How to fix broken "Print to AdobePDF" ?

Report · Oct 16, 2013

Until the last few weeks, from about a year ago with Adobe Acrobat Pro XI on a Win7 Pro 64-bit system, I've been able to "Print to AdobePDF" as a printer (versus "Save As AdobePDF" which continues to work as expected in MS Word 2010, etc.). I registered my product October 8, 2012 and for most of the year everything has worked great!

As others with this problem have described, the Print To AdobePDF (Adobe PDF Converter) seems to be progressing (there is a progress bar on screen) and then it stops with no output at all rather than the old/usual way of opening Acrobat with the new document on-screen).

I have uninstalled/installed the Adobe PDF "printer" (remove device and add a printer) many times drilling down to the proper *.inf file starting with "Use an existing port" for Adobe PDF, Have Disk, browse to AdobePDF.inf, and then use the sixth down Adobe PDF Converter. I have also deleted infcache.1 following another suggested solution and then, yesterday, I uninstalled and reinstalled Acrobat XI Pro with a registry cleaning between uninstalling and reinstalling with jv16 Power Tools. Alas I've been unsuccessful in fixing the problem.

Right now I'm at a complete loss what to try next to fix the broken "Print to AdobePDF". I'd really appreciate any suggestions. Many thanks.

Cheers, Stephen

Report · Sep 02, 2017

Dear All,

I experienced the same problem printing to Adobe but I resolved it by making sure that the path to the folder I was saving the Adobe file does not have any special character and it worked.

So, I advise that you save the Adobe file into a folder whose path (including the file name) has no special characters like (, ), <, >, !, etc. Try it and let me know if it works. My e-mail is [Moderator: Personal information removed ]

Thank you all.

Ayotunde Sodipe.

View solution in original post

Report · Jan 19, 2015

Hi Dov,

BTW, you are correct that I had the latest version of Acrobat Pro installed (11.0.10).

However, it did not work and would not upgrade.

A Key point, perhaps, is that the 11.0.10 patch only works after you delete the existing PDF printer.

This makes me wonder. Perhaps the Acrobat XI Pro install, and updates, will not replace or upgrade an existing PDF printer. In my case I clearly had a faulty PDF printer (perhaps a Microsoft OS default driver?).

Hope that helps...

Report · Jan 19, 2015

Our responses crossed ...

Bottom line is that I now believe that the source of your problem is that the Acrobat 11.0.10 update did not properly complete. Part of all of these updates is for the updater to delete the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance, install the updated software, and then fully recreate the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance using the same settings you used prior to the update. I suspect that either the initial Adobe PDF deletion didn't properly work and/or the regeneration of AdobePDF didn't fully complete for any number of reasons. It does concern me that your original update should have yielded an error to advise that it didn't properly take.

Nonetheless, glad to know you are fully up and working now!

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

Report · Jan 19, 2015

Hi Dov,

I strongly suspect that the auto update to 11.0.10 does NOT delete and replace the PDF printer.

Case in point, the patch definitely does not work unless you manually delete the PDF printer.

Furthermore, we experienced the problem on at least 4 different WIN 7 PC's with Acrobat XI upgraded to 11.0.10.

Furthermore (last one, I promise!), we are not the only people who've experienced this problem.

Just sayin...

I'm happy now 🙂

Thank you you for your sincere inquiries and good luck encouraging a long term solution to save others from this frustration.

Cheers, Steve

Report · Jan 20, 2015

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your response. In fact, the file you downloaded and ran, AcrobatUpd11010.msp, was no “miracle patch file” but rather, the exact same file that the Acrobat automatic updater downloaded and ran to update your version to 11.0.10. The only thing that was different and seems to be the variable, which is exactly what I was trying to ascertain, is that you manually deleted the AdobePDF PostScript printer driver instance prior to running the updater. Apparently, something in your Windows configuration was preventing that updater from doing that deletion itself. That “something” could have been a local issue such as file and directory permissions or programs or background processes that were currently running at the time the updater ran.

