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sandys5294485
sandys5294485
Participant
Oct 27, 2026 8:52 PM UTC
Question

A PDF from Illustrator with same-sized artboards saves after rearranging in Acrobat; a PDF with different-sized artboards gives error 109.

I’m using Adobe Illustrator and Acrobat on a Mac. When I rearrange pages in certain PDFs exported from Illustrator and try to save the file in Acrobat, I receive this error:

“The document could not be saved. There was a problem reading this document (109).”

In some cases, one or more pages also appear blank.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. In Illustrator, create a document with two artboards of different sizes—for example, 5 × 7 inches and 4 × 5.5 inches.

  2. Place a colored rectangle on each artboard.

  3. Save a copy as an Adobe PDF using the High Quality Print preset, with “Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities” unchecked.

  4. Open the PDF in Acrobat.

  5. Use Organize Pages to swap the two pages.

  6. Press Command + S.

Expected result: The PDF saves with the pages in their new order and all artwork visible.

Actual result: Acrobat displays error 109 and does not save successfully.

Additional troubleshooting:

  • The same issue has happened with multiple PDFs exported from Illustrator.

  • A simple Illustrator PDF with same-sized artboards saved successfully after rearranging pages.

  • A multipage PDF that was not created in Illustrator also saved successfully after rearranging pages.

  • Saving an affected PDF without rearranging its pages worked.

  • I tested saving locally, outside my Google Drive folder, and the issue still occurred.

  • “Allow Fast Web View” and “Save As optimizes for Fast Web View” are both unchecked in Acrobat. Each change seemed to help temporarily, but the issue returned.

  • I also tried the High Quality Print preset with “Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities” unchecked; the issue continued.


    [Moved from Adobe Collaboration Experiences to Acrobat by a moderator]

    2 replies

    justlearn
    Community Expert
    justlearnCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Oct 28, 2026 9:00 AM UTC

    ​@sandys5294485 I just tried creating 6 different artboards, including your file starting with 5 × 7 inches and 4 × 5.5 inches and adding 6 inches x 9 inches, 8.5 inches x 11 inches, 3.5 inches x 2 inches, 2 inches x 3.5 inches — Export As - Save a copy as an Adobe PDF using the High Quality Print preset, with “Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities” checked on (didn’t matter, I even tried it as off). Open the PDF in Acrobat. Use Organize Pages to swap the two pages. Press Command S to over-write the file

     

    Honestly, I did not get the error code. 

    One thing is that I have the latest update 
     


    And I am using the ‘classic interface’ vs the new Acrobat.

    Double-check if you have the latest version of Acrobat and try the classic mode (You can disable new Acrobat under View)

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    m
    BaniVerma
    Community Manager
    BaniVermaCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    Oct 28, 2026 8:49 AM UTC

    Hi @sandys5294485,


    Thank you for sharing the detailed reproduction steps and the troubleshooting you've already performed. The comparison between PDFs created with the same-sized and different-sized artboards is particularly helpful.


    Since you've confirmed that the issue also occurs when saving locally and with the Fast Web View settings disabled, we'd like to check a couple of things to help narrow this down.


    1. Try an alternative way to reorder the pages in Acrobat

    Please test the following on a copy of the affected PDF:

    1. Open the PDF in Acrobat and select All tools > Organize pages.

    2. Hover over the page thumbnail you want to move and select More > Cut.

    3. Select the space between the thumbnails where you want to place the page (a blue line indicates the position).

    4. Select Paste from the context menu.

    5. Save the PDF with a different filename and check whether error 109 appears or any artwork becomes blank.

    You can refer to the "Move or copy pages within PDFs" section for these steps.


    2. Try setting the page order in Illustrator before saving the PDF

    As an alternative workflow, you can also try arranging the artboards in the required order before creating the PDF:

    1. Open the original Illustrator document and select Window > Artboards.

    2. Select an artboard and use the Move Up or Move Down buttons to change its order.

    3. Select File > Save a Copy, choose Adobe PDF, and save a new PDF.

    4. Open the PDF in Acrobat and check that the pages appear in the intended order with all artwork visible.

    For reference: Reorder artboards in Illustrator


    3. Help us investigate further

    Could you please confirm the exact versions of Acrobat, Illustrator, and macOS you're using? Also, do the blank pages appear immediately after rearranging them, or only after attempting to save?

    If possible, please share a sample PDF containing just the two different-sized artboards and colored rectangles, without any sensitive content. This would help us examine the behavior using the same reproduction steps.


    We appreciate the time you've taken to isolate the issue and share these findings with the community. We're happy to continue working through this with you.


    Thanks,
    ^BS

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