File is damaged after saving with a password

[MobileTaxGuy]

I have Acrobat Standard 2020 on Windows 10 Professional 64-bit, up-to-date.  This just started happening, perhaps after a recent automatic update?

I routinely save PDFs with a password required to open the document.  File -> Properties -> Security Tab, change Security Method to Password Security and check "Require a password to open the document".  Pretty routine.

Now, all of a sudden, every PDF which I secure in this manner does not open in Acrobat (Standard or Reader) when I try to re-open it.  It gives me "There was an error opening this document. The file is damaged and could not be repaired."

Old documents (that I had saved with a password last year) open fine after typing in the password.  It seems that the latest update made it so if you secure a document with a password, the PDF is corrupted and can no longer be opened with Acrobat.

It happens with every PDF, every time, no matter the size and what I choose for a password, so it is a consistent, reproduceable error.

I uninstalled Acrobat Standard 2020, restarted my computer, and re-installed Acrobat Standard 2020.  Same results.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Amal.]

Hi @MobileTaxGuy 

Hope you are doing well and sorry to hear that.

As you have tried most of the troubleshooting steps with no luck , please try to repair the installation from the help menu (Win Only) and see if that works.

Please try to reset the Acrobat preferences as described here https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-reset-acrobat-preference-settings-to-defau...

You may also try to create a new test user profile with full admin rights in Win and try using the application there and check.

Also, please share a small video recording of the issue to better understand. Also, would you mind collecting the Adobe CC logs https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-log-collector.html , Procmon logs (Win Only) https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/acromonitor.html  and share them via any cloud storage? Just upload the log file to the cloud, generate the link, and share that link with us for further investigation.

Regards
Amal

[Meenakshi Negi]

Hi MobileTaxGuy,

Hope you are doing well.

Please confirm if the issue still occurs.

If yes, would you mind sharing the logs, as asked in the message above?

It will help us to investigate the issue further.

We will be waiting for your response.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

[Susan001]

I am also have the very same problem. I can no longer password protect files without it corrupting them.

I uninstalled adobe acrobat and reinstalled it to no avial the problem presists with every file I attempt to password protect.

Has anyone found a soulution to fix this nasty bug?

[Susan001 · Accepted solution]

Also had the same problem which I noted in this thread. Unfortunely support did not repond.

I did find a work around. Save the pdf file you need to secure as a reduced size pdf file using the "Make compatable with Acrobat 7.0" setting. Then use the usual method to secure the file.

[Bert37613605a17l · Accepted solution]

This solution is likely overdue on recovering contents of a damaged password protected pdf file.

The concept is as follow:

a. Find a pdf tool that can trigger password protected pdf file dialog box without opening for viewing.

b. Resave as a new file.

The method below had been tested on Win 7 x64.

Assumption: File password must be known prior to the steps below.

1. Install Free PDF Tools (https://www.pdfill.com/download.html)

2. Use "6. Add Header and Footer" and open corrupt file.

3. Enter file password.

4. "Save As" a new file, but without adding any header and footor.

This should enable your default Acrobat viewer to launch in a Win PC copy of the uncorrupted file.

5. Apply password protection again on the new file and save as per Acrobat 7.0 settings.

Hope this helps!