Acrobat intermittently hangs during WIA network scanning on HP MFP 3302fdw
Acrobat 2026.002.21931 intermittently hangs during WIA network scanning and retains scanner lock after cancellation
Environment
Application: Adobe Acrobat, Continuous Release
Version: 2026.002.21931, 64-bit
Operating system: Windows 11
Computer: Dell XPS 13 9350
Scanner/MFP: HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3302fdw
Connection: Ethernet/network, printer IP 192.168.1.11
HP scanner driver: HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301-3304 3388 (NET), version 63.8.7466.0
Alternate scanner driver tested: Microsoft WSD Scan Device, version 10.0.26100.8115
Printer firmware: 6.28.3.30-202606111700
Problem
Scanning from the network-connected HP MFP is reliable from other Windows scanning applications, but Adobe Acrobat intermittently hangs during scanning and can retain ownership of the WIA scanner after the scan has failed or been cancelled.
The problem has been reproduced using both the HP network WIA scanner device and the Microsoft WSD/WIA scanner device for the same physical scanner.
The scanner hardware itself appears healthy.
Reproduction using HP network scanner driver
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Enable the HP scanner device:
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301-3304 3388 (NET) -
Confirm normal scanner operation using HP Scan.
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HP Scan successfully completes ADF scans. Tested successfully with:
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1 page
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2 pages
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5 pages
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Close HP Scan.
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Open Adobe Acrobat.
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Select:
Create → From Scanner -
Select:
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301-3304 3388 (NET) -
Scan from the ADF.
Some scans complete successfully. In testing, both a single-page scan and a two-page scan completed.
However, a subsequent scan failed as follows:
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The sheet began feeding through the ADF.
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The scanner physically stopped partway through the page.
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Acrobat remained in its “Scanning” progress dialog.
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The Acrobat UI itself remained responsive.
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Windows continued to report the HP scanner device as healthy:
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Status: OK
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Problem: CM_PROB_NONE
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ConfigManagerErrorCode: CM_PROB_NONE
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Windows Image Acquisition (StiSvc) remained Running.
While Acrobat was stalled, a second WIA client attempted to connect directly to the HP scanner using WIA COM.
The result was:
CONNECT FAILED: The WIA device is busy.
The following PowerShell test was used:
$d=(New-Object -ComObject WIA.DeviceManager).DeviceInfos | Where-Object {$_.Properties("Name").Value -like "*3301-3304*NET*"}; if(!$d){"HP SCANNER NOT ENUMERATED"}else{try{$s=$d.Connect();"CONNECTED SUCCESSFULLY"}catch{"CONNECT FAILED: "+$_.Exception.Message}}
Cancellation behavior
I then clicked Cancel in Acrobat.
Acrobat eventually displayed:
“The scan has been cancelled”
and subsequently:
“Scanning canceled.”
However, the scanner mechanism remained physically stopped with the page partially fed.
After dismissing Acrobat's message and completely exiting Acrobat, I immediately repeated the same direct WIA connection test.
The result changed to:
CONNECTED SUCCESSFULLY
No printer reboot, Windows reboot, WIA restart, driver restart, or network change was performed between these two tests.
Therefore:
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While the failed Acrobat scan was active, the HP WIA scanner reported itself busy to another WIA client.
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Cancelling the scan within Acrobat did not fully release/reset the scanner transaction.
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Completely exiting Acrobat immediately released the WIA device.
Control test: HP Scan
The same HP network scanner driver works normally in HP Scan.
Immediately prior to the Acrobat testing, HP Scan successfully completed:
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1-page ADF scan
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2-page ADF scan
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5-page ADF scan
There was no ADF stall or WIA busy condition.
This suggests that the physical scanner, network connection and HP WIA driver are capable of reliable multi-page scanning outside Acrobat.
Additional reproduction with Microsoft WSD/WIA driver
The same physical scanner was also tested using its independent Microsoft WSD Scan Device:
HPI8C1642 (HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3302)
Microsoft WSD Scan driver 10.0.26100.8115
After recovery/reset, Windows Scan successfully completed repeated multi-page ADF jobs using this device, including multiple consecutive 2-page scans.
Adobe Acrobat, however, also failed when using this WIA scanner.
Observed Acrobat behavior included:
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Native WIA scanning interface appearing.
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Scan stalling during transfer.
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Both pages sometimes physically feeding.
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Acrobat reporting “Scanning canceled” even though the user did not cancel.
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In another test, Acrobat failed to open the scanner interface and eventually displayed “Scanner not recognized.”
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During that failure, a separate WIA
Device.Connect()attempt blocked and eventually returned “Catastrophic failure.”
The Microsoft WSD/WIA scanner subsequently required WIA/WSD recovery before normal WIA operation returned.
This is a different driver stack from the HP network scanner driver, but both work in non-Acrobat scanning applications and both exhibit failures when invoked through Acrobat.
Other troubleshooting already performed
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Adobe Acrobat Repair Installation was performed. The problem remained.
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Printer firmware is current.
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HP scanning software/drivers were cleanly reinstalled.
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Scanner works from the printer itself using its ADF copy function.
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HP embedded Web Scan works successfully over the network.
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HP Scan works successfully over the network.
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Windows Scan works successfully with the Microsoft WSD/WIA device.
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Network connectivity to the scanner has been verified.
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Firewall was temporarily disabled for testing with no change.
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The HP scanner device reports no PnP/Device Manager error during the Acrobat failure.
Additional Acrobat behavior
There may also be a separate page-boundary/cropping issue.
When scans do complete through Acrobat using the HP network driver, Acrobat does not consistently preserve the full Letter-size page area even though the scan is configured for Letter (8.5 × 11 inches).
The same source documents produced page dimensions including approximately:
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7.720 × 10.397 inches
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7.760 × 10.117 inches
Disabling Acrobat's Optimize Image option did not eliminate this cropping.
This may be unrelated to the WIA hang and is included only as an additional observation.
Expected behavior
Acrobat should:
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Complete WIA scans using a scanner that works normally in other WIA/scanning applications.
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If a scan fails or is cancelled, properly terminate the WIA transaction and release the scanner.
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Not require Acrobat itself to be exited before another WIA client can connect to the scanner.
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Preserve the configured Letter-size scan area unless automatic page-boundary detection has explicitly been requested.
Actual behavior
Acrobat intermittently stalls during WIA acquisition.
With the HP network WIA driver, the scanner can physically stop partway through a page. During the stall, another WIA client receives:
“The WIA device is busy.”
Cancelling within Acrobat does not fully clear the transaction. Completely exiting Acrobat releases the scanner, after which an immediate WIA Device.Connect() succeeds.
Similar Acrobat-specific failures occur when using the independent Microsoft WSD/WIA scanner driver, despite that driver successfully completing repeated multi-page scans from Windows Scan.
Assessment
The controlled tests suggest an Acrobat-specific problem in the handling and/or termination of WIA acquisition sessions rather than a scanner hardware, network, or general HP driver failure.
The particularly reproducible diagnostic distinction is:
Acrobat open with failed scan:CONNECT FAILED: The WIA device is busy.
Acrobat completely exited, with no other recovery action:CONNECTED SUCCESSFULLY
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