"An Internal Error Occured" when clicking on a PDF and Windows Explorer preview pane is showing.

[lisar19299332]

Hi there,

Running Windows 11, up-to-date system and up-to-date Creative Cloud and Adobe Acrobat DC. I have my preview pane visible when going through my files, and sometime in the last 2 weeks PDFs no longer show up in the preview pane. Instead, windows explorer freezes for a few seconds and then shows an Adobe Acrobat "An Internal Error Occured" pop-up. I tried clearing out my temporary files, and tried creating a "2022" folder in C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\ which was suggested in this thread. Neither worked. All other file types (.jpg, .doc, etc.) show up in the preview pane just fine. Any suggestions?

 

[Abambo]

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@RedFeathers wrote:

Hi Josholo,

Adobe hasn't been very helpful in this thread. I'm not sure how to apply the Account Unknown fix in Windows 11. Maybe start a new discussion?

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May be ask in a Microsoft forum?

These fora are basically user to user fora. When Adobe employees jump in, they are doing that in their "free" time too. Users helping users is sometimes more effective than calling support, especially for such a strange behaviour.

[RedFeathers]

Hi Abambo, thanks for clearing that up, I was under the impression that there are Adobe staff moderating the forums and looking out for possible bugs for future product updates. Keep well!

[Amanda F Osborne]

Take a bow! I've been struggling with no preview for months and then the 'Internal Error' started and it's totally stuffed up my workflow. Asked my tech husband to look at it and other solutions didn't work. He was going to do a reinstall of my computer tonight, but now he doesn't have to... and he knows how to fix it for others! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[vurbis]

This is driving me crazy! Have restarted, reinstalled, updated software... even got a new laptop! It's a work issued and had another problem but when I was reset back up with my credentials the error came with it. Very frstrating and confusing 

[vurbis]

It seems to have worked!! Hallelujiah.

[ThomHayes]

I've tried the fix, but for me there arent any unknown users to delete - anyone got any alternative ideas for me to try? Doing my head in - I literally create PDFs all day long. I'm pulling my hair out

[Lawrence27337925as88]

I'm in the same boat: no unknown users to delete. This problem was intermittent 3 weeks ago but now it is constant. Adobe Acrobat DC full version is unusable.

[Lawrence27337925as88]

As a follow up, I completely uninstalled Acrobat and re-downloaded it from Adobe. The continuus release version is 2022.003.20282, running on Windows 11. It seems to be working now.

[ThomHayes]

Cheers Lawrence. Will give it a shot...

[Lawrence27337925as88]

As another follow-up for people who don't find any strange users at C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Adobe, as per the above suggestions.

I did an uninstall of Acrobat, followed by a new install and this worked for a little while but then problems started to appear again. Menu's didn't work, icons didn't appear. Yesterday I went within Acrobat to Help... Repair Installation... and got some instant relief. Everything was working again. Today, it was back to bad again! Help... Repair Installation... seems to fix things for a little while until some random event makes the software unusable again. I have been using Acrobat since at least the early naughts and have never experienced anyting as bad and pervasive as this.

This might bide some time for people who have Acrobat work piling up and are at their wits ends. I use Acrobat for checking and repairing accessibility in my coursebooks. I don't have another software piece to do this. However, for regular reading and commenting on PDFs, I have PDF Architect. This comes in free and subscription versions.

Running: Windows 11 Pro, Acrobat continuous release 2022.003.20282, 64 bit.

[RedFeathers]

Thanks for the update, it seems that users on Win 11 are having the issue with Account Unknown not showing up, some people have mistyped or forgotten to right-click, and instead have just opened the Adobe folder. I was holding thumbs that the update would fix the error, but it didnt.

Do you use more than one Adobe account or the same account on multiple systems, I have a theory that this is why there are issues.

[Lawrence24570737vfmm]

Hello Redfeathers, There were no strange accounts when clicking there or typing the address directly into the bar. I have only one Adobe account.

I have something new that seems to be working for me running Acrobat Pro on Windows 11.

