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A
Anonymous
May 11, 2017
Question

Acrobat Reader DC crashes when opening file with command line parameters

  • May 11, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 1440 views

We have a .NET application that gives the user an overview of documents. From the application the user can open the PDF document and pass a search string. So we launch Acrobat Reader with the command line parameters, e.g. /A "search=test" "<file location>". This worked with Acrobat Reader XI. We are thinking of updating to Acrobat Reader DC, but when we launch the application with those parameters it crashes. I've tried it with different files, but I always receive the same error message:

The instruction at 0x5f5d796f referenced memory at 0x0002c0. The memory could not be read.

Can the command line not be used anymore? Or do we have to change some setting?

Acrobat Reader DC 2017.009.20044

Windows 8.1

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    2 replies

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    June 13, 2017

    I tried this. I can confirm it with the Reader current today (June 2017) and I could not find a workaround. This should be reported to Adobe.

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    May 11, 2017

    Does the crash happen if your app tries to run Acrobat Reader with no parameters at all (of course it would not open your file, but does it start?)

    If so, does the crash happen if you have only a filename in quotes to open, no other parameters?

    A
    Anonymous
    May 17, 2017

    I have tried the following scenarios:

    • try to run Acrobat Reader from the app without any parameters or file location => works fine, Acrobat reader opens
    • try to run Acrobat Reader from the app with file location specified (in quotes), no other parameters => works fine, Acrobat reader opens and loads the file
    • try to run Acrobat Reader from the app with search parameters and the file location => Acrobat Reader opens the advanced search pane on the left hand side and then crashes. The pane is not loaded completely yet and the main window is not visible yet either when the crash occurs.

    Same results if I try this directly in the command line.

    A
    Anonymous
    June 12, 2017

    From command line - It only seems to be a problem with "search"
    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\\AcroRd32.exe" /A "search=rabbit" "C:\some.pdf"
    will crash.


    Running it with any other parameter and multiple parameters (ex. zoom, navpanes, etc) that does not use search seems to be fine.
    If I opened the pdf without any parameters, I can search the file for "rabbit" successfully.

    Is there a workaround using command line?

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