Acrobat Opens as Reader

[SewerSleuth]

My Acrobat keeps opening as reader.

I am logged in and all my other Adobe applications are working as expected.

[Amal. · Accepted solution]

Hi @SewerSleuth 

Hope you are doing well and sorry to hear that

Would you mind elaborating a bit more about Acrobat opening as reader? A small video recording of the same would be very helpful.

I have checked the Adobe account linked with the Adobe ID you are using on this community and found that you have an active plan for all Creative Cloud applications.

What is the version of the Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version go to Help > About Acrobat and make sure you have the recent version 22.3.20310  installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

Also, try to repair the installation from the help menu (Win Only) and see if that works.

Please try to reset the Acrobat preferences as described here https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-reset-acrobat-preference-settings-to-defau...

You may also try to create a new test user profile with full admin rights in Win or enable the root account in MAC and try using the application there and check.


If it still doesn't work, please remove the application using the Acrobat cleaner tool https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/cleaner.html , reboot the computer once, and reinstall the application using the direct link
https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-dc-downloads.html

Regards
Amal

[SewerSleuth]

I will try that on Monday when I am back at my work PC which is Windows.

At home, I'm Mac.

I use the same license on both machines.

[SewerSleuth]

Thank you.  The last step worked.

[gary_sc]

Just out of curiosity, do you have both Acrobat Pro AND Reader on your computer? And if so, please check to see which version your computer is set to be the one to open if a PDF is double-clicked.

By this, I mean IF you have both on your computer, and IF the default one to open is Reader, then you have two options: Delete Reader from your computer, or set Acrobat Pro to be your primary PDF application.

Please let us know

[SewerSleuth]

Hi gary_sc

I don't think it works like that, but could be wrong.

I think both Acrobat Reader and Acrobat DC are the same package, the same installation.

It's just that being logged into a legitimate account opens up the editing features of DC.  I work for a software company and we do this same thing, so our software works as a viewer only without a license, but goes full blown when logged in, but the installation for both instances is identical.

But I could be wrong of course about Acrobat.

[gary_sc]

Hi, @SewerSleuth. I'm sure you're right about your software, and I do know that many other applications do that as well. Photoshop used to do that with Photoshop verses Photoshop Enhanced.

However, here's Reader and Acrobat Pro in my Applications folder

And here's what I see when I click/select on a PDF and click Command-i in my Finder and bring up the Info window:

If I wanted to, I could switch the "Open with:" to select Adobe Acrobat Reader or Apple's Preview by clicking on the dropdown menu to the right of the field.

Let us know

[SewerSleuth]

I have checked this PC, and I definitely only have Acrobat Pro installed.  There is no Reader at all.  I am using the full Creative Cloud setup since I usually work with Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver.

I also use the same login credentials on a Mac as well as this Windows 11 PC, same account.  One license can be used twice.

[gary_sc]

OK, @SewerSleuth, thanks for checking.