Adobe Acrobat Reader DC 64bit cannot print after Jan update

Just wondering if anyone had heard from Adobe recently on this. I'm at a point where I'm debating about making Chrome the long term solution and abandoning Reader entirely, or hanging in there for a bit in case an update is published soon.

For anyone that's thinking "why should Adobe jump on this for you, it's a free product, what do you expect for free?" I had the same thougths and tempered expectations for a while. BUT Adobe knows that Reader is a gateway to their paid products, which we do use at most clients in smaller numbers. If Reader goes away and some functionality could be found in other free products, it leads me (and my clients) to look for Adobe alternatives entirely. This isn't meant to be a threat, but simply pointing out that once the name Adobe is out of sight, clients won't be as inclined to know/want to ask for the full version of Acrobat either.

Chris

I don't think anyone needs Acrobat Reader that bad that they would ditch thier security product wholesale.

I'm with @alexanders20080551 on this one, I was only begrudgingly installing Acrobat Reader because it allows signtaures to be palced on files and a few very very very minor other features. In reality in can be ditched in favour of Chrome.

Yes we use Trend Micro, but no, I'm not uninstalling ti and moving to another product. Adobe can be shown the door on this one, it was probably about time anyhow.

Chris

Its just a shame. That issue/thread started on 13th Jan. It took until 1st Feb that an Adobe employee mentioned that they are working on it and will be fixed soon. Now its the 16th Feb and still no fix nor any response by Adobe. But to be honest thats what i already used to by Adobe. Also with Illustrator and InDesign after every update.

As mentioned before, we deinstalled Adobe Reader on all our clients and using Chrome or Edge to view and print PDFs. Chrome has also good security due to its Sandbox and Edge is linked with Defender and should be also safe.

Chiming in here as we're seeing this on a number of Adobe Acrobat Reader x64 installations since. The "workaround" to get Acrobat printing again for us is the temporary disabling on enhanced protection. Since that's not only a total pain, but also scares me security wise, our workaround has been to advise users open PDFs via Chrome instead.

A few things though:

- Can't tell is this is a new issue as of 21.011.20039 (released Jan 11, 2022) or if this is a new problem after some installations are being forced from the 32bit version to x64.

- I watched a new 32bit install change to x64 in a matter of minutes following an installation with a "Congratulations, you've been upgraded" message. Subsequently breaking printing that was briefly working in 32bit.

- I can't seem to determine when/why the x64 upgrade happens. I have two machines on the exact same Windows 10 build and one was forced to x64 while the other remains on 32bit with the latest release 21.011.20039

- Does anyone have any comment on whether the advice of using Chrome to tempoararily open PDFs is just as bad security wise as Acrobat with enhanced protection off? Does Chrome have some sandboxing / mitigations in place?

- @alexanders20080551 I totally agree with you and am just as frustrtated. What viewer did you end up switching to and any reason Chrome doesn't do the trick for you? Or just need a few enhanced viewing tools that Chrome doesn't provide?

- Is the full version of Acrobat impacted? We only run Acrobat Pro 2016 on some machines and haven't seen this behaviour (yet). We don't run Acrobat Standard or Pro DC. So maybe this is why we don't seemt o have a problem on those machines

- Does anyone know if Adobe is aware and/or working on this issue? Anyone have an active ticket?

Thansk all! Tossing my hat in this Adobe ring of furstration as well. 

Chris

Have tried this method. It works. However, I think this should be a bypass, right? Will release permanent fix?

I am using Adobe Reader and Acrobat for 10 years now and i don't count anymore how often this security setting was the reason for problems and crashes already. Just look here the problem with SAP not so long ago : https://www.borncity.com/blog/2020/11/13/adobe-reader-dc-sicherheitsupdate-nov-2020-verursacht-probleme-unter-sap/

The Workaround was(is?) the same as now.

So if you have problems with Adobe Reader in the future -> disable the protected mode first.

Hi there,

We are sorry to hear that. This issue is already reported to our engineering team to find the fix.

We will share the update as soon as we will hear anything form them.

Thanks for your time and patience

Regards

Amal

Yes. We got the same issue that 32-bit will come back to 64-bit very soon. So, we can only tell user to use Chrome for printing.

Don't know when Adobe can fix the problem.

Hi there,

we have the same problem, after the 64Bit Version installed automaticly.

We have >60 Client who dosn't works.

After press the print button, there is no Error message.

We reinstalled the 32bit Version, ther's no problem to print.

Regards

Helmut

Hi Amal,

we are facing the same issue here.

However the workaround, to uninstall the 64-Bit Version and install 32-Bit Version helps, but not for long - because after a certain amount of time, it updates automatically to the broken 64-Bit Version.

Please let us know, when a fix will be available - because I can't go around all day and reinstall the 32-Bit Version.

Best regards,

Felix