Alerting me when Combining PDFs there is corruption

[Clarence5DC5]

Hi, bear with me, I'm new at this.  I combined 12 PDFs that (should have) totalled 1500 pgs of text. Through the combine process, for each PDF I was given the green checkmark, showing "all is well" (and not the yellow warning triangle).  My combined PDF was 1200 pgs, so 300 were missing. I opened each individual PDF to find one (that should have had 200 pgs) that was corrupt at about page 93.  So obviously when combining, Adobe skipped that 200 pg PDF as there was an issue with it, however still gave the OK as if all was well during the combination process.    Had I not known the pre-combined total, I would have thought the entire package was 1200.  Missing those 300 pgs later really blew up on me.  We combine all the time at work, now I'm not sure I'm trusting that everything presented is getting combined - help!  Thanks

[Peru Bob]

I've moved this from the Using the Community forum (which is the forum for issues using the forums) to the Acrobat forum so that proper help can be offered.

[Clarence5DC5]

Thanks for helping a rookie! 🙂

[MeenakshiNegi]

Hi Clarence,

Thank you for reaching out and sorry for the trouble.

Would you mind sharing the PDFs that you are trying to combine with us so we can replicate the issue at our end? Also, share the resultant PDF created after combining the multiple PDFs.

Share the Acrobat and OS version you are currently working on.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

[Clarence5DC5]

Thanks, I would love to show you, but they are medical records of one of our patients, so I can't send.

My fear is that, since we combine PDFs of medical files all the time, we "assume" all are being captured since we're getting the "check mark".  When you have 20-30 PDFs that total thousands of pages, there's no way to know some are not being combined.  I would have assumed that if that particular PDF is corrupt somehow, when combining, adobe would alert us with the warning triangle that something isn't right.  

Going forward, I'm trying to think of a solution if adobe cannot alert us, what we will do. The only thing I can think of is that someone is going to have to be assigned to add up the total pages of each PDF, then combine, then compare the final combined total to see if there is a difference.  If so, then someone will have to open each PDF and scroll to the bottom to ensure that there is no corruption in that particular pdf.  However, I really don't have the extra staff to spend that kind of time.  I hate the thought of not being able to trust the program.

Can you think of any other work-arounds?

thanks 

[Dave__M]

I had something similar happen quite a while ago.  It turned out that there was a stray character in the PDF that the process didn't like - go figure.  I would try adding that one 'troublesome' file after the others are combined (and saved).  You can then monitor its insertion in an isolated way.  I would also try varying methods - the combine command, insert pages, drag the file into the pages panel - you never know which one might actually work, in my experience.

Good luck, and let us know if you find success - others can learn from it too,

My best,

Dave