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"Internal Error Occurred" on Windows 7 & Outlook Previewing

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
June 4, 2013
13 replies
41236 views

I am having an issue with Acrobat XI that I have also seen with Acrobat X and Reader XI and Reader X. I have also found another discussion that I believe is related. I believe this is a bug in Acrobat, but I don't know how to go about getting it fixed.

In my case, the "Internal Error Occurred" error pops up (usually behind the other windows, making the system seem hung) when users click on a PDF in Windows Explorer (especially if the preview pane is enabled). The same error pops up if a user clicks on a PDF attachment in Outlook and enables preview.

I have used procmon to see what is happening when the error is triggered, and it appears that Adobe software tries to access the user profile incorrectly.

The discussion I refer to where another user gets the same error more often / in a worse way (but I believe for the same reason) can be seen here:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4344860

I believe it is the same issue because the user (LaneCx) says "The only thing that could be considered out of the ordinary is that the C:\users folder is a separate mounted drive." This is in the post dated Apr 18, 2012 6:01 AM.

In our case, C:\users isn't a separate mounted drive, so C:\Users\Public is accessible by the Adobe products. However, the other user profiles are separately mounted (for instance C:\Users\John.Doe is a separate mounted drive). As such, I believe Adobe fails to access some piece of individual user profile data (when John Doe is logged in and the preview extensions are called). Again, I believe this because of what I saw in procmon (but that was some time ago and I don't remember what all I saw).

Can anyone who has C:\Users (or C:\Users\LoggedInUser) mounted as a separate profile tell me that this works for them? If so, was any special configuration or repair performed in order to make it work?

Alternatively, can anyone tell me how I can get Adobe to fix this if I can't work around it?

Install update and subscribe to Acrobat

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer unico-dan

We seem to have solved the problem. Or at least we have found a definitive workaround that works on 2 test users.

The registry settings iProtectedView, bProtectedMode or bEnableProtectedModeAppContainer are of no use. If AcroRd32.exe is launched via shell extension, protected mode is mandatory. Even the registry entry bUseWhitelistConfigFile is of no use, as via shell extension this as well is ignored.

So AcroRd32.exe runs in strict protected mode. In this mode Acrobat Reader restricts itself from writing in serveral folders even if the ACLs are ok. It is only allowed to write in C:\Users\(user)\AppData\LocalLow\

While trying to show the preview, AcroRd32.exe writes its stuff to the LocalLow folder but then tries as well to write to C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\ which results in ACCESS DENIED (showed by procmon) and the famous INTERNAL ERROR (user-message).

With a lot of trial & error we've found out, that AcroRd32.exe doesn't necessarily has to write to C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\. It just checks, if the following folder is present:

C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\2017

(probably replace 2017 by any other version or replace path with roaming path.)

Can anyone confirm?

Further reading: Sandbox Protections — Acrobat Application Security Guide

M

Memorial0101

Participant

I know this is an old post and there is an established answer but I have found another solution that solved it for me whereas the previous solutions (creating folders under Local\Adobe\Acrobat) did not.

Right-click the Adobe folder in (C:\Users\<username>\Local) and open Properties.

Go to the Security tab and click on Advanced near the bottom of the Properties window.

Under the Permissions tab in the Advanced Security Settings window, see if you see a bunch of random accounts with names consisting of long strings of random letters and numbers. (For me it appeared as "Unknown Account <random numbers>".)

If so, click Disable Inheritance near the bottom of the Advanced Security Settings window. Then delete all of the Unknown Account entries. Click Enable Inheritance and then click Apply in the bottom right. Then close out of the Security Settings and Properties windows and try to preview a PDF. For me I had to restart Explorer, once I did PDF previews began working again.

I hope this is able to help someone.

U

unico-danCorrect answer

Participant

We seem to have solved the problem. Or at least we have found a definitive workaround that works on 2 test users.

The registry settings iProtectedView, bProtectedMode or bEnableProtectedModeAppContainer are of no use. If AcroRd32.exe is launched via shell extension, protected mode is mandatory. Even the registry entry bUseWhitelistConfigFile is of no use, as via shell extension this as well is ignored.

