Acrobat DC cannot print PDF files

[Keystone Main]

I have a customer having issues with printing PDF files.  They have Acrobat DC Standard, and can open any PDF just fine, however when attempting to print nothing happens.  Acrobat doesn't even appear to send the print job to the printer.  We've tested on multiple printers and the problem is the same.

I've ensured all correct and current printer drivers are installed

Acrobat Standard DC is up to date as of 2/10/16

The printer can print other jobs from other software (i.e. Word, Notepad, etc.) without issues

PDFs will print if I open them in Adobe READER and print from here; it is only within Acrobat DC that they will not print.

I've found numerous other forum posts on the same or similar topics and the best answer I've found is the mentioned workaround of printing from Adobe Reader.  Most mention that this is a problem Adobe has had for awhile (the most helpful forum thread dated back to May, 2014) but no one has an answer on what the problem is caused by and what solves it for good; only workarounds.

Is there any solution to this problem that I can apply and have the product working as intended for my customer?

[Guest]

Hi ,

Please refer the following documents and see if that fixes the issue.

Acrobat and Reader Help / Troubleshoot PDF printing | Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader

Printer setup problems | Adobe Acrobat, Reader

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/printing-complex-pdfs-acrobat.html

Regards

Sukrit Dhingra

[mehodge]

I have clients that are having this exact issue. It only began when they upgraded to Adobe Acrobat DC Standard back in November. Since then, several computers are having these intermittent print issues. It will not print, and gives no indication that a print job was even sent. There are no print jobs waiting in the print queue. Sometimes they can just close the pdf document and open it back up and then it will print if they try. The supplied documents to fix this issue do not help.

This is affecting multiple computers, and each computer has it's own USB printer. Each printer is a different model. All computers are up-to-date with Windows updates and I tried updating each of the printer drivers. I tried repairing the Acrobat installation. I tried uninstalling, rebooting, and reinstalling Acrobat. I tried printing the documents as image. There are other things I have tried but can't think of at the moment.

Is this a program bug that needs to be patched?

[IT Helper]

We are having a similar printing issue with Acrobat Pro DC on OS X 10.11.4:  when trying to print via the print icon or File > Print, nothing happens.  Adobe Reader DC produces the same result.  Have tried all troubleshooting with no luck.  This computer has previously had Acrobat Pro 5.0 and Acrobat Pro 7.0.  Is the only solution to wait for an update?

[AshuMittal]

Hi [name removed]

Acrobat team is aware of this issue that has recently surfaced (with the May 10th update) and working on a resolution on priority. Meanwhile, please use the workarounds given below to resume printing operation on Mac.

Workaround 1:  If you have any other printer that has more than or equal to 10 characters in the printer name, make that as the default printer.

Workaround 2: If you have only one printer:

1. Note down the properties (IP/hostname etc. ) of the printer and delete the printer from your list of printers.

2. Again add the same printer to your printer list. Please make sure you change the printer name to something more than 10 characters while adding it.

Now try printing the PDFs from Acrobat/Reader DC.

We will also confirm on this thread when a fix is available.

Thanks,

-ashu

[markr0862]

Are you serious? this is ridiculous and I don't have the IT experience to uninstall and reload a printer!!!

[AshuMittal]

Hi,

As mentioned above, we are working on fixing this issue soon. Meanwhile, you can follow the instructions mentioned on this page to remove and add your printer: OS X Yosemite: Add or remove a printer (instructions for removal are towards the end of the page).

Thanks,

-ashu

[gregm90904032]

I beg to differ that this is a recent (May 10th) issue!!!  Do you think we are all that stupid??? or are you finally admitting it has been almost a YEAR WITH NO RESOLUTION.

This issue has been around for over 3 or 4 months.  Adding and removing printers for an issue induced by Acrobat DC is pure crap.  Come up with a REAL solution.

[matthewe89520836]

Jeez...seriously Adobe.

The ONE thing you should always be able to do with a PDF file is print it.  How this got past your QA team(s) is absolutely beyond reason.  Yeah, we can open/print in Preview/other 3rd party apps, and yeah, we can go to all our environment workstations and change the names of the printers so that they fit your new, arbitrary 10-character limit...but why, when we've paid an arm and a leg, would we want to go through all that effort just to do the simplest, most basic thing we could want to do with a PDF?

It's like you sold us all a car and then 'upgraded' it with square tires, and somehow no one at Adobe noticed that would be a problem.

INEXCUSABLE!

[AshuMittal]

Hi all,

We are working on an update to resolve this issue ASAP. We will notify you all as soon as the fix is rolled out publicly.

Thanks for your patience,

-ashu

[kjzirk]

I am so glad that our firm pays over $20,000 a year in Creative Cloud subscription fees for software that does not work. Maybe a class action lawsuit for breach of contract might prompt a timely resolution of this problem.

[gizmo1221]

I, too, had the same problem and spent all day looking for a fix that worked. Just came here and read about the printer name needs to be at least 10 characters long. Setup a new printer with name longer than 10 characters and it worked!

Total BS that this should be a problem! I wonder how many man-hours have been wasted on the users' end trying to find a solution to this bug?

