Automatic Upgrade from Acrobat Reader DC to Pro

[jmann9876]

Over the past week, we have been experiencing strange behaviour where the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is automatically upgraded to the Adobe Acrobat Pro version of the application. It's not until we blocked Automatic Updates using the "bUpdater" Registry Key that this behaviour has stopped. As multiple users utilise the system it may well be possible they are initiating the upgrade but as they don't have Windows Administrative Rights then it shouldn't be possible to upgrade the software.

Has this behaviour changed recently? I've noted another post in these forums from this month where their version was automatically upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit and a new (undocumented) Registry Key was required to fix, bUpdateToSingleApp. Are these related?

Adobe 32bit Updating Automatically to 64bit - Adobe Support Community - 12400606

[JamIT]

Hey mate,

Just thought I'd give you a heads up, I work for an IT firm and we have (so far) 3 different clients that have had nearly every machine upgrade itself from Adobe Reader 32-bit, to Acrobat Pro. It has broken a lot of things, and is definitely not due to users clicking upgrade, due to the simultaneous upgrade of all machines.

I'm hoping Adobe soon find this common fault and deploy a fix, as it's creating a lot of work for us at the moment!

Cheers

-Jamie

[MeenakshiNegi]

Hi Jmann,

Thank you for reaching out and sorry for the trouble.

Yes, it is a related issue and the team is aware of it.

I would suggest you to use the registry key fix as suggested in the another thread.

We will update you if we get any information on this from the team.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

[Unenecumbered Cue]

I've read this response a few times now. From what I can tell, it seems to suggest that Adobe is aware of this and it is not considered an issue. Should we just stop providing Adobe Reader to our customers and start looking for alternatives if they have no need for the paid Adobe apps??

[JamIT]

That's my thinking as well. It has caused such a headache for our entire organisation, and has persisted to be an issue even after painfully deploying the Registry fix to multiple clients.

I have already started to move clients to different PDF readers as a result. Unsure how such a huge organisation can have such a bizarre fault, it's almost like they're hoping people will just start paying for Pro...

[Slonki]

We still have the exakt same issue, for a month now. We've moved to just using a web browser to open PDFs instead, but the customer really likes adding notes and such to the documents, which they have gotten used to doing in Adobe Reader. Its strange that they say "they're aware of the issue" yet say nothing about the issue in over a month.

[Justin Cooksey]

Has this been reolved yet?

I am having this problem right now.  One user has an account, and when she opens Reader it goes and updates to full product.
I've tried a few of the registry changes, but this is still trying eveyr time a PDF is opened by this user on this machine.

[Slonki]

Nope, still have hte same issue, soon 2 months later with no fix..

[jmann9876]

Thank you Jamie and Meenakshi. As an update to this issue, we are still experiencing the problem, even with the two mentioned Registry Keys established in the environment. We haven't been able to identify what has been triggering the upgrade, so for now we have moved to another 3rd-party application for opening PDFs. When we receive a response from Adobe with a suitable fix we will look at testing this and reverting back.

[Slonki]

Noticing the exact same behaviour on one of our customers shared terminal server. Ive tried disabled both the service for Adobe update, and the scheduled task for updating but it seem to be upgrading on its own anyway. Trying the bUpdater regedit fix now too in hopes of a solution..

[Slonki]

Also tried the regedit thing but still upgrades automatically..

Need an urgent fix for this, that is NOT upgrading to Pro, because that is not what we asked for.

[Alastair5ED7]

We too have been having this problem with our terminal servers switching from Acrobat Reader DC to Acrobat Reader Pro DC totally on its own. the registry fixes have not worked and its causing major problems.

any ideas on a alternative PDF reader that works.

[Slonki]

We just use chrome in the meanwhile, if people REALLY want to add notes and such, they have to open the PDF in adobe reader on their PC..

[default780w58bq212i]

Same issue here - Any word on a fix/work-around? 

Little bit frustrating have to remove DC Pro and re-install Reader DC as Acrobat is 'upgrading' itself to on production systems that's are not licenced to use it.

Regards, 

[Raetsheren]

Same here, really annoying problem.

[WhatEverItTakes]

I can only add that this annoying problem persists, converting Adobe Reader DC to Acrobat DC on a Terminal Server (Server 2019 Std) again and again.

We are using a modified installer (Adobe Configuration Wizard). All Adobe Online Services AND the upselling are disabled in the installer file. But the Reader keeps upgrading itself to Acrobat DC, rendering the software unusable due to missing licenses for the full version.

[Mike Spragg]

I'm seeing this and have been chasing this for ages. The prevention in software policies don't work. The updater service is disabled but re-enables itself somehow. I de-installed and re-installed reader on Sunday and it's back to DC Pro again by today. Really ruddy annoying !!!

[Michaelomm]

The regisrty key to prevent upgrades from 32bit to 64bit worked for about 2 mmonths for me but now i have the same issue has before 😞

Its so distruptive and stressful to everyone involved

[Slonki]

Its probably never being fixed if its been flagged as a known issue for this long. 6 months since an Adobe offical said "Yes, it is a related issue and the team is aware of it.".

Probably just another way of forcing people to pay for something they dont want..

[Michaelomm]

I jumped the gun a bit here. Only 1 server was effected.

The issue seems to be about the automatic upgrade path from 32bit to 64bit. I manually installed the 64bit version and everything appears fine now

[Michaelomm]

NOPE! all our RDS are experiencing this now.

A POX ON YOUR HEAD ADOBE!

[ExhaustedTech]

Just in case anyone else looks here later for a solution...

The issue is that 64bit Reader gives people the option to sign-in with Adobe credentials. If you have any staff with a Pro subscription, they are able to upgrade Reader to Pro on the machine, without admin credentials. This should not be the case but Adobe refuses to acknowledge it being an issue. I'm guessing it's their way of forcing you to upgrade all staff to Pro.

What I've done as a workaround, is implement these two registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown\bSuppressSignOut= 1

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown\cServices\bUpdater= 0

These remove the Sign Out buttons from the upper right and Help menus. I added them to the Acrobat Customization Wizard so it automatically installs with the package but I suppose you can do it with GPP as well. If you don't want to reinstall Adobe, GPP may be your best bet. 

I did NOT disable all Adobe Services in the Acro Cust Wizard because there are some that our staff use. I've heard you can disable that as well and it will work but I have not personally tested it. I just wanted a way to stop people from signing in, which prevents Pro users from being able to upgrade.

[Jay29352150k83i]

I can't understand how this is still an issue a year later, and why it didn't happen to me and ALL my computers until July of 2023. Mind boggling.  

I am not experienced enough to do registry editing, but It seems i'll have to uninstall it and just reinstall reader DC or something!

[ExhaustedTech]

This shouldn't still be an issue for anyone since Adobe DC is now a Unified installer. If you don't have a Pro subscription, it will stay as Reader. If you have a Pro subscription and login, it converts your Adobe to Pro. Do you have the DC Unified installed?

[Jay29352150k83i]

None of us have a paid subscription, the company does not use a subscriptiont.  We all had Reader DC, then we showed up Monday and had "you're decice needs to restart to install updates" and then we have pro.  My biggest complaint is I can't figure out how to take a snapshot 🤣 but the redact feature was very helpful.  

Any suggestions?