Large Volume Batch Processing - Splitting/Deleting Pages

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
April 28, 2020
3 replies
1037 views

I understand the mechanics of splitting and deleting pages and Action “batch” processing. My question is whether or not there is an actual or practical limit on the number of files or file size of PDFs to process at once.

I have two sets of about 160,000 files, 2 pages each. I need to split the pages (while keeping the original file). Am I wrong to think this is beyond Acrobat Pro DC's limits? I can split the files into four or five chunks, but don't want to process 1,000 batches of 160 files each.

How would you go about this?.
RJH7171

This topic has been closed for replies.

Thom Parker

Community Expert

The best 3rd party tools for this sort of thing are made by https://www.evermap.com/.

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

JR Boulay

Community Expert

If you're lucky, you might find a computer running Acrobat 9 Pro or Acrobat 8 Pro, which could do this without bending.
But try67 is right, since version X this is no longer possible.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

R

RJH7171Author

Participant

Thanks! I'm going to let someone with Acrobat 9 take a shot. We'll see how that goes, then take it from there.

try67

Community Expert

There's no way it will work in Acrobat. It can't handle such volumes. From my experience processing anything beyond 500 files (if you're lucky!) is very likely to cause it to crash.

I would do it using a stand-alone application, preferably one used from the command-line (although a GUI is also possible).
I've developed many similar tools in the past so if you're interested in hiring someone to write such a tool for you feel free to contact me privately via [try6767 at gmail.com] and we could discuss it further.

R

RJH7171Author

Participant

Ya, good to know it wasn't just me. It seems like Acrobat opens/tries to open all files or folders selected prior to running the Actions -- can that be right? Regardless, the capabilities are impressive, if not the capacity/throughput. I think I found someone in-house with Acrobat 9. We'll see if that can handle it. Thanks!

try67

Community Expert

Yes, that's correct. And since version XI it doesn't let you ignore non-PDF files, either, and also displays all the files you process, which makes it go very slowly and crash quite often. It's a shame, really. It used to be a great tool for batch processing, but not any longer. I've actually reported this to Adobe as soon as it happened and was waived off by an Adobe employee who pretty much admitted this is on purpose, as they didn't want Acrobat to be able to process large quantities of files.

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