"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.

[Armadillo77]

I give up on Acrobat X. I do everything in Acrobat 9! The sad thing is that they haven't fix AX, and now they want me to pay for an Acrobat 11! What a joke.

[wetland]

I would just like the second the frustrations of this user. Maybe I'm naively optimistic about this, but I'm still hoping that this long-outstanding problem could be effectively addressed in the near future

Thanks

[annettemarieprice]

And it’s still happening, eight years later. 🤯

[Gary5EAD]

It really is and it's so unfortunate. I have noticed that if you place the PDF on the Desktop, open it in Acrobat and try deleting the page it will most likely work. I find that sometimes when deleting pages from PDF that is sitting in DropBox won't work. Such an odd bug.

[brooklynp95622726]

Yo! That actually worked for me. Thank you! 🙏🏻

[johnl6517226]

Thanks Gary, this worked for me also. I was using Acrobat Pro DC as a free trial, needless to say I won't be taking them up on their offer long term! Never had any bother with Nitro.

[CamiloU]

Yes, in MaOSxx... placing the PDF in the desktop is perfect BUT if you ha Dropbox it must be unlinked.
Dropbox is the culprit here.

[annettemarieprice]

Thanks, I will give that a try. Right now I do have files on my desktop being backed up using Dropbox. I will turn that off and see if it helps. 

[Matthew247879881i7o]

This worked! Crazy. 

Fix it ADOBE!!

[Natasha24819684wbp1]

Bless you! That worked for me!

[josiek8217014]

Amazing! This worked for me too!

[K26418971kbn5]

Afters years—YEARS—and countless projects encountering this anomaly, I gotta say this "move [the file] to desktop" solution just worked (on one of the Mac OS desktops at least). Brilliant! Thank you for sharing. I hope this "fix" wasn't just luck today, though. Cheers.

[K26418971kbn5]

I guess it was luck. Error happened again 😞

[Fredr]

THANK YOU!  Placing it on the desktop worked... WTH????????

[TaylorMadeAmja]

Oh my gosh, dragging to my Desktop fixed it as well. <slams head on desk> 
I have been crying for years over this, hah! Is it a Dropbox thing? It's always happened when I would Extract a chunk of pages and tick the box to have them delete from the document they were in. I've had to work around it for yeeeeeears and it works fine when I do it from my office PC. Not my Mac?

[Kathy303lhd]

Brilliant! This "feature" has been with acrobat for WAAAAY too long. Thanks for sharing this workaround. Worked perfectly.

[Valerie28562374almc]

This worked for me as well!

[TCannon]

I can't believe this actually worked. Days I've wasted going through settings!!!!DAYS

[Jo29050789ic0c]

I did all of these things, and it still wouldn't work for me. I asked my boss if she had uploaded the document I was trying to delete from to Dropbox, and she said no, but she exited out, then it worked for me. So strange! 

[Timmy Larson]

Yup, happening to me as well... 8 freakin years smh

[Timmy Larson]

btw, wanted to say dropping it on the desktop on my Mac did work! Still a hassle.

[Cassandra259378569fkc]

Same. I had to drop it on my desktop for it to work. 09/02/2022. Such a pain to do that but thank you all for this thread, it helped.

[Christopher Delatorre]

Dropping it on the desktop doesn't work for me. Mac here. I mean.... shouldn't batch delete be a basic option? Come on Adobe, get with the program. I pay monthly for Acrobat Pro (version is up to date with "coninous release"). Not sure what the problem is but I ended up extracting the pages (select "delete" when extracting) and that cut the time commitment down a bit. Hope that helps.

[TaylorMadeAmja]

Christopher -- it is terribly frustrating. It only worked for one of my test files. The work files I NEED it to work for do not work and I get the same error. Man, I was reeeeeally hopeful the desktop thing was going to be a bandaid.