acrobat won't print, no page selected

Report · May 06, 2014

Since I upgraded to a new iMac with Mavericks, acrobat (updated to latest version, 10.1.9) won't print anything. I get an error message saying 'the document could not be printed' and then a second message saying 'no pages were selected'. I have tried selecting pages in different ways, and I've tried printing various different pdfs to both my printers (Brother HL2030 and Canon Pro9000). I have the latest drivers on these, which are printing other documents fine, so there's no problem with either the files or the printers.

Report · May 06, 2014

Try re-installing the printer subsystem.

Report · May 12, 2014

This hasn't helped. On reading further through the forums it seems this is a common problem that Adobe need to address. I have resorted to using Adobe Reader (free download) for all printing. This also allows me to print in grayscale which I couldn't do with Acrobat Pro. Not very impressed that a freebie works better than the pro version.

Report · May 12, 2014

I am having a similar problem with my Windows 64 bit workstation, trying to print an extra-large (60"X90") poster to my HP Plotter.

The Print dialog box shows the project divided vertically in three 36" wide strips, which should work out with my plotter loaded with 36"paper.

But when I select "Print" from the print menu, I get the Adobe "i" message "The document could not be printed" followed by another "i" message "There were no pages selected to print".

I checked, and of course the "all" button is selected in "Pages to Print"

Maybe someone who knows about this issue will answer us.

Report · May 13, 2014

And of course nobody at ADOBE thinks this is sufficiently important to help us solve the problem.

Report · Jul 11, 2016

The only solution that worked for me, and you have probably already tried this, is to delete the printer to which you are submitting your print request. Then reselect it as one of your printers (all through Control Panel, of course). A printer I had been using since we had DC forced down our throats all of a sudden stopped printing pdfs, reporting with this error every time. Although it's actually a fix for Windows 10, it solved this bizarre Adobe problem for me. (Every other type of document I submitted to print printed without a single hiccup.) I had tried everything else except printing as an image, since that's a ridiculous workaround, and I can't believe Adobe reaches so low as to suggest it.

Wish I had another solution. Many other "solutions" are posted by Adobe; most of them will take you hours and hours to effect. Thanks, Adobe! X Pro was a good product; DC, not so much.

Report · Sep 05, 2014

I'm having the same problem on my Mac. If I print from "Preview" it works, but won't print from Adobe Acrobat Pro. I created the document in Illustrator by selecting "Save as Adobe PDF".

Report · Sep 09, 2014

I just posted a similar question (I didn't see yours before).

Did you solve your problem? It's already a while that I get this message but I always forget to look for a solution.

Last time I could open and print a document, using adobe reader instead but this time none of the programs works.

Report · Sep 11, 2014

I've been having the same issue and spent nearly two hours on a chat with an Adobe rep having him walk me through all the different solutions I'd already tried. I'm on Mac 10.7.5, and that doesn't work, either. It's not just Mavericks. I am able to get it to print out with Reader. Why can I get it to print with the free reader, but not with Acrobat Pro XI??? That's just crazy! And it's recently started not printing for me (in the last month-ish), not going back to May. Why isn't Adobe addressing this? OTOH, Since Reader works, I don't need to pay for PDFPen.

Report · Sep 15, 2014

I had the same problem (on a mac). Using the Mac "preview" app and printing from there worked for me instead. Turning off "enhanced security" had no effect.

Report · Sep 27, 2014

Okay, by chance I found a crazy solution.....

1. open thumbnails on PDF

2. click "Print"

3 open "advanced" and tick "Print as Image"

4. you must scroll down each thumbnail as it seems only the one that is highlighted will print.

Very tedious, but at least it worked....

Report · Mar 20, 2016

how do you open

thumbnails using adobe reader DC 15?

Report · Sep 27, 2014

Of course, after I wrote the solution, it stopped working...

Report · Sep 27, 2014

I was gonna say - I had tried that, and it didn't work. For something called Pro (Acrobat Pro), this isn't very professional.

Report · Oct 02, 2014

First let me state that this is my solution on a Macintosh running 10.7.5 and Acrobat Pro X (with all the latest updates).

This problem started for me just this last weekend. I have been to every so-called solution that I could find via a Google search and NONE of these "solutions" even by the self-tagged "experts" work. PERIOD!

I decided to follow one suggestion to install Acrobat Pro 9. However, instead of uninstalling Acrobat Pro X first, I left it installed.

During the initial startup of Acrobat 9 after installation I was offered the option of installing an Extra feature called Adobe PDF Printer which allows me to "Create Adobe PDF files from any application by printing to Adobe PDF Printer". I opted in to that extra.

Once Acrobat Pro 9 had started I tested it using one of the PDF files that had failed to print with the dreaded "No pages selected......" error messages. THE FILE PRINTED AS EXPECTED!

I then decided I would uninstall Acrobat Pro X, but on a whim decided to try to print the same PDF file that had just printed using Acrobat Pro 9 one more time. IT PRINTED!

