Acrobat DC error: Can't delete page. Error is "one or more pages are in use and could not be deleted."

I ended up with the same issue and the delete never worked after fitting to screen suggestion, to work around this I decided to use a different method and I extracted all the pages I wanted and created a new document with them, move the page you don't want to the very top or bottom, click the first page you want, press and hold shift while you click on the last page you want, this should highlight all applicable pages and you can just extract them and re-save your new and correct pages.

It seems like you've already tried some common troubleshooting steps, but if you're still unable to delete pages in Acrobat DC due to the "One or more pages are in use" error, consider these additional actions:

1. Check for Hyperlinks and Bookmarks: Pages with hyperlinks or bookmarks may prevent deletion. Inspect your PDF for any interactive elements, links, or bookmarks that might be locking those pages.

2. Use "Print to PDF": Print the PDF to a new PDF file (essentially creating a copy), and exclude the pages you want to delete in the print pinoy tv dialog. Save the newly created PDF without the unwanted pages.

If you are displaying one of the pages in your selection, then you will get the error.

Why Adobe subject matter experts overcomplicate this here is beyond me.

What's worse, is that the error occurs in the first place.  Of course I'm looking at a page I want to delete.  That's how I determined that it didn't belong!  FIX THIS FEATURE NOW!

This has frustrated me for a long time, but I finally figured it out: You can't delete pages that Acrobat designates as "selected". You can tell which ones are selected, on a Mac anyway, by the thin cyan rule around the thumbnail and the tiny black square lower right. To delete any other pages but that one, drag a marquee selection around the other pages, click the Trash icon or Command-Shift-D (on a Mac), and Bob's your uncle. Then, if you want to delete the page with the cyan outline that Acrobat's selected, click on a different page to select it, then drag a marquee (don't click) to select the offending page, and delete.

Why or for what purpose does Acrobat select pages in this way? Who knows! But that's the fix, at least for me.

Has same issue

Says to myself "This happened a decade ago.  Surely Adobe has fixed this by now."

*Reads thread of Admins telling me cheap workarounds for things a $$$$$ software should't have a problem with.*

Open Bluebeam

Delete Adobe.

How annoying that Adobe hasn't fixed this.  I also got this error, thanks to the solution above, I was able to fix it, but this error has been reported as long ago as 2012 and still Adobe hasn't repaired it.

Found a fix for this, if you view the page fit to window before you go to delete it in organise pages it lets you delete without the error.

Hi MarkCLI,

As mentioned, Acrobat DC won't let you delete the pages from a multi-page PDF document. Does it gives the error only with a specific document, or with all the files you have been trying to delete pages?

Have you started experiencing this issue recently after installing the latest patch? If not, then you may update your Adobe Acrobat to the latest version first. Open Adobe Acrobat>Help>Check for update

Here is quite an old document where similar issue has been addressed : One or more of these pages are in use and could not be deleted. refer to the troubleshooting steps suggested there and let us know the result.

Workaround: One or more pages are in use and could not be deleted (Installation & updates)

Thanks,

Akanchha