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hannahs55410456
hannahs55410456
New Participant
December 21, 2019
Answered

Error 14: Expected a dict object

  • December 21, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 81627 views

Hi,

 

I've been editing a PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (Windows 10) by adding comments and markup. When I finished and went to save it, I received an error message: "The document could not be saved. There was a problem reading this document (14)." Ctrl+i gives the detail "Expected a dict object."

 

I've tried searching online for a solution, but it seems they all involve finding another way to open or copy the document; the focus is on making it viewable, not savable. That's not the problem I'm having. I need to know how to save this file without closing it and losing all the comments and markup I've spent hours adding. Can anyone help?

 

Thank you!

    Correct answer hannahs55410456

    Checking back in with an update. I was able to save it by exporting the comments, which converted it to an FDF file. If you know of another solution based on the info I provided, it could still be helpful, but for now the problem is solved. Thank you for your help!

    4 replies

    J
    joseph_5559
    New Participant
    April 24, 2025

    Had same problem (Windows 11), document that had previously saved no problem suddenly won't save with error 14 after adding some comments to it. None of the suggested solutions worked. However, saving to Word recovered a file with all of my unsaved comments. Reckon in future I will just automatically open pdfs in Word  to avoid wasting time on bug 14.

    Meenakshi Negi
    Community Manager
    Meenakshi NegiCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 24, 2025

    Hi joseph_5559,

     

    Thank you for reaching out.

     

    If the issue still occurs with the particular file, it could be a file-specific issue. The error appears when the file is potentially corrupted or there is an issue with how it was created initially. We would need the file in which the issue occurs to investigate this behavior further. Please share the file or sample file so we can check it on our end. Also, share the Acrobat and OS version numbers.

     

    Thanks,

    Meenakshi

    J
    joseph_5559
    New Participant
    April 25, 2025

     

     

     

    Edition Windows 11 Education; Version 23H2; Installed on ‎2023-‎04-‎04; OS build 22631.5189
    Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22700.1077.0

     

    Are you asking me to go to Acrobat: Choose Help > About Adobe Acrobat Pro, click through the version information and manually type the information into this message (because it won't let me copy/paste the info)? 

     

    I will be happy to share the corrupted file with you. Please explain to me how I can send you a corrupted file whose corruption makes it unsavable. I can send you a copy of the file that was saved before I added the corrupting comments but, of course, by virtue of having been successfully saved, it's presumably not corrupted.

     

     

     

    S
    Stefan29577996uq60
    New Participant
    April 25, 2023

    I found a sort-of workaround which involves identifying the page(s) that contain the error and removing them:

    1. Use the extract pages tool to create individual files from each page. This could take a while if your document is long, and I'd advise making a separate folder to save them to.

    2. You'll get the same error message each time Acrobat encounters a page with the error. Click OK to skip it and continue with the others. The number of times it appears will tell you the number of corrupt pages.

    3. The numbers at the end of the new file names will show you which pages haven't been extracted (because they were corrupt). You can recombine the non-corrupt pages into a single new file with the 'combine files' tool.

     

    This is obviously not great if you need the bad pages left in, but I've read elsewhere that you can extract and save them separately as TIFF files and then re-insert them into your new PDF.

      D
      DeWayne5C84
      New Participant
      September 3, 2020

      I am having the same issue 'expected a dict object.' However I do not know how to remove the warning in order to save the document with a different file name.

       

      Please advise

        P
        Polona KC
        New Participant
        April 12, 2021

        Same issue here - how to remove Expect a dict object so I can try to save the file. Please help as I don't want to lose all my comments!

        A
        Alex Sproul
        Inspiring
        August 25, 2021

        I'm having the same issue. I manage the bylaws for a large LLC; it is presently over 550 pages, and edited almost weekly. The 16 mb file has suddenly refused to save, and I've had no luck finding any corruption. For a while (weeks) if I just closed the file, I would find that it did save anyway. Now when I try to save, I get "Do you want to save changes before closing, Yes/No"; Yes results in a return to Error 14 -- No closes the file, with all updates lost! Saving with a different filename does not work. I'm now desperate to find a solution, as company history is at stake and updates are piling up!

          Amal.
          Community Manager
          Amal.Community Manager
          Community Manager
          December 21, 2019

          Hi Hannahs,

           

          We are sorry for the trouble you are experiencing. As described above, you are getting the Error 14: Expected a dict object.

           

          This error occurs when there is something internally wrong with the PDF. We need some more information to better understand the situation: 

           

          • Have you created the PDF or have you got the PDF from a different user?
          • Was this PDF created with Acrobat DC or a 3rd Party tool? Open the PDF > Right Click  > Document Properties > Description > check the PDF producer
          • Has the PDF been through a lot of modifications? Acrobat can sometimes mess up the PDF Internally if a lot of modifications have been made.

           

          Please try to recreate the PDF by doing 'Save As' with a different file name and run the optimizer on the file.

           

          You may also refer to a similar discussion here (https://answers.acrobatusers.com/Error-Expected-Dict-Object-q55452.aspx)

           

          Let us know how it goes

           

          Regards

          Amal

          hannahs55410456
          hannahs55410456Author
          New Participant
          December 23, 2019

          Hi Amal,

           

          Thank you for your response. The PDF was sent to me by its author, who says she created it by "saving a Word document as a PDF" and didn't make a lot of changes or insert pages. However, she also stated that she uses Ubuntu and LibreOffice, not Word, and Evince rather than Adobe. Document Properties shows the application as PDFescape Online and the PDF producer as RAD PDF.

           

          I did try to "Save As" with a different filename before I posted here, and it gave me the same result. If I try to optimize the PDF as you recommended, will it delete all the comments and markup?

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