Adobe Preflight tool loads but is blank

[lynnanguyen]

Hi there,

I have a customer that is unable to load Preflight properly. When it opens, there is nothing shown under 'Profiles' tab. I have tried changing the drop down at the top to show 'PDF standards' and under 'Profiles' I put the drop down box to 'Show all' however there is still nothing. I have checked my own Adobe Acrobat DC and it loads the profile with no issue. On top of removing Preflight and adding it back in, I've done a repair on Adobe Acrobat, reinstall and pushed a newer version of the software over. Photo attached is what it's supposed to load automatically. Red lining is everything that is not loading and showing blank on the customer's side. 

[divyasin · Accepted solution]

Hi @lynnanguyen ,

Thanks for reporting the issue and apologies for the inconvenience caused. For further investigation of the issue , I would need following information :

1. System OS and its version

2. Acrobat version (64 Bit or 32 Bit)

Regards,

Divya Kumar Singh

Acrobat Engineering Team

[Nishu254088549w1n · Accepted solution]

Hi @lynnanguyen ,

Please delete the folder Preflight Acrobat Continuous (Path : %APPDATA%\Adobe\Acrobat\Preflight Acrobat Continuous) and then try the workflow. Let us know if this works or not.

Regards,

Nishu Gupta

Acrobat Engineering Team

[Amal.]

Hi @lynnanguyen 

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out.

Please make sure the user is on version 23.01.20143 or later. You may manually download the patch from the link https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/ReleaseNotesDC/index.html

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 and see if that helps.

Regards

Amal

[lynnanguyen]

Hi Amal,

The user is running 23.01.20143. I've downloaded the patch which made no difference. After running the cleaner tool and removing Adobe, I rebooted the PC and reinstalled it with the link you provided. I'm still having the same issue.

[divyasin · Accepted solution]

Hi @lynnanguyen ,

Thanks for reporting the issue and apologies for the inconvenience caused. For further investigation of the issue , I would need following information :

1. System OS and its version

2. Acrobat version (64 Bit or 32 Bit)

Regards,

Divya Kumar Singh

Acrobat Engineering Team

[Nishu254088549w1n · Accepted solution]

Hi @lynnanguyen ,

Please delete the folder Preflight Acrobat Continuous (Path : %APPDATA%\Adobe\Acrobat\Preflight Acrobat Continuous) and then try the workflow. Let us know if this works or not.

Regards,

Nishu Gupta

Acrobat Engineering Team

[Nishu254088549w1n]

Hi @lynnanguyen ,
Thanks for the upvote. Hope preflight is working after deleting the folder. If you can please provide us with the below information, it will help us solve the issue in upcoming versions.
Can you please let us know if your protected mode is on:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences.

2. In the Categories list on the left, select Security (Enhanced).

3. In the Sandbox Protections section, see if the box Enable Protected Mode At Startup is checked or not

Regards,

Nishu Gupta

Acrobat Engineering Team

[lynnanguyen]

Hi Nishu,

Enable Protected Mode at Startup was not checkmarked.


Thank you,
Lynna

[Nishu254088549w1n]

Hi @lynnanguyen ,

Thank you for the response.

It is recommended to keep the protected mode on for enhanced security.

1. Check "Enable Protected Mode at Startup".

2. Quit Acrobat Application.

2. Delete  the folder Preflight Acrobat Continuous

3. Relaunch App.

I think the preflight should work for you in that case as well. Please update me with the result.

Regards,

Nishu Gupta

Acrobat Engineering Team

[Rebecca22400747zhjk]

Hello,

I am having the same problem I have the newest version of acrobat 24.1 on windows 11 and preflight loads  but all the tools are blank 

If I try to switch from PDF standards I get a pop up error message "unable to copy the user specific preferences.

I followed all of the previous advice and nothing has worked. Please help.

Thanks

Rebecca

[divyasin · Accepted solution]

Hi @Rebecca22400747zhjk ,

It appears to be some issue with Preflight Profiles getting corrupted or facing issue during install.

Please try this suggested workaround and let me know if this resolves the issue :

1. Disable the sandbox feature in Acrobat (under Preferences > Security (Enhanced) > Enable Protected Mode at startup (Preview)) , Quit Acrobat and Restart.
2. In the case of empty Profiles (or generally), it is advisable to remove the Preflight preferences (%APPDATA%\Adobe\Acrobat\Preflight Acrobat Continuous) to get fresh libraries/profiles after the sandbox is disabled. Quit Acrobat , Remove Profiles from above mentioned path and Restart Acrobat. Try Preflight again after relaunch , it should then fetch the fresh libraries/profiles.

Note: Please keep a backup of folder before removing from appdata as any custom profiles might get lost during removing/renaming folder.

Once the issue is resolved , please enable sandbox feature again and continue to use Product. 

Regards,

Divya Kumar Singh

[Devon Gilchrist]

This just fixed the problem for me. Brand new install of Acrobat on a new computer and preflight window was blank. Tried the other suggestions which did not work.  Did this one - unchecked 'Enable Protected Mode at startup', closed Acrobat, deleted the Preflight Acrobat Continuous folder (again - this step did not work on its own), and the Preflight window finally populated.  FYI, I ran Acrobat as an administrator. I haven't tried it yet running it normally.

[smooth_warmth2012]

This just fixed the problem for me too

[AnandSri]

Hello!

Glad to hear that the issue is resolved! Thank you for your time and patience. Feel free to reach out if you experience any issues with the app or services. For future reference, see this article to learn more about the Preflight tool: https://adobe.ly/4haq3zd

Regards,

Anand Sri.

[matthias_8009]

Nach mehrfacher Neuinstallation war das die Lösung. (Version 2025.001.20474 | 64-Bit)

[James_MasterTypesetter]

On latest version Acrobat as of July 8, 2025. Tried these steps of turning off Sandbox, deleting the Preflight Acrobat Continuous folder, tried installing Acrobat manually and nothing has worked. Preflight tools still not available. Have also tried uninstalling Acrobat and reinstalling nothing seems to help. On Windows 10 with current updates.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[cmccall9]

Worked for me!

[Printing3398277776eb]

Hi, I have a similar problem with preflight, but the message it gives is "preflight is installing. Please wait to use this tool" but it never installed. I tried all the ways mentioned but nothing works. Please help

[divyasin]

Hi @Printing3398277776eb,

Preflight is an optional tool and is installed once you invoke it from Acrobat. It takes some time for downloading and installing in background and then ideally it should start working after restarting Acrobat once installation finishes. You will get updates in form of message like you are seeing "Preflight is installing. Please wait to use this tool" and so on. 

If it is still not working after few minutes , then it appears there is some issue in setup which needs to be looked upon. However to unblock you at this time , can you follow the steps mentioned below after closing Acrobat :

1. Go to Control Panel --> Programs --> Program and features
2. Select Acrobat and Click on "Change" option (screenshot below for reference)
3. This opens the Acrobat setup window. Now select "Modify" option here.
4. Select "Optional Features" dropdown and select option "This feature and all subfeatures will be installed on local hard drive."
5. Click on Install .

Preflight will be available after installation. Let me know if this works for you.

Regards,

Divya Kumar Singh

[Printing3398277776eb]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I followed your advice, and the truth is that now it shows the profiles that it didn't before. However, it doesn't have a preflight option anywhere, or it's somewhere I can't see it.