"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?

 

[markelrayes · Accepted solution]

I FOUND A SOLUTION.

I had to go C:\Users\[me]\AppData\Local and right click the Adobe folder, click properties and go to security tab. I had a bunch of left-over "Account Unknown" listed besides my three main ones (System, [me], Admin). I deleted all the account unknowns.

That fixed it for me.

[Eric Brandley · Accepted solution]

This worked, for me! (thank god, what a pain in the a**)
I couldn't find the "AppData" folder, I ended up finding it by clicking "view", then "show" and then toggling on "hidden files".

[Krista26520851qyto]

I'm having this issue as well, but I don't have any account unknown's listed. I do use two different Adobe sign-on's on this computer - so maybe that's the issue? I'm also the Adobe account admin for about 50 licenses.

[RedFeathers]

Hi Krista,

I helped another user who could also not find their Unknown accounts.

Make sure that you go type in "C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local" into the top bar that shows the filepath.

The Adobe folder in Local is not the same as in the Programs folder.

Hope this helps.

[Krista26520851qyto]

I am very dumb. I did not see the "And right click on the Adobe folder" part, so  I was trying to do it on the Local folder itself. I found some weird user names to delete, so hopefully that will fix it. Thank you! 

[RedFeathers]

Oh gosh, at least you figured it out.

I hope it worked.

Have a fabulous day!

[Nic2693625496y7]

worked like magic!

[Sjo-Cal Speedtoys]

Amazing! After days of losing time to a freezing machine, I can work again. Thanks!

[vurbis]

Crossing all my fingers and toes!!

[RedFeathers]

Hi Vurbis, did you get it fixed?

[LuizMamede]

Funcionou! Perfeito! Obrigado!

[Gunita75]

Tried, got that error! 😕 

[Bosko S.]

Why Adobe don't hire you man.. 😄

[Tony27088535o9a0]

This worked for me, too!

It had been dsriving me crazy for weeks -- I even uninstalled and re-installed Acrobat and Reader to no avail!

Thank you!

[Tom24840692uu8a]

YES, the max!! Looking so long for this solution! 

[dg12464234]

Thanks so much! It helped! I couldn't delete the last account, but after pressing Aplly button it has just disappeared! Now it's working properly, I can move files, and I even see preview in Windows Explorer. Thanks!

[RedFeathers]

I'm glad it worked, just keep an eye out, because some users report that the error returns after a while if they don't delete all the unknown accounts. To remove the last one you need to go into the "Advanced" settings and disable the "inheritance" and that should get rid of it for good. I've attached screen grabs to help.

[noahs6710668]

Thank you!! This was driving me crazy on all my computers.

[Mal_J]

Fantastic. This worked for me. Thanks. 

[defaultbjzv7zqcw6d0]

Yep this fixed it, well done and thank you!

[dejonda]

OMG, thank you!!

[Darion R]

You're a legend

[ThomHayes]

To confirm, this fix doesn't work for all users - Adobe still needs to provide a fix

[INBARGLUK]

THANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK YOU!

this is been bugging the S**T out pf my for the longest t-i-m-e!

[Wilco280516446r4d]

Fixed it for me as well, thanks a lot!!!!

[Sígrid Degobi]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I was getting crazy about this problem. At a certain point, it started to crash my windows explorer and I had to keep restarting the explorer every once in a while. Now it stopped. Tahnk you very much!

[KristinaMMoreno]

Thank you! This is the only solution that worked for me.