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T
tjdavid81561
Participating Frequently
September 19, 2017
Answered

Problem with 1 PDF file that does not open

  • September 19, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 3260 views

I have just received a PDF document as an email attachment.  I saved the attachment to my local documents folder.  I opened Adobe Reader DC (Version 2015.006.30352).  I try to open the file by clicking File/Open, and selecting the file from my local documents folder.  The error message I get is:

PLEASE WAIT:

"If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document."

This is the only PDF I have that does this.  What must I tell the sender so that I will be able to open the file?

Please read the above carefully, as I do not wish to answer questions which have already been answered.  I am NOT trying to open it in a browser.  I am NOT trying to open the attachment directly from an email.  I have tried both Acrobat Reader DC (the version stated in the first paragraph), and Adobe Acrobat Pro (version 11.0.20).  The same error appears.

Please advise.

Thank you.

Timothy David

NAVSEA

Washington Navy Yard

Washington, DC

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Test Screen Name

Thank you for sharing the file, it is as I suspected: what you see is exactly what the PDF contains, there is nothing else at all. You may wish to double check what came in the email to make sure it didn't happen on your computer, then send this report.

The file just shows for us a Please wait... message, even though it is correctly opened in Acrobat. I've had the file checked, and this was the report. "This file started out as a fillable form made with the Adobe LiveCycle Designer product. But somewhere along the line all the form information was stripped out of the file, leaving only the Please wait message. It's not possible to know what did this, but it's almost certainly the use of an unsuitable tool that isn't designed to work with these Designer forms. I note that the file has been tagged for accessibility, which may have caused it this harm, but there could be other causes".

3 replies

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Test Screen NameCorrect answer
Legend
September 20, 2017

Thank you for sharing the file, it is as I suspected: what you see is exactly what the PDF contains, there is nothing else at all. You may wish to double check what came in the email to make sure it didn't happen on your computer, then send this report.

The file just shows for us a Please wait... message, even though it is correctly opened in Acrobat. I've had the file checked, and this was the report. "This file started out as a fillable form made with the Adobe LiveCycle Designer product. But somewhere along the line all the form information was stripped out of the file, leaving only the Please wait message. It's not possible to know what did this, but it's almost certainly the use of an unsuitable tool that isn't designed to work with these Designer forms. I note that the file has been tagged for accessibility, which may have caused it this harm, but there could be other causes".

T
tjdavid81561Author
Participating Frequently
September 20, 2017

Thank you!  I will get with the sender. You confirmed exactly what I had suspected.

Tim David

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Test Screen Name
Legend
September 20, 2017

I've seen one other case like this (and countless cases of browsers etc.) In that one case it turned out that somehow the PDF actually contained that message, and nothing else at all. I can think of several ways this could have happened, almost entirely errors st the sender's end. For the recipient, go back to the email and download the attachment again. Be sure you neither "print to PDF" not use any option called "save as PDF" or similar.

Meenakshi_Negi
Meenakshi_Negi
Legend
September 20, 2017

Hi Tjdavid,

As you have mentioned that you are not able to open certain files and get the error message you have shared above.

Please try once to update the application to the latest patch released. If you are on Windows,

If you are on Windows, launch the application and go to Help menu. Then select Check for updates and relaunch the application.

Then try to open the file and check if it opens without any issue. You may also refer this Release Notes | Adobe Acrobat, Reader help document for more information on updates.

If that does not help, can you share the file with us so that we can check it on our end?

You may share the file with us using the steps provided here: How to share a document

Let us know if you have any questions or need any help.

Regards,

Meenakshi

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tjdavid81561Author
Participating Frequently
September 20, 2017

Thank you. I would like to try sharing the file with you, since we already

have to most recent versions of the software that our network

administrators will allow to be installed. We are unable to update the

software ourselves, as we are on the NMCI network.

Thank you, and hopefully I will be able to share the file.

Tim David

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 5:00 AM, meenakshin83966505 <

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