So AcroRd32.exe runs in strict protected mode. In this mode Acrobat Reader restricts itself from writing in serveral folders even if the ACLs are ok. It is only allowed to write in C:\Users\(user)\AppData\LocalLow\

While trying to show the preview, AcroRd32.exe writes its stuff to the LocalLow folder but then tries as well to write to C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\ which results in ACCESS DENIED (showed by procmon) and the famous INTERNAL ERROR (user-message).

With a lot of trial & error we've found out, that AcroRd32.exe doesn't necessarily has to write to C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\. It just checks, if the following folder is present:

C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\2017

(probably replace 2017 by any other version or replace path with roaming path.)

Can anyone confirm?

Further reading: Sandbox Protections — Acrobat Application Security Guide

christof_hoste_BE

Inspiring

i confirm the answer

I changed the permissions of the AppData folder and subfolder

i created in the Adobe folder

C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat

and whitin the 2018 & 2019 folder

C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\2018

C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat\2019

Acrobat DC starts up now :-)

I needed to change the permissions of the AppData folder in order to be able to create the 2 subfolders manually.

Thx unico-dan !

Extra info: i did not changed anyting in register, i have put the permissions of the AppData folder back to its original state after i created the 3 subfolders and Acrobat DC still works fine.

R

RTEB

Participant

Thanks for the info. This worked like a champ.

To fix, I just created 2018 and 2019 folders under the ...appdata\local\adobe\acrobat folder then the preview function started working.

C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat

U

unico-dan

Participant

We see this problem for several years now. We hoped an upgrade to Adobe Acrobat Reader 2017 would solve the issue. But unfortunately it didn't.

In our Eventlog we can see following error:

Error 0x80070005 occurred while creating known folder {3eb685db-65f9-4cf6-a03a-e3ef65729f3d} with path 'H:\Windows\AppData\Roaming'.

This event fits to the error captured with procmon:

AcroRd32.exe > \\DfsClient\;H:00000000c59831b6\contoso.local\dfs\parentfolder\homes\username\Windows\AppData\Roaming > ACCESS DENIED

Our userprofiles are saved on an filer and are accessed via DFS names. We use folder redirection so a lot of data is stored in the homefolder of the user.

The issue can disappear after a few minutes, Or not. Either the preview window (Windows Explorer) shows the error, blank or the preview. In Outlook the preview mostly works after a minute.

The following registry entry is already set. So no effect here.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\2017\FeatureLockDown\

bProtectedMode=0

N

nrothwell34

Participant

An internal error occurred

Step 1

Right click the Acrobat icon. Properties. Compatibility tab. Run the compatibility troubleshooter. See if you can open Adobe

Step 2

Added key

KLM\software\policies\adobe\acrobat reader\(Version)\featurelockdown\

New Dword

bProtectedMode=0

Sorted it for me

S

stevej32675781

Participant

We are also having this issue when using Adobe Reader on RDS2012r2 with User Profile Disks. Sounds like no fix yet? Maybe it would be possible to exclude the temp folders from profile redirection? Which temp folders are in play here?

C

chriss42520505

Participant

I am having this problem with everything I try to install, even a brand new version of Acrobat Reader DC. It started with a pre-installed version of Acrobat X Standard. I've uninstalled, cleaned, reinstalled etc, no avail. I do have two drives but have just done the standard installs.

J

jordant66312552

Participant

Has there been a resolution for this issue.

My site is Running VDI 2012 r2 (Pooled Collections) we have the UPD set up. Some of our users report this error others do not. We do not have Adobe Reader installed, Simply Adobe Acrobat X, v.10.13.

As mentioned a few users are getting the pop up Adobe Acrobat - An internal error occurred. No additional details.

A

Anonymous

I'm starting to get very frustrated, come on Adobe sort this problem out PLEASE

C

comc-comc

Participant

HI all,

I was having the same issue with Reader XI and Acrobat 9.5.5, i.e. a recurring error message of ""An internal error occurred"

I was able to fix the issue immediately by uninstalling Reader XI, so I am inclined to believe this bug is related to Reader XI, not Acrobat at all.

Anyway, I hope this helps some others out there?

