PDF Created by Print to PDF adobe acrobat could not open because it is either not a supported file

Report · May 13, 2025

User is taking a scanned in document and printing it to PDF file in Windows 11 with the print to PDF option in Windows. She has done this many times in the past. This past week when she goes through this process when she tries to open the PDF file in any program it says the file either not supported or damaged. Tried saving it to different locations, on the desktop, on the network, on a folder in C:. emailed it to myself and I get the same results.

Report · May 13, 2025

Try the forum for Adobe Acrobat.

Report · May 14, 2025

Hello!

I hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out.

Could you please provide more details about the issue? Is the user attempting to open the file on a mobile device using the Acrobat Reader app? The screenshot showing the error suggests that the user is indeed using a mobile device. Could you clarify whether it is an Android or iOS device?

What is the complete workflow for creating a PDF file in Windows? Are you using Windows' built-in feature, saving the PDF as an Adobe PDF through Acrobat, or using the Adobe plug-in available for Office applications?

Verify the PDF isn’t completely empty or corrupt. Check File Size. Right-click the PDF → Properties (or hover in Explorer). If it’s 0 KB or just a few bytes, the printer driver didn’t write any content. When Windows’ built-in “Print to PDF” suddenly starts generating files that Acrobat reports as “not supported or damaged,” the root cause is almost always that the PDF printer isn’t actually writing a valid PDF.

Try re-creating/saving the PDF using Acrobat if it is installed and available on your Windows machine. In your scan-viewing application, choose Print. From the printer dropdown, select Adobe PDF (not “Microsoft Print to PDF”). Click Print, choose a filename and location, then open the new PDF in Acrobat.

Scan directly to PDF (if possible). Many scanner utilities let you “Save as Adobe PDF” instead of saving as an image and then printing. If your scanner’s software supports it, choose PDF as your output format right at the scan step. That bypasses any virtual-printer issues entirely.

If you have Acrobat installed and the user is also using Acrobat on a desktop or mobile device, please make sure you have the latest version of Acrobat. For desktop users, check for any pending updates by going to Menu > Help > Check for Updates and restarting their machine after installing any updates. For mobile users, check for updates in the Play Store or App Store.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.