The reason I have been trying to get this information is that I am personally working in the Acrobat development organization within Adobe and I am obviously concerned when customers have problems such as this. Apparently the issue that you encountered doesn't affect all or even any major segment of Windows 7-based users (I have four systems that did the update without this or any other issue). We would like to try to understand the “variable” that triggers the issue.

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

Report · Jan 20, 2015

Thanks for the follow up Dov!

I agree that there seems to be a connection to policies/permissions.

Hopefully the manual delete and rerun of the Auto updater works for others.

It certainly solved our issue...

Report · Jan 30, 2015

Hello Don, I am hoping you can help me. I have installed and then re-installed Adobe Acrobat XI Pro version 11.0.10 several times with the same outcome. I still have 16 days left on my trial of the Adobe Cloud. I can run all the problems with no issues except one. When I go to print in either adobe indesign, illustrator, photoshop I cannot because it keeps telling me I do not have the adobe converter printer driver installed. I read all the post here and followed the instructions that have helped other people and still no driver. So I go back to devices and printers select the Adobe PDF printer and select printer properties to check it. It says "The adobe pdf converter printer driver is not installed on this computer. it ask me do I want to install the driver. I say yes and it takes me to the "Welcome to the Printer Driver Wizard" so I click next and it takes me to the drivers for adobe. The only 2 printers available are version 8.5.0.0 (3/20/2008) and version 8.6.0.0 (7/22/2009). So where is the version for version 11.0.10?

Report · Apr 09, 2015

Just adding my findings as I continue to troubleshoot this:

- We're using Acrobat XI Pro

- Our clients use the Print to PDF to print out all sorts of screens and files: .pptx, screen grabs, etc. They do this very frequently throughout the day.

- Adobe Print to PDF will work most of the time, sometimes presenting a flashing broken icon in the taskbar asking for an action.

- Printing Preferences has "Rely on System Fonts" UNCHECKED.

- We've gotten it down to a science, where the user can either restart the computer, or end and restart the splwow64.exe process and continue to print to PDF until it breaks after a certain amount of time.

- This is NOT specific to one type of application or file type.

- We've made sure the 11.0 update has been applied successfully, used the uninstall cleaner tool and reinstalled Acrobat multiple times. Again, the same symptoms; it will work for a while and then break again.

- When it does break, Applications go to a (Not Responding) state and cannot be closed until the splwow64.exe process is ended.

- My hypothesis is that the Adobe PDF Printer is caught at the Save File As window.

Has anyone had similar issues and found a more permanent fix?

Report · Jan 19, 2015

Interesting.

If there was anything in the ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/acrobat/win/11.x/ directory or

even the ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/acrobat/win/11.x/11.0.10/misc/ directory that fixed your system, it would be indicative that your previous update to 11.0.10 never properly completed, in which case, I would believe that the 11.0.10 updater in fact fixed a problem.

However, beyond the 11.0.10 release, there are no further updates released.

So what (filename, please) was it exactly that you installed?

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

Report · Jan 19, 2015

HI Dov,

I'm not sure why you remain so incredulous.

This worked for LaurieAnn, twice.

Then, I was able to fix 4 PC's before I left work tonight.

Regardless, I will elaborate to try to help....

Prior to Christmas, we had no problems with the PDF printer on any of our PC's.

I first became aware of a problem in mid December when we replaced 2 PC's with WIN7 PC's.

The 2 new PC's came preloaded with WIN7.

After installing Acrobat XI Pro and upgrading to 11.0.10 I found that the 2 new PC's could not print to PDF.

When I looked into it further I found that none of my engineers with WIN7 and XI (11.0.10) could print to PDF.

Regrettably, I can't confirm when the problem began.

I was personally running XP with a older version of Acrobat Pro prior to mid-Dec (with no problems).

My Engineers hadn't complained because they found a work around (convert to PDF).

For me, the work around is not acceptable (caused hours of frustration and lost productivity).

I tried and failed on 2 occasions in December to find an online solution.

Today I found this thread and persevered, with no success, til I found LaurieAnn's solution.

When I tried LA's solution on my PC (including deleting the existing PDF printer) it worked immediately.

