates.

        G
        GDT-IT-Dept
        Participant
        January 27, 2012

        We have been getting the "Fatal Error: Acrobat failed to connect to DDE Server." message for quite some time without any consistent way of making the error happen.

        We have six VM Citrix servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard v6.1.7600.1, Microsoft Dynamics SL v7.0 Feature Pack 1 - Professional Version 7.03.40312.01 (7.0.0.0), Adobe Acrobat Standard X v10.1.2.  We use Kaspersky AV 6.0 for Windows Servers for our Endpoint Protection.  Users use Citrix to run Dynamics from their local machine and when creating PDFs with BullZIP PDF, it will open PDFs in Acrobat Standard.

        This was happening when we had Acrobat Standard v9 as well.  We tried uninstalling and reinstalling Acrobat to see if that would fix it, but no joy.  We tried upgrading to Adobe Standard X to see if that would fix it, no joy.

        Reading on these threads, to turning off Protected Mode,  The instructions say to Disable Protected Mode, you go to Edit > Preferences > General and deselecting Enable Protected Mode at startup.  However, when I get to that window, there in no check box for this.

        Any other thoughts?  We're going crazy...

        A
        Anonymous
        October 9, 2012

        I can't say for sure this will solve your problems

        But we solved the problem today for a customer, by simply starting the two services on the machine:

        Network DDE DSDM

        Network DDE

        In that order.

        I hope that helps.

        C
        ConnieVanceKingery
        Participant
        January 16, 2012

        I am having the exact problem. or when I try to open, it goes to the "buy Adobe screen" and will not allow me to open, unless I open in another tab!

        TheShea
        TheShea
        Participant
        January 10, 2012

        Been observing the error for a while and I regularly get two of the errors pop up for no seeming reason whatsoever.

        The Error occured durring a spybot rootkit scan.

        eight times

        in the.

        hklm software classes - keys.

        Left the machine alone to watch a movie and eat after that scan - and the error occured 27 times!

        Hasnt been happening so much in the last two weeks.

        I did notice that even tho I ran the 'check for updates' thing and it says there are none - that there are several updates available here at adobe - so I am downloading them and isntalling them manually. I will report if the error recurrs after the updates - seemes to have worked for Peter.

        Check the version of Acrobat you have and it should be 9.5 - if not - something is stoping the update.

        AllDayDev2
        Community Manager
        AllDayDev2Community Manager
        Community Manager
        January 10, 2012

        Hi Shea,

        Note that the 9.5 update is a full installer, which means you could uninstall your existing installation of Acrobat or Reader 9, and then just install 9.5 directly.

        I know there are sometimes issues when you have to install a base version, and then update it (e.g. 9.3 > 9.4 > 9.4.1, etc.), and not having to do so usually mitigates installation-related problems.

        http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=10&platform=Windows

        TheShea
        TheShea
        Participant
        January 25, 2012

        Yo Carey! ( guess what I gots - An Acrobat 9 Pro ACE )

        Well, I have reader X installed.. but that is neat to know. So the troubleshooting path here seems to be..

        1. Verify update status of the software.

        2. Verify that active security policies are not interfering with the software.
        3. Check if the problem happens in another user profile.

        Hehe, we have two different scenarios here actually.. in my case the error is simply appearing. I dont have to be using PDFs or have either Reader or Acrobat running - which means the fast laucher / acrotray software is capable of generating the error. In other cases certain PDFs are failing to open, and in others the entire system is not launching..

        Here is a thought - since the DDE naming conventions were changed in the Acrobat X would it be possible that the error is arising from having 'nonsanguine' versions of Acrobat and Reader? Say you have acrobat 8 but you recently installed Reader X - the behind the scenes program naming conventions are now different, but the systems are attempting to use the same resources. Perhaps this is the reason the problem is occuring? Obviously some sort of permissions issue is involved.. or changing security policies wouldnt do anything.

        @All - is anyone experiencing the error with Acrobat X and Reader X installed?

        J
        JeffyVinters
        Participant
        January 10, 2012

        Take the updates. That should fix the issue.

        TheShea
        TheShea
        Participant
        December 16, 2011

        I am getting a similar error - and I wasnt working with a PDF - I was using Filezilla to transfer files and two identical DDE erros pop up seemingly randomly - I will try and figure out how to replicate the error.

        I dont seem to have any problem opening a PDF normally tho - I have Reader X and recently installed 9 Pro.

        P
        PorterbleC
        Participant
        December 16, 2011

        I just fixed this on a W2008R2 server.
        Copied the files from a working profile to the profile that had a problem

        Copied all the adobe acrobat stuff from c:\Users\[workinguser]\appdata\   to c:\users\[userwithproblem]\appdata.

        They can now open PDFs without the problem.. Would think that on a workstation you ocould do the same so long as all the versions were the same.

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