Skip to main content
Participant
August 9, 2017
Question

You do not have permission to write this file. How to fix?

  • August 9, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 5391 views

I just started receiving this error message:

You do not have permission to write to this file.

When I try to save a pdf with Save as Other . . . Reader Extended PDF. . . Enable Commenting and Measuring.

This allows people with Acrobat Reader to use the commenting tools.

I have never had this problem before but it showed up today. I can't find anything to help with this online.

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

Spectrum Writing
Inspiring
April 6, 2023

I have Framemaker 2019 (the last version for which a perpetual license was sold) and Adobe Acrobat Pro XI (a perpetual license) and have successfully used this combination for years to create Reader-Extended PDFs that my users can comment on for editing purposes. As old as Acrobat Pro is, I have NOT needed to upgrade to any version as I use only this basic function in it. Yesterday, out of the blue, after creating a Reader-Extended PDF that was enabled for commenting and measuring, I received the following Error message: You do not have permission to write to this file.  To say that I was stumped was an understatement. I am an independent contractor and therefore, the account that I use for my business systems is my Administrator account – full privileges to do anything and everything that I need/want to do – and I couldn’t fathom why I was getting this message/ how it was being generated.  I thought that perhaps at first it had to with a hiccup caused by a recent Windows update. (If you recall, a Windows update a few years back torpedoed the Adobe PDF engine and users were unable to generate PDFs from Framemaker, Word, etc.)

 

I reached out to Rick Quatro for assistance as it was related to PDF generation and after a bit of sleuthing on his part, he came across this post from Adobe (just put an https:// in front of this): helpx.adobe.com/ca/acrobat/kb/reader-extended-pdfs-and-adobe-root-ca-expiry.html.

 

In a nutshell, this post states that Adobe is removing functionality from its Acrobat products, including those that had a perpetual license and the ONLY option that a user has who owns an Acrobat version older than 2017 is to upgrade to the latest version. (Users w/ versions 2017 and older have the option to download updates to resolve this issue.)  I won’t get into the details of the visceral response that this elicited in me, but has anyone EVER had an issue with any other vendor besides Adobe removing functionality from an application for which you purchased a perpetual license? I am not referring to support – I totally understand why a vendor no longer provides updates/supports for older versions of SW, but removing functionality to force you to upgrade? This does not remotely strike me as ethical, let alone, can it be legal? The real icing on the cake is that without a formal warning/announcement sent to the affected users, how would you even know that this would be an issue? Realistically, would a user of a perpetual license go to the vendor’s website to look specifically for an announcement because you just were wondering if you were going to lose functionality in your application?

 

Adobe keeps putting nail after nail into the coffins of some of its most loyal users (I have been a Framemaker user since 1996) and it’s for reasons such as this that I have recommended MadCap Flare or other vendor products for my most recent client projects. 

 

Does anybody from Adobe care to comment about this? As an IC that is semi-retired and that is on a tight budget, having to upgrade to a subscription license just to get the most basic of functionality that I thought that I should always have because I purchased a PERPETUAL license is unfathomable to me and not remotely financially feasible and several other users w/ whom I have spoken.

 

Thanks!

 

TVB

Spectrum Writing
Inspiring
April 5, 2023

I have the EXACT same issue after saving PDF as Other

Reader Extended PDF. . . Enable Commenting and Measuring.

 

And I have been doing this approach for YEARS!!!! I have Framemaker 2019 and Adobe Acrobat Pro XI and it can't be updates to Acrobat because this hasn't any available updates for years to it.

 

I have never had this problem before but it showed up today. I can't find anything to help with this online.

Bernd Alheit
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 6, 2023
Participant
January 18, 2023

 

I was using Adobe Acrobat 9 PRO and suddendly stop working. Keep showing this dialog attached. So I uninstalled and installed again the program and still having the same message.

Participant
February 20, 2023

Did you find a solution. My program is doing the same...on three different compouters. It is as though Adobe has changed the program (which I purchased) to discontinue that functionality. Does anyone have any new information? My problem also started about January 17.

 

buda854
Participant
May 20, 2018

hi i reinstalled adobe creative cloud and it fixed it for me hope it helps