I didn't even have to reboot 🙂

On the next PC I forgot to delete the PDF printer first and the patch did not work.

I deleted the PDF printer and reloaded the patch with instant success.

Then I followed up on 2 more PC's with instant success.

The miracle patch file name is: AcrobatUpd11010.msp

Trusting this helps you Dov.

It definitely helped me 🙂

Report · Feb 19, 2015

I recently had this issue but thanks to printing to my Adobe PDF printer on a daily basis I was able to identify the error immediately and resolve the problem. I noticed that my printer stopped working after Windows Updates completed. It would accept my print request but a caution icon would appear and I'd receive a print error. I know that yesterday Windows Updates were installed so I uninstalled all but two updates (Servicepak 2) from 2/18/2015 and it corrected this issue. I rebooted and am once again able to print to my PDF Printer! I had this same issue about a year ago and corrected it in the same manner.

Thanks,

Cheryl

Report · Feb 23, 2015

SOLVED...

After removing Adobe Printer from Device Manager / uninstall

install latest Acrobat Update again (AcrobatUpd11010.msp in my case).

Error is still present, behavior is a bit different (if you run the program from which you are printing as administrator, it prints fine, if you do not run it as admin, it does not let you even write the file name for the pdf)

I bet that most users having this error have UAC disabled in UAC settings

and Local Security Policy, Security Settings/ Local Policies/ Security Options/ User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode

set to Enabled.

Well...

SOLUTION:

Do uninstall the printer and install the Adobe update again (no need to remove the patch, just install again, no need for reboot too)

Go to

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools click on Local Security Policy,

navigate to Security Settings/ Local Policies/ Security Options/ User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode

set to Disabled, REBOOT

Keep on happy printing with no errors...

Or if you want UAC enable it and

Local Security Policy, Security Settings/ Local Policies/ Security Options/ User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode

set to Enabled, REBOOT

Keep on happy printing with no errors... but be bugged by UAC any time you run any software...

Here is the time that we can conclude that it is Microsoft Security Policies that is responsible for the error, but solution is on Adobe to fix the issue so the Adobe Printer can work on any of those settings. Or at least to give us the official answer about the error in question.

LaurieAnne: Your solution did a part of the job. The printer was not correctly installed after update and I had to manually uninstall the printer from device manager and install the update (AcrobatUpd11010.msp in my case)

again. After that I had same problem, but a bit different behavior that lead me to look in policies. Hence this solution is a mutual success, and

Report · Feb 23, 2015

Knowing the above, I'd love someone smarter than me to find better solution for this.

What I mean is that I think it would be possible to keep the above Security options at default or UAC disabled in UAC settings alone,

and enable printing for Adobe Printer in a same way it is enabled for all other printers when UAC is disabled.

Until than I consider this solution as WORKAROUND only, and in some cases a security issue that could be a great concern to users.

Something like Deploying Certificates to the Trusted Publishers Store maybe..

Report · Feb 27, 2015

There appears to be Adobe’s “new” Protected Mode feature.

Open Adobe Reader X
navigate to Edit->Preferences->General
clear the check-mark at “Enable Protected Mode at startup”
Click OK to save the changes (acknowledge the warning)
Shutdown Adobe Reader X

You can also disable protected mode through a registry key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\10.0\FeatureLockDown]

“bProtectedMode”=dword:00000000

EDIT: In Acrobat Reader XI the location hast changed to: Edit->Preferences->Security (Enhanced)

Now that might be it...

taken from

SOLVED: Adobe Reader X hangs after opening a PDF file - van Efferen

(there might be smarter people arround...)

Report · Mar 04, 2015

I just installed this on over 500 workstations and have the same problem. Not a single issue on Win7 x64 with Acrobat X, upgraded to Acrobat XI CCE, print to pdf problems all over the place. Some get the "printer not ready", some just get have it act like it prints but no output is saved. I'll post back if I find a good, easy, non intrusive way to handle this with the suggestions thrown around above. Installing a Acrobat 8 patch onto a Acrobat XI system although it looks like it worked, is a pretty bad situation to deal with.