[courtneyh78433615]

I appreciate a response, but this "work-around" is something I've tried already and doesn't work.  Well, I guess it technically works if I uninstall and reinstall my printer, and print a file; however, the next time I need to print a file, I have to restart my computer and go through the entire process again because it doesn't fix anything.  And it only works one time, and only sometimes.

And it really isn't a recent issue - I got the new program in March (upgraded from X) and have always had the problem.

[Ewayland]

That whole re-load the printer with a longer name idea does nothing. I just did it and still cannot even open the print menu in Acrobat DC. You people need to fix this problem, yesterday.

[Guest]

Does the latest update that was released yesterday fix this problem?

Thanks

[mrdbekken]

We had the "no print"/"no select" problem with Windows 10 and the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and I have finally written a work-around that actually works.  (I had help from Software995.)

1. Install the free PDFedit995 software suite from Software995.com.  It comes with a program called PrintPDF.exe.  (It also has other stuff that you might find useful.)

2. Create the following batch file.

@echo off

Title: PrintPDF.bat

"C:\Program Files (x86)\pdf995\res\utilities\printpdf.exe" c:\temp\temp.pdf

ECHO Printing on Default Printer

Pause

EXIT

3. Create a shortcut to the batch file on the desktop.

4. Designate a printer as your default printer.

5. Bring up the file to be printed in Acrobat.

6. Click on the PrintPDF.bat icon and a DOS window comes up that says "Printing on Default Printer." Clicking removes the pause while the document prints.

I'm no expert and I would hope that Adobe solves the printing problem but, meanwhile, at least I can print.

[Guest]

Our school district began having issues today using Mac OS 10.10.5 machines where the default printer was less than 10 characters--the print dialog box wouldn't open.  I deleted the printer and reinstalled it and then changed the name of the printer.  The print dialog box opened as expected.  Our initial workaround is to change PDF's to print in Preview application.  This is not perfect as other staff members are required to print using Adobe Acrobat Reader DC because of the forms feature.  Please fix.

[steve_aldrich]

Asking me (and anyone else that reads your response) to delete a printer that works perfectly, and was printing my PDFs earlier today is unacceptable.  Until Adobe finds and fixes the issue that was introduced, My ONLY option is to open PDFs in Preview (I'm on a mac) and print them from there. Which by the way is the ONLY way I am getting my work done today.

Adobe broke Acrobat DC on my Macbook, and I am not going to do a bunch of silly troubleshooting tasks, printer deletions, or other suggestions that will NOT fix the issue with Acrobat DC failing to bring up the print dialogue box.

Please for the love of vishnu, get this fixed. For now, at least I can print PDFs from Preview.

Additional info: I have no problem printing the items from inDesign, prior to exporting to PDF and opening in Acrobat DC, which simply WILL NOT open the print dialogue box. This is NOT a Printer, Printer Driver, or USER Issue! Limited specifically to printing from Acrobat DC. Which I have uninstalled, restarted, and re-installed to no avail.

[johannak53423651]

Hi Steve, this has brought my work to a standstill and I am a solo shop. You mentioned you can print from Preview. How do you do that? Also, I can't seem to use an old version of Acrobat, it keeps bringing up the new one.

[steve_aldrich]

I'm on a Mac, so the Mac app called Preview will open PDFs. Right click and select open with: Preview. Then print from there.

If on a Windows Machine, you could most likely drag the PDF into your Browser window, (or right click select Open with Browser:  chrome, FF, IE, etc) and print from there.

[markr0862]

Hi Steve, I have a Mac and when I try and open an attachment in an email by right clicking to Preview it opens the file in Preview but then I don't have an option to actually Print it! Can you provide advice pelase.

[shirleyg53328153]

This really worked on my Mac. Thanks

[libbyp63066701]

I am also having this issue in the newest version of Acrobat DC. A repair fixes it temporarily. I've uninstalled all Adobe programs and re-installed, but with no luck.

[ryanj4799591]

We are also having this issue!  I have reviewd all the documents on trying to fix.  I have run the removal utility, created fresh windows profiles, reinstalled printers, tried different printers, and the issue still happens daily.  I even have completely wiped the PC and reinstalled windows from scratch, thinking it could have been an issue with upgrading XI to DC.  Still it happens.  This happens on laptops desktops, everything we have tried it on with our network.  We use HP Elitedesk 800 G1 and G2, Also HP Probook.  Core i7 4790 8GB RAM on the desktops.  Some with NVidia video cards, others with built in Intel Graphics on motherboard.

One thing I have noticed while the issue exists is if you try to click "properties" on the printer it will not open up at all. I don't think it is a driver issue as it happens with all sorts of printers, HP inkjet, Canon Workcentre, Xerox, Samsung, etc.

I am willing to work with any Adobe support rep on testing as this is affecting our workflow greatly.

[karlae87260628]

I am having a similar issue but I get an error message that the doc can't be printed and then a second message pops up that says no pages were selected. However, there are pages selected (I've tried every setting and all the standard .pdf printing troubleshooting fixes.) I've updated Acrobat DC, am running Windows 10, and the printer is on a network and prints anything else I send to it as well as the occasional .pdf. Funny thing is, Windows 10 was giving me issues so I had to create a new profile on my system and it has been since that time that it stopped printing pdfs. Prior to the new profile I had no trouble. Windows 10 has all kinds of known issues but everything was working fine before I created the new profile. Extremely frustrating.