"One or more pages are in use and could not be deleted" - AGAIN.

[Dirk van Boxtel]

1. Open a PDF file.
2. Save it under a different name
3. Try to delete a page

You'll get this error:

"One or more pages are in use and could not be deleted"

I've had this billions of times now and the only solution that works 100% of the time is closing and re-opening the file. This leads me to believe it's something with "locking" the file while saving, but not unlocking it after done saving.

GET THIS FIXED PLEASE because it's annoying LOADS and LOADS of people.

As evident by the 7000+ search results for the exact phrase "One or more pages are in use and could not be deleted".

And that's just the part of the userbase that actually reports the problem.

There are several topics about this issue, some marked as "solved" erroneously.

Note, I'm a paying customer, use Photoshop/Illustrator/Dreamweaver/Fireworks and Bridge during my daily work, and have had this issue for months and months across several different computers (two different workplaces, and at home) and have ran into this time and again, when all I want to do is cut a PDF into several smaller PDFs.

Closing and re-opening your program because you're unable to fix this issue is NOT ACCEPTABLE. It's THE WORST kind of user experience, as this issue is the ONLY reason I use Acrobat at all, and it can't even do that.

Cheers,

- Dirk

Ps.: Sorry, I'm very frustrated running into this time and again, and then having to wade through thick mud (your site is a UX nightmare) to report this issue, which has been report oodles of times on this board before.

[mitchh95605776]

That worked but, let's face it, this is not a solution...it's a work-around.

[michaelcnolan]

It seems to work to save the redacted version, then move it to the desktop, then reopen it. I don't expect that the desktop is magic, but it seems to work unless you have it backed up in (e.g.) Dropbox.

[a_C_student · Accepted solution]

For me - using Acrobat Pro X on Windows 7 - this problem went away when I updated Acrobat Pro to the latest release (Help > Check for Updates).

[apangasa]

It's great that you are not seeing the problem anymore.

[jlw1178]

I am still seeing the problem and when i click on check for updates, it says no updates available.. is this a bug or is this fixable? I'm confused.

[RXTF]

That doesn't help.

[jml123546]

This didn't work for me.

[whydoIneedonenow]

First time it's happened to me.  Acrobat 10.1.14.11.  Mac OSX Yosemite.  Occured after I saved the file.  Closing file did not work.  Had to close Acrobat before being able to delete again.  But upon saving the file again, it stopped working again.  Had to reopen Acrobat a second time.

[Crocodile631]

Has been happening to me since I purchased in 2013.

[MCD-2012]

Is there anyone reading these posts who are going to fix the problem????? The only thing that works for me is when I duplicate the file then i can delete

one or two pages and the error comes up again. I keep having to duplicate file and put it in a new folder. This is not the answer. What are adobe doing about this, obviously nothing. Driving me crazy.

[Guest]

I ran into this problem.  I see it is a persistent problem.

I see it suggested it might be due to a defect in the pdf in question.

This pdf started as a fax.

I printed the pdf document as a pdf and saved.

This second new pdf looks the same as the old to me.  But now I can delete pages.

[Faintscrawl]

I have this issue too, today, June 27, 2016.

[Adorobat]

Hello ,

Please try to update Acrobat to the latest version.

Open Acrobat>Help>Check for Updates

Thank You!

[palenpointe]

I'm getting the problem today. I believe I'm using the latest version 2015.017.20053 Acrobat Pro DC.

This is very frustrating. I've tried saving as a different filename to no avail. I cannot delete pages all of a sudden.

I have no idea why the problem started, but I was not able to fix it until exiting and restarting the application.

This problem has apparently been around for about 4 years. Why isn't it fixed yet?

[JWStrongPSN]

Ran into the same problem on macos, version 2018.011.20058

Closing and reopening the file did not resolve the issue. Only quitting the whole application and reopening resolved the issue.

[Jasonology]

Yep this just happened to me for the first time.

Tech specs

Acrobat DC 2017.012.20098

Architecture: x86_64

Build: 17.12.20098.240878

AGM: 4.30.71

CoolType: 5.14.5

JP2K: 1.2.2.38798

macOS 10.13.6

[Julian Berg5C90]

Gotta be honest, it's rather disappointing that 8 YEARS LATER I am still having the same issue. And yes, completely closing the program and starting over does seem to work. It's just frustarating that in order to delete a page I have to save, exit, reload, then try again.

[CAL ltd]

I have been having this problem way too often. Also a paying customer. I am currently working on a pdf document, where I inserted another pdf, and now I'm trying to delete those pages. Of the three pages I inserted, the first two got deleted but the third one is refusing to go, with this famous error message.

Closing and reopening doesn't even work for me. What I have to do is move the offending page to the end, then select all the other pages and "Extract" and save as a new pdf. This could be a solution if it happens once or twice, but not almost daily!

[Jacob5C80]

We are also having this issue. Turning off and on adobe fixes it for about two hours and then it fails again. It is not incredibly disruptive but after three months of this every day, we are looking at quite a bit of time wasted.

[defaultt6qfx29awljn]

Your original comments are exactly on point and not in appropriate in the lead.  I give them a big AMEN!  I have encountered this problem as well.  Today, I discovered a new work-around for the problem.  Extract the pages from the larger PDF document rather than deleting the pages.  I don't know how frequently this will work, but it worked for me today.

[mitchh95605776]

It's April 6, 2021 and I have the most up-to-date version of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC available and I am STILL experiencing this exact problem! None of the stated solutions are working. WTF!?!?  

[ozziet34197704]

I was able to solve this issue without updating my application. If you are on Mac, go to finder and find the file. Duplicate the file. Open the new file and pages can be deleted. Not sure how to do this on PC but I assume it is a similar solution? I hope this works for others.

[default0nhtbiaj8u3p]

I was able to delete the page by saving the PDF then closing Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (32-bit) then closing Adobe Creative Cloud that was running in the background.  Then I re-opened the PDF in Pro and deleted the page.  I also set Creative Cloud to no longer open at start up.  Hopefully this works going forward.  I never had this issue till recently when I updated windows.  (The update also corruopted my Outlook PST file which I fixed by running ScanPST.exe)

[Sarah5782]

I am having the same problem with Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (32-bit). It has been updated and this annoying issue shows up sporadically and nothing I've tried fixes it. I have to download the correspondence for our law firm from a government entity. I have downloaded and resaved it to no avail. I've tried using different Adobe methods from selecting the pages and trying to extract and clicking on Organize Pages and trying to extract the pages, which sometime works and sometimes does not. I then have to separate the correspondence and distribute it to the attorneys and admins.  When I have over 300 pages of mail in pdf and cannot extract the pages accordingly it causes me a lot of stress and annoyance. I don't know if the problem exists in the downloading process or not. There just seems to be no end in sight to correctly resolve this problem. 

[scotw74004221]

This is still a bug in Acrobat. I'm using OS X Catalina and latest Acrobat DC as of 11-09-21