Acrobat PDFMaker was not able to mail merge the document

[default1fcmpmh800dy]

As the title suggests, I am running into this error and cannot get this feature to work no matter what I try.

My operating systems and applications are fully up-to-date at the time of this posting. The versions of my operating system and related applications are as follows:

• Windows 11 Enterprise, 64-bity, 22H2, OS Build 22621.1413
• Adobe Acrobat Pro, Continuous Release | Version 2023.001.20064 | 64-bit
• Microsoft Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2302 Build 16.0.16130.20298) 64-bit
• Microsoft Excel for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2302 Build 16.0.16130.20298) 64-bit
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable (x64) - 14.29.30139

To eliminate the possibility of a specific Word document or Excel datasource being the issue, I created a very basic and straight-forward test mail merge and datasource and am still running into the issue.

Installing Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable (x64), as recommended in a few other Adobe Support articles I found did not correct the issue.

I've also enabled logging and haven't found any useful information, as it appears to suggest its completing successfully even through it is not. Below are the outputs of the logs:

PDFMWord.log:

Mon Mar 20 11:30:18 2023 [INFO]: VBA::InitializePDFMakerDLL:Initialization of PDFMaker DLL started...
Mon Mar 20 11:30:18 2023 [INFO]: VBA::InitializePDFMakerDLL:Initialization of PDFMaker DLL Successfully Completed.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:18 2023 [INFO]: VBA::ShutdownPDFMakerDLL:Release pointers of PDFMaker DLL's.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::PDFMakerConvertUsingSettings:PDFMWord to PDF conversion workflow started...
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::InitEverything:Initialization Started...
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::InitializePDFMakerDLL:Initialization of PDFMaker DLL started...
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::InitializePDFMakerDLL:Initialization of PDFMaker DLL Successfully Completed.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::SetAppLanguage:Set PDFMaker Language Started.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::SetAppLanguage:Set PDFMaker Language Completed.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::InitEverything:Initialization Successfully Completed.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::PDFMakerConvertUsingSettings:Log events corresponding to review/Share button click Info.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::ConvertToPDFEx:Started Convert to PDF workflow...
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::PrintingEntryWithNoOptionsDlg:Initialization of PDFMWord was successful, now ready to start CreatePDFFile workflow.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::CreatePDFFile:Creation Of PDF Started...
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::CreatePDFFile:Current Active Doc Font is Office Font.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::GetFinalPDFFileName:Get PDF File Name.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::Preprocess:Preprocessing for EMF started...
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::Preprocess:Preprocessing for EMF Successfully Completed.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::GetFinalPDFFileName:Get PDF File Name.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::CreatePDFFile:Successfully Got EMF.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::ShutdownPDFMakerDLL:Release pointers of PDFMaker DLL's.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::ShutdownPDFMakerDLL:Release pointers of PDFMaker DLL's.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: VBA::ConvertToPDFEx:Convert to PDF workflow Completed.

PDFMEngine.log:

Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: PDFMEngineImpI::PDFMEngineConvertDoc:Doc To Pdf conversion has started.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: PDFMDocExporter::convert:Doc To Pdf conversion has started.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: WordExporter::doExport:Word Exporter Workflow has started...
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: WordExporter::doExport:Word Exporter Workflow has Ended Successfully.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: PDFMDocExporter::convert:Doc To Pdf conversion has ended with return value 4 .
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: PDFMEngineImpI::PDFMEngineConvertDoc:Doc To Pdf conversion has successfully completed.
Mon Mar 20 11:30:36 2023 [INFO]: PDFMEngineImpI::PDFMEngineConvertDoc:PDFMEngine Workflow has Completed with return value 4 .

Furthermore, the issue seems to only be present with the Merge to Adobe PDF/Mail Merge function within Microsoft Word. All other functions of Adobe PDF Maker within Microsoft Word are working as intended.

[Tim3132082845ih]

Hey everyone, I am the original poster of this thread and I am absolutely blown away at how many replies there are! I am happy to hear that I am not alone in experiencing this issue. I’ve tested it again today (10/19/2023) and things still appear to be broken.

In the event you've come across this posting and you desperately need a mail merge in individual PDFs, I would like to share a better-than-nothing workaround:

1. Within Microsoft Word on a document that is ready to merge and has a data source, select Finish & Merge > Edit Individual Document
2. This will perform the merge and open a new Word document. Save the new (merged) document that opens up as .docx.
3. Once the .docx of the merge is saved, this enables you to use the File > Save As Adobe PDF.
4. Once the PDF of the merge has been saved, you can then use Adobe Acrobat to edit the PDF and save individual pages. This is performed by using the Organize Pages feature found in Tools, selecting the desired pages, and either using the Extract feature (if the merge documents are only a single page) or the Split feature (if the merge documents are more than one page long each, as you can specify the number of pages).
   
   Although the file names may be challenging to indentify the documents apart, if you understand the order that the mail merge was performed in, you should be able to sort by that same order within your data source and correspond the numbers on the filenames with the rows of the data (and just -1 on the row number if you have column headers). Again, not the most ideal, but definitely better than nothing.
   
   I hope this helps!

