PDF maker crashing Outlook/Excel - Happening in 2020!

Report · Jun 25, 2020

I've recently started experiencing issues using the Adobe PDF Maker addin for Office 365..

I have Acrobat DC version 20.009.20067 installed and

Office for Microsoft 365 MSO Version 2005 16.0.12827.20200 current channel.

Crashes Outlook, Excel and Word... workaround for Excel is to select "smallest file size" in PDF Maker preferences.. but this setting is not present in the add-in preferences for Outlook!

Report · Jun 25, 2020

Hey Harold!

I hope you are doing well and sorry for the trouble you had.

Please repair the installation files of Acrobat (for Windows machine) once from the help menu>select repair installation, reboot the machine after the repair.

Also, update and repair the Office once, check for any pending updates of OS as well and install all the mandatory and optional updates. Reboot the machine again and try creating a PDF using the Adobe PDFMaker add-in.

You may also try the solutions shared in this article and let us know if that works for you: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/troubleshoot-acrobat-pdfmaker-problems-office.html

Are you on a Mac or Windows machine and what is the version?

For testing purposes, please disable the 'Protected Mode at startup' from Edit>Preferences>Security(Enhanced). Click OK, restart the application and check.

Please enable the protected mode after the testing.

Would you mind sharing the workflow/steps you are taking to create the PDF files from the Word/Excel/Outlook?

What happens when you create a PDF from the Acrobat's File menu?

Let us know how it goes and share your observations.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

Report · Jun 26, 2020

Hi Anand. Thank you for getting back to me.

I am working on Windows Server 2012 R2 as it's a hosted windows environment. My providers have already tried a repair of Adobe and a repair of Office 365, and neither of these solved the problem.

If I try to create a PDF from the Adobe Acrobat "create" menu, and select an excel file, it briefly opens excel and then crashes.. then I get an error message "An unexpected error occured. PDF Maker was unable to produce the Adobe PDF"

I can however produce a PDF by using the Adobe Printer.

Ordinarily, the steps I would use to create a PDF from say Outlook or Excel, would be

1) Open the email/document

2) Click File > Save as Adobe PDF

3) select filename and location and click save

4) "Creating Adobe PDF" box appears listing 1 item remaining and then disappears.

5) error message saying "microsoft Outlook/Excel has stopped working" Check online or restart.

In Excel, selecting "Smallest file Size" does workaround the issue, however there is no such option in Outlook.

Kind Regards,

Andy

Report · Jun 26, 2020

Hi Harold!

Thanks for reporting the issue here.

We checked for the similar machine configuration at our end; and found the same to be working as expected.

Can you try to uninstall Acrobat using the cleaner tool (https://labs.adobe.com/downloads/acrobatcleaner.html)

and re-install the same back.

Please make sure, while installation keep Outook, Excel and such applications in closed state to avoid such errors again.

The issue could have been due to some installation or update for your machine.

Please do let us know, if the same works for you.

Regards,
Swapnil Srivastava

Report · Jul 08, 2020

Hi Swapnil.

Thanks for your reply.. My hosted providers ran the uninstall and re-install, and unfortunately Outlook still crashes when using "Save as adobe PDF".. and Excel also still crashes when using anything other than the "smallest file size" setting.