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jlk2011
New Participant
March 29, 2013
Answered

Error 5 from Acrobat Distiller - Cannot print to PDF

  • March 29, 2013
  • 3 replies
  • 40884 views

I have Adobe Acrobat Pro X. At startup and when I try to print to pdf I get the following in an Acrobat Distiller window: "Unable to create the temporary folder. Error 5: Access is denied." What is this and how do I fix it?

Correct answer jlk2011

Ok, are you able to make a file in that Acrobat Distiller 10 folder, then delete it? Clutching at straws here, I'm afraid. What Windows is it?


You must be onto something... I opened the Acrobat Distiller 10 folder, clicked New folder, a window appeared titled Destination Folder Access Denied. Content states "You need to confirm this operation. Acrobat Distiller 10. Date created 11/8/2013 3:17PM"

I clicked Continue and it allowed me to create the folder and delete it. Maybe Distiller is getting jammed up because of this. Would it be possible to just delete this folder and create a new one?

Windows 7 Home 64 bit

3 replies

B
Bree28676067x128
New Participant
June 11, 2025

Over a decade later this is still an issue. Never encountered this error in all of my years using Adobe, but today I did. Adobe, please focus on making your product work versus new features or new products.

    AnandSri
    Community Manager
    AnandSriCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    June 12, 2025

    Hello @Bree28676067x128!

     

    I hope you are doing well, and we are sorry for the trouble you had with the app.

     

    The engineering team has already been informed of the issue and is working on a fix. Could you please collect the logs from the affected machine and share them with us for further investigation?

     

    Please provide the following information: the current version of the operating system on your device, the current version of Acrobat installed, and the logs from the affected machine. To collect the logs, download and run the Log Collector tool. Make sure to select all log options and attempt to reproduce the issue. After that, close the Log Collector tool; it will generate the logs along with a log ID. Please share this log ID with us

     

    Thanks,

    Anand Sri.

      AnandSri
      Community Manager
      AnandSriCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      June 12, 2025

      @AnandSri 


      Hi @bruce_1852!

       

      Thanks for reaching out. Yes, if you could provide the logs, this would help us understand the different scenarios and the cause of the error message. 

       

      Regards,

      Anand Sri.

        P
        PhilipCohen
        New Participant
        April 28, 2014

         

        I have exactly the same error message!

        I am running Acrobat Pro 11 (11.0.06) and Distiller 11 (11.0.0670) on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit (up to date) ...

        Acrobat worked OK for a period after installation on 6 November 2013, but since some time after 19 January 2014 Acrobat will still read but won't create a PDF ...

        Now, on starting Windows or attempting to "print" a Word file to the Adobe printer, I get ...

        Acrobat Distiller:

        Unable to create the temporary folder. Error: 5 - Access is denied.

        I can load Distiller and view all the dialogs.

        I have folder at "C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Temp\Acrobat Distiller 11" dated the installation date.

        I can manually create a new folder therein

        When I attempt to create a PDF, a "read only" sub folder with "dirlock" and "Temp.msg" therein is created and disappears when I close the "hung" Creating PDF dialog, but no further action other than the error message ...

        Windows Startup loads "Adobe Gamma Loader.exe" (although I have no idea why).

        Any other ideas?

        B
        Bill12
        Inspiring
        April 28, 2014

        To print to the Adobe PDF printer, you need to have AcroTray active in the background. Is it running?

        P
        PhilipCohen
        New Participant
        April 28, 2014

        Thanks, yes, acrotray is a "Running Task" ...

        Allta Media
        Allta Media
        Community Expert
        April 1, 2013

        Do you have write access to the location that Distiller is placing your file? You can see this location by opening Distiller and looking log information at the bottom of the dialog.

          J
          jlk2011Author
          New Participant
          April 4, 2013

          I cannot even open Distiller. When I attempt to I get the same error message. Is there another way I can find where it is looking for?

          Using a %TEMP% search I found a temp folder for Acrobat Distiller 10 at C: > User > Jen > AppData > Local > Temp. The date on it is the day I reinstalled the program. This is a personal laptop so there shouldn't be any write access denial.

          T
          Test Screen Name
          Brainiac
          April 4, 2013

          Is there a folder called Acrobat Distiller 10 there (in Temp)? If not, try making one (name includes spaces).

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