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S
sarinah_
Participating Frequently
July 18, 2025
Question

"There was an error opening this document. File open failed." When opening from Google Drive browser

  • July 18, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 545 views

Hi all,

I have 2 cowokers having trouble opening a PDF from Google Drive using the “Open in desktop app” option in Chrome. Everyone else in my company can open files this way without issues, but for them it keeps giving this error:

“There was an error opening this document. File open failed.”

A few things to note:

  • We don’t use Google Drive for desktop, just Google Drive in Chrome.

  • We can open the same PDF just fine by opening it directly inside Adobe Acrobat via the linked Google Drive folder.

  • I’ve tried updating Acrobat, clearing Chrome cache, checking permissions, disabling extensions, reinstalling Acrobat for them… but no luck.

Does anyone know what might cause this or how I can fix it? Any tips would be really appreciated!

 

Background info: In my company we have all our files stored in Personal Google Drives. We have linked our Google Drives in the Adobe app. Sometimes we open the files in our Chrome and then we can edit the files online but sometimes we want to open the file directly in the Adobe App. In de right upper corner on the 3 dots we could select "Open in desktop-app", but for 2 users the error appears.

 

Thanks a lot!

2 replies

O
Olivier35096754gbhm
Participant
August 22, 2025

I have the same issue from two MacOS computers both runnign fully up to date MacOS and Acrobat Reader Pro. I've tried launching from incognito mode in chrome, and separately from Safari. ON both computers and both browsers the issue is the same "There was an error opening this document. File open failed."

the issue is clearly with Adobe. please fix this

Meenakshi_Negi
Meenakshi_Negi
Legend
July 18, 2025

Hi sarinah_,

 

Thank you for reaching out, and sorry about the trouble caused.

 

Please check if the issue occurs with any files you try to open from Google Drive or particular files. If the files are opening fine from the linked Google Drive account in the Acrobat desktop application for those users, they should also open via the browser.

Try clearing the browser's cache and cookies. Also, check the workflow in the Chrome incognito window. 

 

This needs to be checked. To investigate this behavior further, we will require logs and screen recordings showing the issue occurring on the user's machine. You may collect the logs using the diagnostic tool and share the log ID with us. Also, share the machine's Acrobat, Chrome, and OS version numbers.

 

Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

 

Thanks,

Meenakshi

 

 

S
sarinah_Author
Participating Frequently
July 18, 2025

Hi Meenakshi,

 

Thanks for your quick response.

 

The issue occurs with all files we try to open like that. It used to work fine for these users but just since today this problem has surfaced. I will try my best to send out the footage as soon as possitble with the tool you have sent. 

 

Thanks for now and I will get back to you

 

Kind regards,

Sarinah

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