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james-k-p
Participant
December 5, 2019
Answered

Double clicking PDFs to open doesn't work consistently when preview pane is open in explorer

  • December 5, 2019
  • 7 replies
  • 34373 views

Hey All, 

 

We recently finally took the plunge and updated to Acrobat DC/2017 2 weeks ago after years and years on X.  Obviously we were forced to due to our office updating to office365 and my users wanting their Acrobat tab in Outlook back.

 

In any case, on all computers, including a brand new one fresh out the box, office freshly installed on it, windows 10 freshly patched out, Acrobat fresh installed, the same problem is happening.

 

This is a law firm and our paralegals like having the Preview Pane open in their windows explorer when dealing with PDFs.  With this pane open, a simple double click on a PDF doesn't work consistently.  I go to a PDF, double click....nothing...the preview loads...i double click again...50/50 shot it might open, might not do anything.  If I press enter on the keyboard, opens instantly.

 

If I go into the Options of the windows file explorer and change the settings from double click to open a file, to single click (where it highlights on hover), same thing.  A single click of the file won't open it....another single click...it might...it might not.  So it's not a mouse, double clicking timing issue.

 

If I turn off the Preview Pane, it works as it should.  Every double click (after setting it back to double click of course), opens the file in in acrobat as it should.

 

One thing is consistent, if the Preview Pane is activated...the first double click of a file (while preview is loading in the preview pane) never opens the file in Acrobat.  

 

My searching has not led me to anyone discussing this, but this cannot possibly be unique to me and I would assume everyone could recreate this, it's just most users probably do not use the Preview Pane.

 

Please let me know what you guys think, if you can replicate it, and any ideas to fix.  

I still have a few computers here and there with X on it, and it doesn't have this problem and never did.  Thanks!

 

James

    Correct answer Nancy OShea

    See screenshot from Windows File Explorer.

     

     

     

    7 replies

    pamelag75395187
    pamelag75395187
    Participant
    July 30, 2020

    Having exact same problem. File associations are correct. Wondering if it's an Adobe issue or a Windows issue...

     

    Perhaps a first world problem, but definitely disruptive to work flow.

      Nancy OShea
      Community Expert
      Nancy OSheaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
      Community Expert
      July 30, 2020

      See screenshot from Windows File Explorer.

       

       

       

      Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
      A
      Anonymous
      July 31, 2020

      Nancy O'Shea,
      That is not reply to this problem. In fact, it is not really a reply, but just a screenshot.

      As the title of the thread suggests, this problem is specifically about double-clicking PDF files to open them, and Preview pane in Windows Explorer (Win10) causing the double-click to fail (at least once). Please read back again the descriptions given for the problem.

        A
        Anonymous
        July 20, 2020

        Adobe still has not fixed this problem as far as I can tell, and it is extremely annoying. I have by now nearly ingrained the habit of TRIPLE-clicking PDF files to open them, but it is absurd that we should have to. The lag to pull up the preview should not interfere with the action of the double-click. It's a bug.

        I know it's poor form for me to bring it up in an unrelated thread, but another very annoying work-flow interuption in Reader is the right-hand tool bar that opens every time you open a document (which I then have to minimize to the right). It is redundant and obstructive, and mainly serves as advertising to push users to upgrade to a montly subscription. This one is not a bug, but a deliberate disruption.

        Between these two relatively recent additions to PDF, I have been trying to move away from PDF format, for example using markdown (.md) where I can. There needs to be a better, universal, and open source portable document format that is more responsive to bug fixes and less pushy with subscription ads.

          A
          Anonymous
          July 31, 2020

          This thread is marked "solved", but it is not solved at all. The Adobe support professional clearly does not have a strong grasp of the problem.

          Once again, this is not a file association issue. This is a preview lag issue.

          Please show a little respect, Adobe, and stop asking us to change file associations or right-click the file to open it. Please read the descriptions users are giving of the actual problem.

            Nancy OShea
            Community Expert
            Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            July 31, 2020

            This is definitely not an Acrobat problem.  As a fellow product user on Win10 (v 1903),  I have no trouble double-clicking with mouse to open files in their associated apps.  

             

            When files don't open on double-click, it's often because of insufficient permissions, a missing or corrupted driver, an OS malfunction or interference from another process on your computer.  See Microsoft link below.

            https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/double-click-with-mouse-does-not-open-files-or/dd227cb9-48f4-4642-9118-f4438aa44128

             

            Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
            B
            bfrbouch
            Participant
            April 7, 2020

            I'm having the same issue. As an engineer who has been there from 100% paper documents to COVID-19 working from home situation, the reliance on PDFs is critical. This small thing breaks the flow of concentration. I have notice other Windows delays since an upgrade a while ago. In Outlook there is a pause in response when you mark an emial as "read" or "unread". Possibly this is a Windows OS thing and not just an Adobe thing.

              D
              Dina Stremel
              Participant
              March 12, 2020

              Having the same issue here. My IT department would's believe me until they saw it for themselves. Have you found a solution? And one that is different than "close the preview pane"?

                J
                jakeu3
                Participant
                January 27, 2020

                Has anyone found a fix for this? The computers I've worked on have the file associations set correctly.

                 

                -J

                  S
                  sazetts
                  Participant
                  December 16, 2019

                  I am expereincing exactly the same issue. The practice of double-clicking on PDF's immediatly to open seems to be inhibited because the preview pane is loading.  Some pdf's will not load on a double-click.  They require a second double-click.  Unfortunately my practive now is to click on the PDF and then double click.  I would like to turn off the scrolling feature of the preview pane to reduce processing and see if I can get the double-click to load all PDF's back.

                    Nancy OShea
                    Community Expert
                    Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
                    Community Expert
                    December 5, 2019

                    You probably have more than one PDF viewer available on your system.   Try associating PDF file types with the latest Adobe Acrobat from your OS settings.  Or simply open Acrobat first.  Then right click on PDF in Windows File Explorer and select Open with Adobe Acrobat.

                     

                     

                     

                     

                     

                     

                    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
                      J
                      james-k-pAuthor
                      Participant
                      December 6, 2019

                      No, all those obvious things are fine.  PDF is associated fine.

                       

                      If I turn off the preview pane and double click, each file I double click on opens perfectly fine in Acrobat 2017.

                       

                      If I turn on the preview pane....it might open...it might not.  If I keep double clicking on a file..maybe the 2nd or 3rd double click...it will open.

                       

                      I'm an IT professional, the basic stuff has been tested.  I have a few other peers looking into this.  The last thing we did was disabled the preview via registry, so the preview pane is turned on, but the preview isn't showing anything...and that problem is not there.

                       

                      I had another friend who is an IT person and his company just uses Acrobat 2017 standard, he tried it and his does the same thing.

                       

                      So I invite you to do it on your machine.  Open up your windows explorer...go to a directory full of PDFs, turn on the preview pane in explorer, and start double clicking PDFs and see how many of yours do not register and open.  It makes you think maybe you are misclicking, but you aren't.  It is a problem beyond just my environment.

                        J
                        james-k-pAuthor
                        Participant
                        December 6, 2019

                        Additionally, I can associate PDF to any app, not just acrobat, and the problem occurs.

                         

                        It's something to do with whatever part of Acrobat 2017 allows the preview function to work in explorer.

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