Report · Mar 05, 2015

Have you read what I wrote above?!

It's that simple...

Uninstall adobe printer from device manager (remove driver too)

Install latest patch (for the version of adobe that you have installed not some other that means 9.xx for IX, 10.xx for X, ...11.xx for XI, not 8.xx for XI !!!!). That's what LaurieAnne is talking about)

Now it should work...

If it does not... try

Open Adobe Acrobat X (or Reader if you do not have Acrobat)
navigate to Edit->Preferences->General
clear the check-mark at “Enable Protected Mode at startup”
Click OK to save the changes (acknowledge the warning)
Shutdown Adobe Reader X

You can also disable protected mode through a registry key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\10.0\FeatureLockDown]

“bProtectedMode”=dword:00000000

EDIT: In Acrobat Reader XI the location hast changed to: Edit->Preferences->Security (Enhanced)

If it still does not work, do:

Or if you want UAC disabled

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools click on Local Security Policy,

navigate to Security Settings/ Local Policies/ Security Options/ User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode

set to Disabled, REBOOT

Keep on happy printing with no errors...

Or if you want UAC enable it and

Local Security Policy, Security Settings/ Local Policies/ Security Options/ User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode

set to Enabled, REBOOT

Report · Mar 05, 2015

Ibach, yes, I did, sorry for confusion, I was stating that I needed to find a way to do the entire fix process unobtrusively rather than one by one on each pc. I have an Acrobat XI user base of over 500 users so remoting in and doing a bunch of steps on each one wasn't viable.

For adobe people that might read: Our original installation process was to install ExceptionDeployer.exe, Adobe Acrobat Professional CCE (64-bit).msi, then AcrobatUpd11009.msp.

In: C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Drivers\x64\3 there is a file adobepdf.dll . On those that did not work (were upgrades from X to XI, the file version was 10.1.7.3. A fresh install on a PC that did not have X prior, had version 11.0.0.305 on the adobepdf.dll file. The installer has all the permissions it needs to write the driver files, it just could not update them if they were already there.

The variables: End users do not have admin rights, but install was ran with admin credentials through SCCM. UAC is on. In hindsight now that I see the issue was the driver versions not updating, I think third party printing applications may contribute to the issue. We have a tool called FMAudit that monitors the print spooler and tracks print jobs. I would bet that this utility monitoring the print spooler may have interfered with Adobe's ability to upgrade the drivers that were already there. I had a semi-related error in event viewer, but because it was for Acrobat X, I disregarded it- assumed that XI would update all of the printing tasks it needed by itself. I don't know what is happening when Acrobat X tries to stop the spooler, but I would bet its was remove the 10.1.7.3 Adobe PDF printer.

"Product: Adobe Acrobat X Pro - English, Français, Deutsch -- Error 1921.Service Print Spooler (Spooler) could not be stopped. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to stop system services."

It would be ideal if the XI installation would overwrite the PDF drivers, though.

Long story short, for anyone wanting to automate this in the future, I am ending up pushing this script out (via conversion into SCCM task sequence steps) to machines to fix the issue. It has worked for the 10 or so I've already done the process on manually. I will be sure to include these steps prior to the installation file on any upgrade in the future.

Use at your own risk, and make sure you understand what each line does before running:

REM Silently remove Adobe PDF printer connection:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /q /dl /n "Adobe PDF"
reg delete "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors\Adobe PDF Port Monitor" /f
reg delete "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers\Adobe PDF" /f
reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Printers\Adobe PDF" /f

REM Delete Drivers
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /q /dd /m "Adobe PDF Converter" /h "x86" /v "Type 3 - User Mode"
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /q /dd /m "Adobe PDF Converter" /h "x64" /v "Type 3 - User Mode"

REM rerun latest security patch, which will reinstall the PDF printer.
SET curpath=%~dp0
start "" /wait msiexec /p "%curpath%AcrobatUpd11010.msp" /quiet /norestart /li C:\Acrobat11.0.10.log

Report · Mar 19, 2015

I have a similar, but different issue. This is the only thread that describes our symptoms, though.

