Adobe Acrobat Pro Crashes When Changing Print Settings - EFI print drivers

[jamhic]

Environment: 

OS - Windows 11 - 22H2 build 22621.1105

Adobe Acrobat Pro (64 bit) Version 2022.003.20310

EFI Fiery driver Version 6.5.009.0 also tried version 6.3.005.0

This is a fresh install of Windows and Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Computer hardware:  Dell XPS tower 11th Gen i7 11700K, 16GB RAM, UHD Graphics

Printer: Xerox PrimeLink 9070 with EFI-i Fiery Server

The computer use a Windows print server to obtain driver settings. 

When printing, if the driver settings are changed, Adobe crashes when returning to main print options window. See attached video.

This happens every time and with any setting changed in the properties.

Any ideas what might be happening. Again, new computer, fresh install of Windows and Adobe Acrobat Pro.

[AkanchhaS]

Hi @jamhic 

Thank you for sharing the detailed description and sample video attached.

We see that the application crashes immediately after giving the print command. Is this an experiencing with all the files you have been trying to print?

Also, has it started crashing recently after installing the latest update?

Try the following steps and see if that helps.

• Navigate to Acrobat>Edit>Preferences>Security (Enhanced)>disable "Protected Mode at Start-up", "Protected View" and "Enhanced Security">OK>close and reopen Acrobat [Windows only]
• Run this cleaner tool to remove the existing installer and application’s files traces:

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/cleaner.html

Download the Acrobat installer from here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-dc-downloads.html 

Let us know if it still doesn't help!

Thanks,

Akanchha

[jamhic]

Hi, thank you for those suggestions.

Here are my discoveries from what I tried in regard to them. 

For ease of typing - Security (Enhanced) = SE, Protected Mode at Start-up = PMaS

Before I cleaned and reinstalled, I disabled the PMaS and SE and printing did NOT crash. So it worked without them enabled.

I reinabled SE and it still worked, then I reenabled PMaS and it still worked. After a restart, the problem came back. 
Disabling PMaS seems to be the key. It works with SE enabled and PMaS disabled.

So then, I uninstalled Adobe Acrobat and Creative Cloud and ran the cleaner. I downloaded Adobe Acrobat Pro from the link provided and installed it. After it was installed I tested the printing and it was still crashing with PMaS active. The takeaway here is that with PMaS active, the program crashes whenever we change the printer preference settings.

I turned on logging for PMaS and crashed the program a few times. I've included the logs for reference.

[jamhic]

Hi Akanchha, 
I was wondiering if you were still looking into this issue? Ideally, we would have Protected Mode at Startup turned on. I find it quite odd that this issue is only happening to one of our users.

Thanks

[AkanchhaS]

Hi @jamhic 

Thank you for sharing your observation and logs. It's very much appreciated.

Will discuss this with our engineering to identify the root cause of the issue. Will keep yo posted about our discussion and outcome. 

Thanks,

Akanchha 

[abhisi]

Hi dogdaynoon,

Thanks for reporting this to us.

Please share the following information:

Is the issue started happening recently after installing the latest version of Acrobat, or has it been happening for a quite sometime with previous releases as well?

Also, does the issue occur every time, as it is happening only with one of the users at your end? Please confirm the same.

Thanks,
Abhishek Ranjan Singh

[jamhic]

Hi Abhisi,

The problem has been happening for just a month or two. I'm not really sure what kicked it off. It could have been any number of updates, but it is only happening for one user that we are aware of. It happens on their old computer and the latest one we just built (this new one is the one I am using to trouble shoot - specs above). And, yes, it occurs every time until PMaS is disabled. Then it stops happening. If we reenable it, it happens randomly (not every time). Once the pc is restarted with PMaS enabled, it happens every time again.

[jamhic]

I need to update the last post. I've been playing around with it some more and the issue is actually happening more sporadically it would seem. It may do it 10 times in a row and then not do it for a few. Or it could do it once or twice and then not again for an extended period. But for certain it always happens the first few times after a reboot.

