An Internal Error Occured, Cannot Use Adobe Acrobat

[ArcturusMengsk]

Hello,

I'm receiving an error on a team member's computer that pops up after the program is opened and I try to navigate the toolbar in Adobe Acrobat. This error doesn't occur when I open the program as admin and only seems to happen when it's opened with their profile logged in. We use SSO in our environment.

Here's some troubleshooting steps I've taken:

1.  Killing program and then re-open
2.  Restart computer
3.  Check for updates
4.  Make sure Adobe and CC are updated
5. Use both AcroCleaning Utility and CC Cleaning Utility and then reinstall
6. Uncheck various settings in the app preferences
7. Check Security tab of shortcut/program for users that should not be there

My thought is that the issue is somehow related to Adobe being in some kind of authentication loop or their version of Adobe being in "Old Acrobat." I can't select any of the options at the top toolbar. When I do, I get the above error message. Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Tariq Ahmad]

Hi @ArcturusMengsk, 

Thanks for sharing the details. That “An internal error occurred” message can sometimes indicate permission or configuration issues, especially in customized deployments.

Since Acrobat works fine when launched with administrator rights, this likely suggests a permissions-related issue with either the installation or the user profile. That you already have found out.

Here are a few things you might check:

Check Folder/File Permissions:

Make sure the current user has full read/write permissions for:

• %appdata%\Adobe\Acrobat\

• %localappdata%\Adobe\Acrobat\

• The main installation folder (e.g., C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat)

Customized installs sometimes restrict these unintentionally.

Custom Installation:

• If Acrobat was installed via an enterprise deployment or custom script, verify whether any AppContainer restrictions, Group Policy, or custom preferences are enforced.

• Try running the app after disabling any startup scripts or extensions, in case one is causing the failure.

 

Test with a New User Profile:

• If possible, try logging in with a different Windows user profile. If it works fine, the issue is likely tied to the original profile’s environment.

More information on deployment and customization, please check: https://adobe.ly/3J9970s

Let us know if you’re able to test these suggestions — happy to continue helping.

Best regards,
Tariq | Adobe Community Team

[ArcturusMengsk]

Hi Tariq, thank you for the detailed response. I will try these troubleshooting steps out and let you know how they go, thank you!

[ArcturusMengsk]

So unfortunately none of these steps worked in my scenario. I ended up just installing Reader then upgrading to Acrobat without Creative Cloud installed. Normally we deploy apps via Intune but we've had some trouble pushing out Adobe apps so we've reverted to just installing manually. That link you provided me is very helpful though and I'm going to review it so we can get Adobe deployed properly. Thank you for the assistance!