[Katie33128962na2v]

Hi, 

I've been having the same issue for weeks now, so this is really helpful.

You seem very computer literate so wondering if you can help - do you know if there is a way to send each of the individual documents to individual email addresses? When i usually mail merge to PDF from word, each document is usually linked with an email address, so although this has helped to create the documents, i wondered if you knew a way to then send them all to their individual email addresses?

Hope this makes sense, I am not the most technical of people!

Thanks in advance.

[Teresa33606935339o]

Hello and thank you to all in the thread.  I'm glad I'm not alone and completely unsavvy.  Katie (above) ask the same question that I have.  Anyone?!?!

[Franck32764026ykmw]

This workaround is working perfectly for our users. Thank you for sharing.

We are still looking forward to a permanent fix.

[Kelly2913907402uq]

Ugh! I have an eleven page document and need to merge it for 138 people. This is a nightmare with out the PDFMaker working.

[EPDB86]

Kelly2913907402uq, one thing I tried as a work around was to do my mail merge, made it a PDF, set bookmarks every (in your case) 11 pages and then spit the PDF by book marks. That will get you singluar files buu the beauty for PDFmaker is that it would of allowed (if it worked consistently) to auto email the PDFs as attachements. In my work around you are still stuck sending out 138 emails......so not much of a fix but highlights how much more productive one can be if the plugin was working!

[Kelly2913907402uq]

Eduardo, thank you.  That is exactly what I will need to do.  More work but will get the job done. I agree...It would be nice if the plugin was working.  Have a great day.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Is this an issue with this set of documents or all the PDFs? Please try with a different set of PDF documents and see if that works.

What happens when you try to merge the documents, do you get any error message? If yes, please share the screenshot of the same.

Also, share a small video recording of the steps you are doing to merge the documents for more clarity.

Regards

Amal

[Rahul Khosla]

One of my colleagues in office have this exact same issue. Our Company has been using MS Office365 product and user has been using Adobe Acrobat DC Standard but she has been facing this issue while using Mail/Merge functionality.

"Error: Acrobat PDFMaker was not able to mail merge the document"

As a workaround that I have figured out that Mail/Merge option is not working with MS Office365 product so I have installed MS Office 2016 Suite on her machine with Adobe Acrobat DC STD installed, she is now able to use Mail/Merge functionality like before.

I would like to see if Adobe is able to fix this issue with Office365 product as our company is primarily on Office365 Suite.

[wandam68064602]

Any updates on this fix?  I am having the same issues. The workarounds are not plausible as I am trying to mail merge PD certificates from a training event and I can't do those individually as I will be here all day. I am a staff of one and have spent the last 3 days trying to figure this out. 

[Teresa33606935339o]

Hello and the fix was for I.T. to (re)install MS Office 2016 for me.  It appears that you are using it for the same purpose as I am .. CE Certificates.  It's been an issue not only for me but others as well.  It would be nice if Adobe could fix this problem.

[Amal.]

Hi there

This is a known issue, and our engineering team is working on it.

The fix will be available in future updates.

Thanks for your time and patience.

~Amal

[Rahul Khosla]

Hi Amal,

any updates on this issue when it will be fixed by Adobe?

Thanks

[Amal.]

Hi there

Our engineering team is actively working on it, however we do not have any fixed time line.

The fix will be available in the future updates.

Thanks for your understanding.

~Amal

[foor97466515]

Has adobe release a fix for this 

[Amal.]

Hi there

This issue is still in progress with our engineering team.

We will share the update as soon as get any information.

Thanks for your time and patience so far.

~Amal

[Katie33128962na2v]

Hi, 

Is there any update on a fix for this please? This is really hindering my work, and has been going on for a long time now so it would be really great if we could have an update. 

Thank you.

[Teresa33606935339o]

Hello - It would be GREAT if this function could be fixed.  It's an extremely important part of my day-to-day.

There has not been a satisfactory workaround.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Our engineers are working on the issue and the fix will be available in future updates.

Thanks for your time and patience on this so far.

~Amal

[36032402538sv18]

I am having a similar issue which is very frustrating and is a critical function of software that we have bought from you which is now broken. here is a screenshot of my error and software versions. 

[leighs60222949]

Hi Adobe support team,

Do you have an ETA on when the fix for this issue is likely to be released please? I notice that it is not listed as being fixed in the December 2023 update.

In addition, I'm confused why this issue is not listed as a known issue on the following page, are you able to advise please? - https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/acrobat/kb/known-issues-acrobat-dc-reader.html 

Many thanks,

Leigh.

[Amal.]

Hi there

We do not have a fixed timeline as the work is still under progress, we will share the update as soon as we get any information.

Thanks for your time and patience

~Amal

[WONG34846372mkvq · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

I tested this and works as an alternative solution. 

1. After open the mailmerge word document, click sign out on the top right corner.

2. After sign out, you will be able to mailmerge

3. After mailmerge complete, you require to sign in back to O365 to maintain your office activation

[Lucia351477286ug0]

I had tried a lot of things, but only this one worked. Thank you very much for your valuable solution!

[shwalsh13]

This bizarre fix also worked for me. Thank you.