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Adobe Reader won't print. (But problem solved.)

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
July 30, 2017
25 replies
254154 views

Hi all. I'm posting this in the hopes that it might help someone else out that may have the same symptom. Last week, my Adobe Reader stopped printing. Nothing I did produced any result. Not hitting the print icon. Not hitting CTRL+P. Not selecting "print" from the drop-down menu. There was no error message. No nothing. It was as if I hadn't clicked anything. I tried repairing the installation, no help. I've rebooted the computer many times over the last couple weeks. Here's what finally fixed it. On a whim, I went to Windows Explorer, right-clicked on the PDF file, and selected "print" from Explorers context menu. Adobe flashed open for a sec, and the document printed. Now, Adobe Reader prints as it always used to do. There must have been some little "glitch" or something going on.

Problem solved. Hope this helps someone else.

Artie

Correct answer J C36644625s4jb

Thanks, @ArtieD2. Your post from 2017 still works when nothing else will. Excellent advice!

@ArtieD2 wrote:

Hi all. I'm posting this in the hopes that it might help someone else out that may have the same symptom. Last week, my Adobe Reader stopped printing. Nothing I did produced any result. Not hitting the print icon. Not hitting CTRL+P. Not selecting "print" from the drop-down menu. There was no error message. No nothing. It was as if I hadn't clicked anything. I tried repairing the installation, no help. I've rebooted the computer many times over the last couple weeks. Here's what finally fixed it. On a whim, I went to Windows Explorer, right-clicked on the PDF file, and selected "print" from Explorers context menu. Adobe flashed open for a sec, and the document printed. Now, Adobe Reader prints as it always used to do. There must have been some little "glitch" or something going on.

Problem solved. Hope this helps someone else.

Artie

brookethejet

Participant

It’s June 2026 and still happening. My old computer and printer worked fine. I got a new computer, and the printer decided it didn’t like the new computer. Got a new printer and everything prints except PDFs. I can’t even use the right click to print. It will default to “print to PDF” even though my actual printer is the default. I tried printing to PDF in case there were macros it didn’t like. Still doesn’t work. :(

T

Tariq Ahmad Dar

Community Manager

Hi @brookethejet,

Thank you for reaching out and we are sorry to hear you are going through this after setting up a new computer and printer.

Since everything else prints fine and the issue is specific to PDFs defaulting to Print to PDF inside Acrobat despite your physical printer being set as default in Windows, there are a few things worth trying in order.

Check for updates
Go to Menu > Help > Check for Updates, install any available update and restart Acrobat. This rules out a version-related printer communication issue on the new machine.

Run Repair Installation
Go to Menu > Help > Repair Installation and allow the process to complete, then restart your machine. This reinstalls the print components that Acrobat uses to communicate with Windows printers and is often the most effective fix after a new system setup.

Reset Acrobat print preferences
Inside Acrobat open any PDF, go to File > Print, manually select your physical printer from the printer dropdown and click Print. This re-registers your printer selection within Acrobat's own preferences rather than relying solely on the Windows default.

To help us investigate further, please also collect diagnostic logs using the Adobe Diagnostics tool by following the steps at: helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-diagnostics.html

Share the generated Log ID here along with the following details:

Your Acrobat version under Menu > Help > About Acrobat
Your Windows version
The name and model of your new printer

Please let us know how it goes after trying these steps and we will take it from there.

~Tariq

B29394149lort

Participant

This problem is still happening. It’s bananas that Adobe charges what it does for this kind of fundamental failure. The weird thing is that my computer was printing from PDFs earlier today, then all of a sudden this evening it refused to. I tried every suggestion in this thread (apart from buying a new computer and new copy of Adobe). I finally resorted to opening the file in a browser window...after nearly an hour of fighting with this. And now, I’m late to a meeting, missed an appointment, and finally have printed the file. This is freaking absurd, Adobe. Get this fixed.

Ariek65794035

Participant

Coming to add that this helped me in 2026 too!

BillyT_350

Participant

2026, and this post is still relevant! Running Acrobat on a Win11 machine, and had the exact same problem. Like Acrobat was just ignoring my print commands. Messed with the WiFi, messed with the printer, messed with my VPN. Nope. Had to right-click print, and then it was fixed. Thanks, @ArtieD2 !
As an alternative, printing would work from my browser. So, if for some reason this solution doesn’t work for you, try that.

BillyT_350

Participant

updated original comment

F

frontier_2812

Participant

It's 8 years later and this solution still worked! Thank you!!

Crazy how it took Adobe until 2023 to reply saying they "fixed" the issue and that it's still happening.

M

mike_reddot

Participant

Had the same frustrating experience. No error message, the printer dropdown selection just keeps dropping down whenever I click the print button.

Finally solved by doing the following :
1. Copy the file from my OneDrive to local C:\.
2. Renaming the file to shorten the file path.
IE. C:\temp\printthis.pdf
Then vola -> it prints !! (I tried again using a much longer file path -> the printing issue re-surface !!)

C

cameron_9031

Participant

Thank you so much for this. I spent way too much time trying to fix this and this is the only thing that worked.

ArtieD2Author

Participating Frequently

And again, thanks for thanks, guys/gals.

I've been trying to figure out what could cause this. The only thing I can think of, is that maybe, when Windows or Adobe, does an update, Adobe loses the "print" association in the registry. (Or elsewhere.) Since "File Explorer" is a Windows app, doing the right-click thing, re-establishes that association.

Maybe. Just guessing.

T

TeddyTurner77

Participant

This has just helped me 8 years later. Thank you

L

luke_7048

Participant

Thanks so much! Worked perfectly

ArtieD2Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks Luke. This post keeps on keeping.

Y

yvonne_7841

Participant

I just wanted to reply and say thank you! I had a similar no printing error happen and isolated it to just Adobe (every other application could print) and even tried to uninstall and reinstall on my 2016 HP. I had to buy a new computer (2024 HP, win 11), downloaded a completely new license for work, and still the same issue! Did your right click above and it works! Very annoying that this error is still occurring seven years later.

ArtieD2Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the thanks Yvonne. Glad to hear that this tip is still helping someone this many years later.

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