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M
mburtonSJC
Participant
July 15, 2013
Answered

Error while saving a .PDF File to a mapped drive

  • July 15, 2013
  • 16 replies
  • 150560 views

The issue I am having is similar to the one found on this older post. http://forums.adobe.com/message/3066663#3066663

The issue is as follows. I have a small company about 15 users divided into a couple of departments with different networking access needs. They each have Adobe Acrobat version XI installed on a Windows 7 Platform. Each user has a set of mapped drives that correspond to their department. The Disk mappings are all directed to the main shared Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. At any time there can be a number of PDF files open and being worked in. The same PDF is usually not opened at the same time from two different locations.

The issue is that two users who do a large amount of the work, IE. Scanning documents and adding them to documents that have been previously created, are reporting the same issue. The issue is when they have the PDF document opened and they are adding new content. Once the new content is added they go to save the document and then receive the following error:

“The document could not be saved. Cannot save to this filename. Please save the document with a different name or in a different folder.”

In order to save the file the user has to use the save as function and then browse to the original file location to save the document with the changes that have been made.

Along with the above error we have noticed that Adobe Acrobat is renaming the file that has been changed to aae##### or aak##### or aan#####. The file name is changed causing the normal save function to not work correctly.

Is there a reason Acrobat would be doing this?

I am not using Microsoft SharePoint.

    Correct answer KevinCur

    My users started to experience this issue for files on network shares as well once Adobe Reader was updated to 11.0.10

    It has to do with Protected Mode being turned on.  I don't know if it was off by default & now it is on with the update but turning it off changes Adobe Reader's behavior back to what the users expect - a prompt warning you if you want to overwrite the existing file & then selecting Yes to overwrite.

    To disable Protected Mode:

    Start Adobe Reader

    Edit - Preferences - Security (Enhanced)

    Uncheck Enable Protected Mode at Startup

    Close Preferences & Close Reader


    Now open a file from a network share & you Adobe saves as it used to.

    16 replies

    W
    work_2626
    Participant
    July 24, 2025

    You can try using a tool like LongPathTool. It helps manage and delete files or folders with long path issues easily.

    W
    work_2626
    Participant
    July 23, 2025

    You can try using a tool like LongPathTool. It helps manage and delete files or folders with long path issues easily.

    L
    lotus_4345
    Participant
    July 20, 2025

    You can try using a tool like LongPathTool. It helps manage and delete files or folders with long path issues easily.

    S
    somayyeh_9744
    Participant
    January 23, 2025

    Thank you so much, it works well 🙂

    A
    Anonymous
    December 13, 2016

    Hi all,

    We are having the same exact problem at work. I believe Adobe has a bug in there software for this reason. Old Adobe software works perfect with map drives has employees at my work are good and have no issues with others that are having it. It's due to updating the software to the new version.

    How we resolved this was downloading Cute PDF Writer. Launched  the software and we had no issues or complaints with our employees. I believe Adobe is on this and trying to resolve this bug in there software.

    Best regards,

    mvfd

    CherylCC
    CherylCC
    Participant
    October 17, 2016

    None* of the solutions offered here actually helped me; but something I noticed in another thread mentioned that closing the thumbnail pane allowed them to save.  Although that still didn't solve my problem, I suddenly realized that I'd opened the orignal file through my Windows Explorer...

    Yep.  You guessed it; I couldn't overwrite the file with my edits because the file was still "selected" in Windows Explorer.  I de-selected the file, and the save worked! 

    *It's possible that a combination of these actually solved my problem; but right now it's working and I'm not about to change anything else. 

    M
    MB0SS
    Participant
    October 16, 2023

    Also try close preview window.

    A
    Anonymous
    May 2, 2016

    Hi..
    I had the same issue which was related to my antivirus application. Disable the AV and try saving, if it saves well, you can add an exception in your antivirus accordingly.

    Thanks

    giovannij43088239
    giovannij43088239
    Participant
    October 6, 2015

    Although this does help, it still does not resolve the issue; it only provides a work around. Any info from Adobe in regards to this would be great.

      R
      Rusty Dyer
      Participant
      October 19, 2015

      I have the same problem and I;m not using a file from my network.

      thanks for any advice

      G
      GregCRussell
      Participant
      January 26, 2016

      You can also try to add a file or folder path to the privileged locations section in dc2015.  Add the mapped network drive in question and close/re-open the program.  This is in the same area in the preferences that you disable.enable enhanced security. Lastly you can disable protected mode and see if that helps with the saving of files.

      As usual, only disable the minimum level of security necessary to allow the program to function as you would like.

      A
      Anonymous
      October 6, 2015

      I too have been having similar issues lately. There are two associated issues.

      • Acrobat randomly renames a file while I'm in the middle of editing or adding scanned pages. I only notice when I come to save it and it tells me that I cannot save the file with that name. The Acrobat generated file name begins has the form aii???

              SOLUTION - I just go to Save As and use the original file name. It seems to work


      • When I open a file, edit it and then save it, it keeps the original file name and tells me that I cannot save the file while it is open and gives me the option of Save As

                SOLUTION - You have to go to Windows Explorer and come out of the folder where the file is stored.

      Hope this helps people.

      What I would like to know is why the hell does Acrobat rename the file at all and how do I stop it?

        giovannij43088239
        giovannij43088239
        Participant
        September 26, 2015

        This doesnt work for me either.

        Using Win7/ mapped drive/ acrobat X-XI pro

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