Acrobat Licensing Application window is blank

Report · Aug 25, 2020

I have a problem with activation and signin into Acrobat: the Acrobat Licensing Application window is blank.

I am on a new Mac with macOS 10.15.6 using Acrobat 2020 Pro Student&Teacher. I have just migrated all data and applications including Acrobat from an old Mac. It worked fine on the old Mac. Now with the new Mac, I have problems.

Initially, I tried it with my normal user account (with admin rights). I guess because it's on new hardware Acrobat wants to activate the license again, but I didn't get beyond the empty Acrobat Licensing Application window.

I have tried various things like starting Acrobat with sudo or setting permissions on the folder ~/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/OOBE to 0777. Nothing helped. I have uninstalled twice and installed again. Once even moving the complete Adobe folder in Application Support away. No change.

Eventuelly, I logged in another admin account (not root) which never used Acrobat before and there at least I was able to do the activation. Now, at least, I can use Acrobat even with my normal account.

However, I am still not able to sign in. When I click "Sign In" in Acrobat it opens the Acrobat Licensing Application Sign In page, where I click the "Sign In" button. But then I end up again with the empty window. All I can do is quit the application which gives me a warning, if I am sure. So something is still broken...

Report · Jan 15, 2022

With OS Monterey, creating a new admin account (system preferences, users and groups, unlock, + (and be sure to check "allow user to administer...)) solves the blank Acrobat Licensing Application problem. Restart, open Acrobat 2017 and fill in the required info!

Report · Mar 12, 2023

Activate the "Guest User Account" allowing app usage in the mac user System Settings.

Log into the Guest Account, click on the Adobe Acrobat app and complete the Adobe Acrobat Activation.

Log into you user account and it works you now deactivate "guest user" if you wish.