All I can figure out is that somehow selecting the option to have Acrobat Pro 9 install the option for allowing other applications to create a PDF repaired something within the Mac operating system. Just a guess.

Hope this helps someone.

Report · Jun 27, 2015

@rockyshaw19460712: I checked out your solution as I had the same problem despite having uninstalled and installed various versions of the Acrobat Reader without any effect.

Printing eventually worked fine when I installed Acrobat Reader Pro 9 including this extra feature "Create Adobe PDF files". Has nothing to do with the Mac operating System though as I am using Windows.

Report · May 11, 2015

This worked for me; hope it works for you. Good luck!

1. Go to Print...

2. Click "Advanced"

3. UNCHECK "PRINT AS IMAGE" (if checked). ***Beneath it, make sure "Stimulate Overprinting" is still checked. (I figure the reason Adobe says, "no page selected" is because the program reads the document as an "image." When this radio box is unchecked, Adobe can read the pages to trigger printing process.)

Report · Aug 07, 2015

This worked for me in Acrobat DC. Don't know why all of a sudden one day it was working and then it stopped, but once I followed this tip, I was able to get things going again after weeks of having to use Yosemite's built in Preview app for all PDF printing... when I finally needed Acrobat's capability to print multiple images to a page, I had to dig in and solve it, and this answer got me going again.

Report · Mar 20, 2016

went into advanced printer settings and that image box wasn't checked and doesn't print but thanks anyway.

Report · Aug 30, 2016

This solution somehow worked for me! Thanks! I've been trying to solve this for weeks!

Report · Jun 14, 2015

I am experiencing the same issues. I have created several PDFs from Illustrator CC the past couple days. Some of them print fine and some of them don't. I can find no common denominator yet. They are all 2-layer files and all of them use the same linked background .PSD image on the bottom layer.

I get the same two print error messages as mentioned in the threads above.

I cannot print some of these PDFs from either the latest version of Acrobat (15) or Acrobat Reader DC. However, if I place the non-printable PDFs in say InDesign CC, they print fine? They also print fine from the Apple PREVIEW application. So I am guessing there is noting wrong with the PDFs, but rather with the two Adobe Acrobat apps. One of my clients is having the same problems trying to print the same files on his PC from Adobe Acrobat apps?

Some of the files that trigger these errors are the smallest files of the bunch (Myriad text only in the top layer), so it does not appear to be memory related.

EXAMPLES:

I have uploaded (2) files to Dropbox for your analysis. I made both of these in Illustrator CC and saved as PDFs directly from Illustrator using the [Smallest File Size] Preset. I actually made about (30) of these signs in all - all are identical as far as being 2-layered AI files and all use the same background PSD image. About 25 of the PDF files I made like this for my client to proof printed out fine, the rest gave the two errors. Both of these print fine from PREVIEW on Mac Mavericks and they also both seem to print fine when I place them in InDesign CC and print from there? The 2nd image will not print from Acrobat or Acrobat Reader (any version I have installed including the latest).

NOTE: If I look inside my Print Driver dialog after attempting to print one of these files in question, it says "Stopped - Unable to convert Postscript file".

File that does print: Dropbox - YES.pdf

Files that doe NOT print: Dropbox - NO.pdf

Report · Jan 06, 2016

Yeah, I've read all of these "solutions" to a problem that, just yesterday, was not a problem. I also have FoxIt on my Windows 10 (a dog within itself..., and it has fleas!) desktop. I had to install it to get the thumbnail previews to display. I tell you, Adobe is getting to be as sorry as HP, and Microsoft. Nothing they do in "updates" work for the advantage of the end user. We have become just "purchasers". I wonder where these idiots would go if we ceased to be that!

I mentioned FoxIt because when I opened the same document in that program, it printed, flawlessly. I also printed Word documents. So, there isn't anything wrong with anything else EXCEPT this Adobe crap!

Report · Jun 22, 2015

Loath is too tame of a word to describe my utter contempt with Adobe Acrobat DC; it's unreliable and downright ridiculous most of the time. When printing more often then not, a popup will show with "no pages selected" which leads to a) no printing b) outright frustration and c) a higher probability of me throwing my macbook out of a window.

The only way, and I mean the only way, I have ever been able to print my pdf file when this pop up is shown is to not even use the program at all anyway (which is ridiculous in itself) but to print by doing the following:

right click on the selected document/pdf
click open with
click preview (if preview isn't automatically listed go down to other and search for the preview program)
(your document should open) select file then print adjust your setting and your ready to go

This might not have helped in the way you wanted it to but it does give another option to their non-existent solution to the problem.

Report · Jul 26, 2015

I have the same problem on my Mac Mini. The 'print with Preview' is the best solution I have found. A little research shows this problem has been around at least as far back as 2009! That's pretty poor in my judgement.

Report · Jul 08, 2016

I have my items printed!

Followed your "open with" steps and couldn't quickly find preview, but that gave me the idea to just open with a different app. Probably any pdf app would work - I used dubhub.

RELIEF! Thank you!