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Participating Frequently
August 17, 2012
Question

Why won't Adobe Reader X let me save PDFs?

  • August 17, 2012
  • 5 replies
  • 53146 views

This all started fairly recently, like within the last few weeks.

If I hit save when I am in Adobe Reader X, it does nothing.

Scenario 1: Online

If I view the docuemnt within my browser, then click on the icon at the bottom that says Save, nothing happens.

Scenario 2: Offline

If I view a document i have on my hard drive, I can view it fine, but if I highlight something, then save, it says "where do you want to save it" and "are you sure you want to overwrite?" and then nothing happens.  If I then attempt to close it, it will say "Do you want to save it?" then the other two questions and then nothing happens.  I have to "Revert" then close if I want to close the document.

Per a previous thread that semed to be abruptly cut short on exactly the same topic, i tried their solutions as well:

Right clicking on a link to a file online, and saving works just fine.

However there was no response from the original asker after those steps, and that didn't help me.

Any thoughts?

This topic has been closed for replies.

5 replies

Participant
October 5, 2019

I'm having the same issue.

My Adobe Reader is up to date.  There is consistency as to the kinds of documents it won't save.  Some are secure documents, others are just plain letters.  One day it WILL save, the next it won't.  I need to highlight documents for my records, but I can't make a digital file of it with the highlights.  What's happening?

Windows 10; up to date.

jaca92
Participant
September 10, 2015

I just encountered this problem, the other solutions in this thread didn't work for me. But I managed to get it to work by doing the following...

Edit>Preferences>General> then unchecking show online storage when opening files and unchecking show online storage when saving files.

Also note that by the time I did this I had also done the things suggested by Ankit_Jain above. i.e...

"2. If unchecking the following option helps:

Edit > Preferences > Documents > Save Settings section > Automatically save the document changes to temporary file......"

So maybe a combination of doing that and the thing I suggest fixed it.

Hope this helps

max_tennyson
Participant
March 1, 2016

Yep, this totally worked for me. Immediately, as soon as I changed that setting:

"Edit>Preferences>General> then unchecking 'show online storage when opening files'  "

Well done and thankyou.

BTW, I am using Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, "2015 release | Version 2015.010.20059".

Note that the Save (Disk) Icon on the toolbar remains greyed out, however I can now use File/Save As, or Shift/Cntrl/S.

Previously, this was resulting in an eternal box opening with a 4-square icon that just rotated around.

Thanks!

Participant
January 31, 2015

I too am having this issue, but I have Reader XI. Has anyone resolved this?

Participant
May 1, 2013

I've seen the same behavior - floating toolbar save button or main toolbar save button ineffective even though enabled.  Win 7, 64 bit + Firefox.  Very frustrating when trying to save local copies of financial statements, etc.  I did find a workaround that hasn't failed me yet:  with a problem document open in the viewer:

  1. Try to save (Ctrl+Shift+S OR floating toolbar OR main toolbar).  If it fails ...
  2. Click print (tried both floating or main toolbar, assumbe Ctrl+Shift+P would work too)
  3. When the print dialog window appears, cancel
  4. Try save again.
  5. Works now!

Adobe?

Participant
June 10, 2015

Exact same issue and the print thing works.  Thanks for the tip.  I don't know why I'm having issues but at least this works.  I did also a drag and drop to my desktop and had to move a file that way but funny how it won't save.  I did notice that the "save" icon is not available but the "save as" is but doesn't work. 

MichaelKazlow
Legend
June 11, 2015

Are you sure you are using the Adobe Reader plug-in rather than Firefox's pdf viewer? What happens if you switch to a different browser?

Adobe Employee
August 18, 2012

Pls let us know the following details:

1. Your OS

2. The version of Adobe Reader installed (Help > About Adobe Reader)

3. The browser bineg used to view the PDFs

Participating Frequently
August 18, 2012

Ah, my appologies:

1) WIndows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

2) Adobe Reader X 10.1.13 originally.  Once this started happening, I upgraded to 10.1.14 and still had the same problem.  I then Uninstalled Adobe Reader, and downloaded 10.1.14 fresh and installed it.  Same problem

3) Firefox primarily, but same effect with IE.

Everything worked Just fine until a couple weeks ago.  I have many documents that I highlight and save regularly, and all of a sudden it stopped working.  So far as I know, nothing changed then.

Adobe Employee
August 20, 2012

Thanks for providing the information requested for.

Could you please let me know the following as well:

1. If the Save icon on the floating toolbar (while viewing PDFs in a browser) is enabled or not.

2. If unchecking the following option helps:

Edit > Preferences > Documents > Save Settings section > Automatically save the document changes to temporary file......

3. What is the state of the checkbox at:

Edit > Preferences > Internet > Web Browser Options section > Display in Read Mode by default

4. Do you have Adobe Acrobat installed on your system as ell.