[abhisi]

Hi dogdaynoon ,

Thanks for sharing your observations. 

Could you please share Process Monitor logs for the below scenarios to
investigate it further.

1. When PMOS is enabled and an issue is happening.
2. When PMOS is disabled and an issue is not happening.
3. When PMOS is reenabled and an issue starts happening again.
4. When the system is restarted and an issue is happening.

Thanks,

Abhishek Ranjan Singh

[jamhic]

Hi, I have not had the time to collect the logs yet. I will try and find some time this week. Thank you.

[jamhic]

Good day. I was finally able to collect the log files. I think it would be best if you contacted me privatley to transfer them. What is the best way for us to handle that?

Thank you

[jamhic]

Hi Abhishek, 

Is there some way I can get these logs to you without posting them in the forum chat? 

Thank you,

[AkanchhaS]

Hi @jamhic 

I have shared our email address via private message. You can upload the logs on Cloud storage and share its link via email.

Thanks,

Akanchha 

[jamhic]

Hi Abhishek,

I would like to move this thread along as the computer that is being used to troubleshoot is not being used for production and should be. Is there another way I can get the log files transfered to you?

[Angel270098888x3h]

I have a single user also experiencing the same issue. Adobe only crashes when trying to print to a Xerox Primelink C9070 with Fiery Server. The odd thing is it works just fine for all other users. 

Disabling Protected Mode at Startup fixed the issue, but I would prefer not to have to change the default settings to have a functional peice of software.

[jamhic]

@AkanchhaS @abhisi We are now experienceing the issue with multiple users. It is not just the one person anymore. I'm affraid this is spiraling. Has there been any progress with the engineering team?

Thank you,

James

[AkanchhaS]

Hi there,

Sorry for the delay in acknowledgment. Will get back to engineering to check the status of this. 

~Akanchha

[richsweeney]

The problem for us seems be with 64 bit vs 32 bit and windows 10 and window 11.

32 bit acrobat does not like working in windows 11.  Our problem was partly solved by upgrading. The downside was our pagination program is not supported. uggg.

[leanner57525379]

Hi,

Has there been a fix for this as I am also getting this problem now?

[defaultoiue9zvft1xy]

I have not heard anything from the original Adobe personel that were looking into this since March. @akanchhas, We are still waiting to hear from Adobe regarding this issue. Could you please provide an update?
@leanner57525379 we have also learned through our Xerox vendor, that this could be related to an EFI driver, but I have tried previous versions of the driver and they still display the same crashing issue. Unfortunatley, we have to disable the security feature in the Adobe settings in order to be able to use our Fiery settings.

[jamhic]

Hi Everyone. Although, it's only been a few days, I'd like to let you know that we finally came across the fix for this issue. @defaultoiue9zvft1xy was correct. Along with this Adobe crashing, we were also experienceing an issue with Word when printing to the EFI printers. Whenever you would change a setting in the EFI driver, Word would crash on printing. However, in the Word case, there was no workaround and users had to print to PDF then print from a pdf software like BlueBeam or Edge or Reader. We found out through our vendor (Thank you Kelley Connect) that EFI released an update that resolved the Word issue. Low and behold, it seems to have fixed the Adobe issue as well. Give it a try. You can find the instructions on EFI's website. https://communities.fiery.com/s/article/Printing-from-the-Fiery-Driver-on-a-computer-with-Windows-11...  

I know it says its for 22H2 but I have also verified on Windows 11 23H2.  

Good luck everyone! 

[jamhic]

So a quick edit. I don't think that the EFI patch was what fixed the Adobe issue. It did fix the Word issue but I rolled back the update and broke Word again. After that, I checked Adobe, and it was still working with the security features enabled. I restarted and Adobe is still working and Word is not. 
Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 2023.006.20380 | 64-bit