Preflight tool opens but empty

[defaultaayku5135mfk]

Hello, I have Acrobat Pro 2015 64 bit on a Windows 11 machine.

When I click the preflight icon it opens the box but it is empty. It has the 3 icons at the top but if I click one a window poops up that says "unable to load user preferences" or something to that effect and it crashes Acrobat. I've included a screenshot of the blank preflight box. This tool worked flawlessly on my previous computer which had W10.

I have all available updates, I've uninstalled and re-installed and also tried to repair the installation. 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[stevent76891219]

It seems many of us are having this same issue, with no known fix. I did contact Adobe last week and FWIW, there was some inidication that they may be working on a resolve. It's anyone's guess how long this fix may take, though, which is a huge problem for those of us who use preflight often. For me, it's convert fonts to ouline which is essential.

[stevent76891219]

I don't want this issue to be forgotten. Prefilight is not working in Acrobat DC as all profiles are blank when chosen. We need this fixed or at least some feedback on what Adobe is doing to fix the issue.

[s.gibaud]

I contacted Adobe for 1 month and yet nothing helps, the assistance does not seem to be aware and seems lost to solve the problem.
not very serious.

[defaultaayku5135mfk]

Thank you all for filling me in. I'm guessing it only happens with Windows 11 machnes? My W10 worked fine but I no longer have any machines running W10. I know the tool still works on older Mac's as well. I Have a printing company and we need to use these tools almost daily, it's a big hassle without it.

[s.gibaud]

I work on Win 11 and I have the impression that this is a problem for Adobe. But it seems to be recent because I've been on Win 11 for quite a while and I think the latest update has a bug.
I have a machine on Win 10 and no worries.

[stevent76891219]

I had a similar experience. At one time, preflight was fine on Windows 11, now it's not. However, and I say this with hesitation, preflight still works on one of my DTs that was Win 10 upg to Win 11 and I had run preflight under Windows 10. Not so on two computers that it does not work ... my LT and  my DT at my office. Work was a new install and my LT had never tried preflight until a few days ago .. and no go.

[Ivo5C8D]

Hello!
I have exactly the same problem - clean install didn't help and neither removing all preferences. I used Creative Cloud Cleaner tool and that didn't help either. If I start selecting PDF standarts, Acrobat Pro DC 2015 etc., warning window with Unable to copy the user specific preferences pops up and Acrobat goes into NOT RESPONDING...

All of this is very frustrating as I need to outline lots of PDF's every day!
I am also on Win 11 64 bit.

[Amal.]

Hi there

We are sorry to hear that. Would you mind collecting the Adobe CC logs https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-log-collector.html and procmon logs (Win) https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/acromonitor.html and share them via document cloud link as described here https://helpx.adobe.com/document-cloud/help/sharing-pdfs.html so that we can isolate the issue for the fix.

Waiting for your reply

Regards

Amal

[Matt2359558125kt]

Having the same issue here. I am working with Adobe Support. So far it seems to be affecting the Windows 11 22H2 machines.

[s.gibaud]

it seems that it is the 64 bit version of acrobat which is affected by the problem because my 32 versions work very well

[Angela-pcaacsc]

I'd like to chime in too - I have the same issue!  Windows 11 - uninstalled and reinstalled Acrobat - I had the same errors Ivo5C8D mentions with Preflight and then all of Acrobat freezing.  Just wanted to be sure this thread stays active!

[wednesdaymac]

As of January 2022, this is still an issue. I have no way to convert a PDF from CMYK/RGB to Grayscale, nor to make any other changes. Preflight is a decades-old feature of Acrobat DC/Pro. What the heck is going on with Adobe? At this rate, I'm going to install my ancient copy of Adobe CS2 on an old PC just to use Preflight. 

[wednesdaymac]

Forgot to mention...I'm on a PC using Windows 12, so it's not just a Windows 11 issue. 

[s.gibaud]

Windows 12????

[Thrison]

I think they meant January 2023

[Amal.]

Hi there

Would you mind collecting the Adobe CC logs https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-log-collector.html and procmon logs (Win) https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/acromonitor.html and share them via document cloud link as described here https://helpx.adobe.com/document-cloud/help/sharing-pdfs.html so that we can isolate the issue for the fix.

Waiting for your reply

Regards

Amal

[wednesdaymac]

Thanks so much for your help. I've done as you asked, and privately emailed
you the link to the Acrobat Document online.

[wednesdaymac]

Thanks so much for your help. I've done as you asked, and privately emailed you the link to the Acrobat Document online.

[Amal.]

Hi @wednesdaymac @defaultaayku5135mfk @s.gibaud @Thrison @Angela-pcaacsc 

Our engineering team is still working on this issue.

Also, as a workaround, please try to Disable the sandbox feature in Acrobat (under Preferences > Security (Enhanced) > Enable Protected Mode at startup (Preview)). In the case of empty Profiles (or generally), it is advisable to remove the Preflight preferences (%APPDATA%\Adobe\Acrobat\Preflight Acrobat Continuous) to get fresh libraries/profiles after the sandbox is disabled.

Note: keep a backup of the folder before removing it from AppData, as any custom profiles might get lost during the removing/renaming of folders.

Regards

Amal

[s.gibaud]

Incredible, after a multitude of operations I found everything.
Is it disabling enhanced protection and deleting the preflight folder? Having done the repair of the reinstallation... whatever now it seems to work. For how long...

[s.gibaud]

Ok it is important not to reactivate the reinforced protection it makes the preflight crash again

[wednesdaymac]

Thank you! I know it's a workaround, but it works for me. 🙂

[Krisztina27758097htol]

Hi,

I have tried to use this method, but preflight is still not working on my computer. It is just blank and nothing is happening. I have windows 11 also. Do you have any other suggestions on how could this problem be solved?

Thank you

[Noah28501810fz9l]

I am still in the same situation as well. Workaround did not seem to help. @Amal.