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defaults2g3ht1zdvwu
Participating Frequently
July 17, 2021
Question

Extremely User-Hostile Behavior: Won't Open in Reader if Pro License Not Available

  • July 17, 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 1123 views

I have many devices and many licenses. Many times, I'll be working with a device and I'm not interested in moving a Pro license to open one PDF. In these cases, Adobe should automatically switch to Reader if a Pro license isn't activated. Instead, Adobe arrogantly and hostilly quits if I decline to migrate a license to the device. Additionally, the Windows Explorer "Open With" fails because Adobe highjacks a request to Reader and opens with Pro instead. This is intentional and malignant. Stop it.

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4 replies

Lukas Engqvist
Lukas Engqvist
Community Expert
July 20, 2021

As Bevi states manageing which application opens which file is Operating System controling. Acrobat is not even able to do it, only to guide you to your Operating System to set the software. 

Is it that you have an open file in Acrobat Pro and when you activate Acrobat Pro on another device you reach the maximum number of licences? If you force logging out on other devices you want Acrobat DC to downgrade to Reader? This is not how the licence was intended to function. Creative cloud is not a per application cloud licenced model. If you log into Creative Cloud (that is intended for one user) that user can only be working on one device, but to make it convienent when working we are allowed a second device for the same user.

Having an additional Acrobat DC/Pro licence on e.g. a RIP computer to do last minute touchups is normal practice. If you are logged in to a workstation and a laptop and you need to use Acrobat Pro/DC on a third device you must log out of Creative Cloud on one of the other devices, as per the licence.

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defaults2g3ht1zdvwuAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 17, 2021

------SOLUTION FOUND------

 

1) Open Up Reader from the Start Menu

2) Change the Default App for PDF to Reader, then back to Pro (not sure if this did anything)

3) Now using "Open With..." and selecting Reader works

 

Maybe opening Adobe Reader "reminded" Windows of its existence (?). It's possible that I had never opened Reader since install or update, so maybe a conifg hadn't been made (wild conjecture).

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Brainiac
July 18, 2021

Looks like your Windows preferences were messed up.

Glad you got them set to your needs.

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
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defaults2g3ht1zdvwuAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 19, 2021

No, no, NO, and no. This is not a Windows issue. This is an Adobe issue. If Adobe writes a sloppy application that rejects an open command from the world's most popular desktop operating system, that is Adobe's fault. They are NOT allowed to hide behind some quirk of how their installation  mismanages registry keys or whatnot.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Brainiac
July 17, 2021

I don't think Adobe controls what program opens a specific type of file.

 

That's set by the Windows OS and your system preferences.

 

You can set the default program to open PDFs (and any other file type) through Windows Settings / Apps / Default Apps.  Select the option to Choose default apps by file type, scroll to PDF, and select Reader, Acrobat Pro, or whatever PDF viewer you have on that device.

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
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defaults2g3ht1zdvwuAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 17, 2021

I agree that's the way things should work. That is not actually the way things work.

 

 

try67
try67
Community Expert
July 17, 2021

Why are you installing (Acrobat, I assume) Pro on that device, then? Just use Reader.

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    defaults2g3ht1zdvwuAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    July 17, 2021

    I want to handle my installs and licenses the way I want to handle them. My workflows make sense in the context of my work life. I am unwilling to uninstall Pro on a device, then install it later to use a license. This is actually what cloud licensing is meant to prevent. The fact that Adobe botched cloud licensing out of incompentance or malice is not something I should spend my day working around.

    try67
    try67
    Community Expert
    July 18, 2021

    This has nothing to do with "cloud licensing". The issue is caused by a conflict of file extension associations on the local computer, which is something that's actually handled by the OS.

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