I went to Creative Cloud Desktop, I located Acrobat in the list of available apps, then clicked on the ... symbol, and uninstalled Acrobat Pro. I restarted the computer, and then went to Windows Start, Settings, Apps, Installed Apps, and made sure that Acrobat was no longer in that list. (It wasn't.) Then I went back to Creative Cloud Desktop and made sure that I was still logged in to creative cloud. Then I went to the Adobe website directly (not via creative cloud desktop) and downloaded and installed Acrobat Reader (not Pro).

Here is what I think is the important part. The interface to Reader is different to before. It has a hamburger in the top left corner.

After the new Reader was up and running and seemed to be working fine, I then clicked on the tool for ‘Prepare for Accessibility,’ since I know that one is a Pro-only feature. A series of dialogs appear, and since you are already logged in to Creative Cloud desktop, Acrobat Pro is downloaded and installed for you. Now, Pro is running rather than Reader, and the interface has a hamburger in the top left corner.

My hypothesis is that some people, like me, were trying to run Pro under Windows 11 with the old Acrobat Pro interface, rather than the "new experience" (https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/new-acrobat-experience.html). In the old interface, there were certain repeatable problems related to the interface: (1) the internal error, click Ok, Ok, Ok, !!!! dialog problem when clicking on the Page display submenu, (2) many of the toolbar buttons not showing, (3) menu selections not working or that caused the application to crash, (3) sidebars empty of tool icons. I am guessing that Windows 11 was not supporting these basic interface elements.

I would be interested to know if anyone else finds that the new hamburger experience allows you to get your work done in Windows 11. I will write back with an update if I find any problems; hopefully not; knock on wood.

Windows 11: OS build 22621.1105.

Acrobat: continuous release 2022.003.20310 (64 bit).

[Abambo]

Thanks for that comprehensive report.

[Lawrence27337925as88]

Using the "new experience" on Windows 11 as noted above, and I hve had no problems since.

[Deon288052465pq0]

What a huge frustration. The solution given by Lawrence24570737vfmm solved it for me. Windows 11. Also no unknown accounts for me. I uninstalled everything, downloaded Acrobat reader, and upgraded in my CC account. Thank You Lawrence24570737vfmm!!

[ThomHayes]

Is there any update from Adobe on this? It's been months, and the issue is not a small one - it's impacting my working life on an hourly basis. Can someone from Adobe please give an update on a permanent fix?

[roberte97860397]

I've tried the solution here. Didn't work for me. I then uninstalled and reinstalled Acrobat and now I can't even open the program. Pitiful Adobe assistance. 

[defaulth0mk2zqoqs1e]

I just managed to fix mine. Initially I didn't have any of the AccountsUnknown in my list but I uninstalled and reinstalled using CC and then right after reinstallation the AccountsUnknown were there. Removed them all and it began working instantly. Make sure you're checking the User\AppData\Local\Abobe and not Roaming or the other paths.

[Amal.]

Hi roberte97860397

Hope you are doing well and am sorry for the delayed response. Our development team is looking into it and requires some more info. 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 logs file to cloud and generate the link and share that link with us for further investigation.

Regards

Amal

[Frans29479918yxll]

Still need the logs? 
Error is still occuring on several different installations 

[Nikhil223643118fhx]

thank you i am a btech student and i run into this problem and this realy works.

all you need to do is go to users/[username]/app data/local/adobe and then properties to account and deleting unwanted accounts. and try to again preview the required document

[sukuece619@gmailcom]

Windows file Explorer > View > Deselect preview pane

[sukuece619@gmailcom]

Windows file Explorer > View > Deselect preview pane

[Martin28442314a1og]

Dumb answer, people are not looking to disable the Preview Panel, they want to use this feature to have a quick peek on PDF documents without having to open them one by one. 

Only solution for now is to check the Properties of the "Adobe" folder in AppData/Local/Adobe and remove the Unknown Account there.

[lisar19299332]

Yes, the whole point is we used to be able to click on a PDF and quickly preview it without opening it, and now we can't and it's annoying. Deselecting the Preview Pane is not a solution it just hides the issue 🙂