A

Anonymous

Question

Error messages when loading PDFs from embedded Excel document

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
October 8, 2019
1 reply
12716 views

Hello,

I am currently looking into two error messages that seem to occur when trying to open up embedded PDF documents from an Excel document. These error messages do not seem to occur when opening the PDF files directly from file explorer.

Any advice on how to resolve these error messages would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Ryan

Amal.

Legend

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for reaching out. As described above, you are getting error messages when loading PDFs from embedded Excel document, correct?

As the documents are opening fine when opened directly from the file explorer, there seen to be an issue with the excel file.

Is the file located locally on your computer or is it on a shared network? Please try to download the file to your computer and check.

Please try to add the location of the file in Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Go to Edit (Windows), Adobe Acrobat/Reader (Mac) > Preferences > Enhanced Security > Add File And Add Folder Path > Click OK and check.

For testing purpose, please try to turn off the protected view. Go to Edit (Windows), Adobe Acrobat/Reader (Mac) > Preferences > Enhanced Security > Turn off the Protected view and uncheck the Enhanced security > click OK > Restart the computer and check.

Note: Please turn on the security after testing, irrespective of the result.

If turning off the security works for you, please refer to the steps in the help article - https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/protected-mode-troubleshooting-reader.html

Additional information: Make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat/Reader installed. Go to Help > Check for Updates. For detailed information please use the help link https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/ReleaseNotesDC/index.html

Let us know how it goes

Regards

Amal

B

Bill.R

Participating Frequently

I have the same problem. I've embedded a PDF file (not a link) in an Excel spreadsheet, The source file opens fine if I open it in Windows, but I get the following error if I try to open it from within Excel:

I followed all the suggestions in the previous post and nothing works. I'm running the ltest version of Acrobat. I tried disabling all of the advanced security features. I added the folder and file name to trused sources (not sure why that would matter since the embedded file isn't a link). Nothing works.

How do I fix this?

J

james21885208mkib

Participating Frequently

Hi James,

I hope you are doing well. Thanks for sharing the detailed information. We're sorry for the trouble.

Could you please confirm the current version of Acrobat? Please ensure you have the latest version of Acrobat installed on the machine: 25.001.20458. The Planned update is April 15, 2025. Check for any pending updates from the Menu > help > check for updates, install the updates, and restart the app and the machine.

Could you please collect the logs from the affected machine and provide the current version of the Office suite and the OS installed? Additionally, a screen recording that demonstrates the specific issue in your environment would be very helpful for our investigation.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

Hi Anand

Version is current & 64bit, Was going to take a screenshot of the about section in Adobe but disapeers as soon as you click anything else which is super unhelpful, however exactly as you listed. Also old style as I'm not fond of the new layout. I did switch to see if that changed anything and it's exactly the same error(s)

Windows 11, everything is current as it is a works laptop.

This is a screeshot of the error message, sometimes when you zoom in after this message it will fix and display PDF properly, when the document is too complex however, it just returns a blank/white screen:

I'm not famialir with collecting error reports, googled and it's only showing me system information which is not what is being requested.

Per Bill's video above, exactly the same method. Bluebeam entry that works also uses this same method. Adobe snip below as default program. Insert, Create from file, display as icon: looks like this -

When I attempt to open the above PDF via excel I get the first screenshot error. If I zoom in I get a white page/no data. Another embeded PDF in this file that contains less data opens with the same message, when I zoom in, that PDF corrects itself. A third embeded PDF that has less data does not throw back any error at all & opens as nornal.

Going across to the same PDF that was embeded into excel via Bluebeam, this works as normal, opens and does not throw back any errors, despite being exaclty the same. complex SLD. The only difference is source program/ Adobe vs Bluebeam

If you explain how to collect logs, I can gather these tomorrow.

Thanks,

James

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