Acrobat Desktop cannot process JPG/PNG files – PDF/TXT and clipboard images work, possible Symantec compatibility issue

Acrobat Desktop cannot process JPG/PNG files – PDF/TXT and clipboard images work, possible Symantec compatibility issue

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for help troubleshooting an Adobe Acrobat Desktop issue that appears to affect image files specifically.

The issue started after Acrobat began showing this startup error:

“Adobe Acrobat cannot open in Protected Mode due to an incompatibility with your system configuration.”

IT made some changes and the startup warning disappeared. Since then, however, Acrobat Desktop has been unable to process JPG or PNG files.

The behaviour is very consistent.

Depending on the workflow, Acrobat Desktop returns errors such as:

“Unknown error”

or

“Adobe Acrobat could not open 'test.jpg' because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged.”

or, when using Combine Files:

“Error during processing (file skipped)”

Troubleshooting already performed

To rule out file corruption, I created a completely new JPEG locally using Microsoft Paint. Acrobat Desktop still cannot process it.

I have also:

• uninstalled and reinstalled Acrobat;

• attempted Help > Repair Installation;

• tested several different JPG and PNG files;

• tested local files rather than network/SharePoint locations;

• confirmed that TXT-to-PDF conversion works;

• confirmed that clipboard images/screenshots work;

• confirmed that the same JPG/PNG files work correctly using Acrobat Web.

I also reproduced the same image-processing issue on multiple computers/users, so this does not appear to be specific to one Windows profile or one Acrobat installation.

Current Acrobat security configuration

Under:

Preferences > Security (Enhanced)

the current settings are:

• Enable Protected Mode at startup: Disabled

• Protected View: Off

• Enable Enhanced Security: Enabled

• No manually configured Privileged Locations

Protected Mode appears to have been disabled as part of the troubleshooting for the original startup incompatibility.

Possible Symantec compatibility issue

I have now been told that the original Protected Mode compatibility issue is related to Symantec.

This makes me wonder whether Symantec is also involved in the JPG/PNG failure, either directly or indirectly through its interaction with Acrobat’s sandboxing/image conversion process.

The fact that:

• Acrobat can process raster image data from the clipboard,

• but cannot process JPG/PNG files read from disk,

• and Acrobat Web handles the same files successfully,

makes this look like something specifically affecting the desktop image file import/conversion path.

ImageConversionPlugin / bUseSandbox

While researching this, I found references to Acrobat’s:

ImageConversionPlugin

and specifically the Registry value:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\ImageConversionPlugin

bUseSandbox

Some Adobe Community discussions mention testing with:

bUseSandbox = 0

when image conversion fails.

I have not changed this myself, as this is a managed corporate device.
 

My questions are:

1. Has anyone seen this exact combination before: Symantec + Acrobat Protected Mode incompatibility + JPG/PNG conversion failures?

2. Could having Protected Mode disabled while the ImageConversionPlugin sandbox remains enabled cause this behaviour?

3. Is temporarily testing bUseSandbox = 0 on a controlled device still considered a valid Adobe troubleshooting step?

4. Are there specific Symantec policies/exclusions that should be checked for Acrobat’s image conversion processes?

5. Is there a particular Acrobat executable, plugin, DLL or child process used for JPG/PNG conversion that security software may be blocking?

6. Is there a way to enable additional Acrobat logging to identify exactly where the image conversion is failing?

At this point, the problem seems isolated specifically to file-based raster image processing in Acrobat Desktop, rather than general PDF conversion.

Any guidance from someone who has encountered this with Symantec endpoint security or Acrobat’s ImageConversionPlugin sandbox would be very helpful.

Thanks!