Our users, for the most part, print to PDF without issue. However, in some cases, users will print to PDF, but over time will accumulate multiple processes (like, ten) of acrodist.exe that do not close on their own after the PDF is printed. After a while, applications will go to a (Not Responding) state, like the PDF printer is still working on printing the screen. We've waited for a good 20 minutes for the process to complete, but no dice. We've had success in ending the splwow64.exe process, but sometimes that doesn't even work. It's inconsistent. I've applied LaurieAnn's fix, and printing to PDF DOES work for a while, but continues to break after a couple of prints.

Am I onto something with the acrodist.exe creating multiple instances when there's only one PDF open, or am I chasing my tail?

Report · Mar 19, 2015

sounds like driver problem, follow my solution to the end...

Report · Mar 19, 2015

I'm sorry, I should have detailed what I'm using:

Adobe XI Acrobat Pro

Updated to latest version via LaurieAnn's ftp site.

UAC is disabled and I checked the local security policies as well, they are in line with my choice.

Would the registry key work for Acrobat as well?

Report · Mar 31, 2015

You can automate the solution if that's what you mean, but I'm not certain that that would satisfy all of the users (some of them have UAC enabled and want it that way, others do not, and most of them has no idea what UAC is...). Ideally you should make it work with standard windows settings, and all the other changes the user typically would (could/should/thinks he should/do not know that he did) do. Read the steps and try to automate, if you get stacked somewhere ask for help...

Ideploythings... that's nice try scripting... and you are probably right about driver being somehow used (at least monitored) by third party application, but if UAC settings are UAC=disabled + Security Settings/ Local Policies/ Security Options/ User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode = enabled, and acrobat X or XI (older version) you have the same problem without the third party application. The driver does not get updated. So removing the driver completely before installing the patch is the correct way.

Nice scripting.

Report · Jun 04, 2015

UPDATE 6-4-2015: Searched knowledge base, tried all suggestions, didn't work. Deleted printer, reinstalled manually, did repair via Help, uninstalled, then reinstalled Pro XI, nothing worked...except this, via Adobe Support Chat:

Rajat Rawat: click start + r key > type "regedit" > click "HKEY_CURRENT_USER> CLICK "SOFTWARE">CLICK "ADOBE" .

John: There are several folders that begin with "acrobat" they are: Acrobat Distiller, Acrobat Elements, Acrobat PDFMaker, Acrobat Reader. The other folders I see are: Adobe Acrobat, Adobe ARM, Adobe Synchronizer, B9EC881ECA56, CommonFiles, and PDF Settings

Rajat Rawat: delete these acrobat folders: pdfmaker, elements, distiller, adobe acrobat, acrobat reader and PDF Settings.

Rajat Rawat: please make sure your acrobat XI is closed.

I did as suggested, launched Pro XI and Adobe PDF printer now up and running.

Hope this helps....

John M

Report · Jun 17, 2015

I don't know why, but the following steps have solved the problem for me

1. Go to Devices and Printers

2. Right click on adobe pdf printer and click troubleshoot

voila! problem solved.

I run Win 8.1 x64, with Acrobat XI pro

Report · Jun 21, 2015

I am 77 years old. I just want to be able to print messages that acome in to me. All of a sudden I can't print out anything. How can I fix this??

Report · Jun 26, 2015

You should be able to fix this with a simple REPAIR from the control panel!

Step 1: GO TO UNINSTALL

Step 2: Click on your version of Adobe Acrobat(xx)

Step 3: Click on CHANGE

Step 4: You will be brought to PROGRAM MAINTENANCE

Step 6: Chose the REPAIR option

YOU WILL NEED YOUR ORIGINAL DISK TO DO THIS REPAIR!

This should resolve this problem!

Report · Aug 16, 2015

After several days of "Create Adobe PDF" and "Printing (Not Responding)"/"Access is denied" and repairing/reinstalling Acrobat X (CS6), this works for me:

Set default printer (Win7) to 'PDFill PDF&Image Writer'