P

PRD_ITAuthor

Participant

Well, the problem may not affect Acrobat 9.5.5, but the problem does affect all version of Acrobat (and Reader) X and XI, it is not related to Reader specifically. It may exist in Acrobat 9 as well, but not be visible to you because you haven't reinstalled it after removing Reader XI, and this may mean there are no preview handlers or other back-end functions running to trigger the error. Regardless, the problem is that Adobe's programmers are traversing the file system wrong in that the method they are using cannot traverse an NTFS mount point represented as a folder.

ETA: As can be seen in older discussion that was presumably from Adobe techs, the problem appears to relate to user profiles mounted as such, and may not apply to all folder mount-point traversals. For instance, one person said they Mounted C:\Users to another partition and could not reproduce the issue. The steps to reproduce would therefore appear to be something like this:

Disk0Partition1 = C:

C:\Users\Public is on Disk0Partition1

C:\Users\Administrator is on Disk0Partition1

Administrator installs the software

Disk0Partition2 = C:\Users\Usertoreproduceissue

*The above mountpoint would have to be created after Usertoreproduceissue logged in, and the contents of C:\Users\Usertoreproduceissue would have to be moved to the root of Disk0Partition2 prior to mounting it in that location.

Usertoreproduceissue logs into the computer and this problem presents itself (especially quickly if previewing is turned on and PDFs are browsed)

That having been said, this is all assumption since I have not seen anyone claim to be an Adobe tech and I have not seen their exact reproduction trial steps.

A

Anonymous

This pdf preview handler error happening on all computers with Win 7, Office 2007 / 2010 upgraded to Acrobat Pro 11.0.04 or later.

I've already tried all the suggestions online to no avail. So far, the only workaround is to install Acrobat 9.5 as saltaman0-101 mentioned earlier.

This is obviously an adobe bug that needs to be addressed.

I've updated to the latest 11.0.06 both acrobat and reader and this didn't help till I put back reader 9.5!

V

Vishal@PDF

Adobe Employee

We tried Acrobat installation on a system where Users folder was mounted on a separate partition (D: drive). I wasn't able to reproduce any of the issue mentioned so far (Win7 -32bit + Acrobat 11.0.3) .

I will try more cases as well when it is mounted on separate hard disk/network drive and get back.

In the meanwhile can someone please update how they have mounted their Users folder to separate drive so as to ensure that there is no difference in our method and theirs.

Thanks,

Vishal

P

PRD_ITAuthor

Participant

The "An internal error occured" is still present for us on 11.0.4 in Reader and Acrobat. We are using Win7 64bit, though. The error pops up whenever an attempt is made to preview a PDF file. This could be an attachment in Outlook (2010, 32bit) that is single-clicked, or a file that has been browsed to and clicked on in Windows Explorer when the preview pane is enabled. This may only affect non-administrative users. We have now set AcroRd32.exe to XP SP3 compatibility mode and used the Citrix workaround registry key someone else linked to get rid of the error, but previews still don't work when that is done. Moreover, when one is in Explorer with the preview pane open and clicks from one PDF to another, there is a noticable delay while it silently fails. In our case, the Users folder is C:\Users on Disk0 and the Username folder is Disk1, mounted to C:\Users\Username via MS RDP VDI. In other cases, it appear people are using other virtual solutions. I assume that simply relocating the Users folder is unlikely to cause the same problem, as the issue is most likely directly related to a folder being a mountpoint instead of a real folder. That having been said, mounting a second disk/partition to C:\Users might provide the same effect. But the key is that you moved the users folder to another drive letter, and in all reports above, it appears on the same drive letter, but there is actually an NTFS folder mountpoint to a separate drive.

S

saltman101

Participant

I have the same issue with Adobe Reader 11.0.03. Just updated and on opening I get: "An internal error occurred".

My C:\Users folder is mounted on a different drive. (C:\Users on a HDD, everything else on an SSD.)

I have tried uninstalling, rebooting and clean removals etc. Assuming it's an Adobe issue, I'll revert to an older version.

EDIT: Version 10.1.4 had the same problem. I just installed version 9.5 and it worked fine. You can find the download here: http://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/

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