"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 😞

[BHHSmichael]

I had to keep moving the files around. Moving to the Desktop worked and then failed. Then I moved it back to downloads and it worked again. Not sure what is going on. Perhaps when you make changes the MacOS file managers new feature for cloud managed files is creating a flag messing up Acrobat. Did you ever solve this?

[Amal.]

Hi there, 

Hope you are doing well.

What is the version of the OS and the Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version go to Help > About Acrobat and make sure you have the recent version 24.02.20687 installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.
 
Please try to reset the Acrobat preferences as described here https://adobe.ly/4a1vCw7

You may also try to create a new test user profile with full admin rights or enable the root account in MAC and try using the application there and check.

Let us know how it goes.

~Amal

[tlmurray23]

You should certainly realize by now that OS and Acrobat versions are beside the point, as this issue has been going on for years. It deserves Adobe's attention and a fix, especially given what users pay for a license. We're not talking about an app that was programmed by a 30-year-old living in his mom's basement.

[Amal.]

Hi there,

Please go through the correct answers marked in the similar discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/acrobat-dc-error-can-t-delete-page-error-is-quot-... and see if that works.

~Amal

[BHHSmichael]

Amal - Why is this not being fixed in the code? It seems like it has generated at least two highly viewed threads. A Google search got me here. It does have 141.9K views on it and the other link has 25.2K. Seems like a problem. Can you help us better understand?

[Alain Filhol]

I think there are several possible explanations:
- Adobe is not aware of the problem since nobody at Adobe reads the messages
- the problem is hidden in a very old part of the code and nobody at Adobe want to dive in it.
- as many other big companies, Adobe considers that old bugs are no longer bugs but features and refuses to allocate manpower to correct them.
- correcting bugs is not rewarding and won't allow engineers to get a raise and/or to move up in the hierarchy..
- ...

[BHHSmichael]

Appreciate the guesses but I am hoping Amal's title of "Adobe Employee" gives him some lattitude to represent their position directly. Amal?

[Amal.]

Hi there

Hope you are doing well.

Would you mind sharing the details as listed below so we can get it checked with the engineering team:

1. What is the version of the OS and the Acrobat Pro application you are using? To check the version goto Help > About Acrobat.

2. What is the workflow/steps you are doing? A small video recording of the same would be very helpful.

3. Please collect the Adobe CC logs https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-log-collector.html and Procmon logs (Win Only) https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/acromonitor.html and share them via any cloud storage of your choice. Create a link and share that link with us for further investigation.

~Amal

[tlmurray23]

Hmm, no. Not only am I not going to bother, but I'm a bit perturbed you asked . . . treating this as though it were something new. Adobe needs to rip through Acrobat in general to get rid of the need for Rosetta anyway, and that might end up fixing it. 

[tlmurray23]

Similar to yours and Alain's comments, it has seemed for years that Adobe is more concerned with making headlines with cool new, fancy bells-and-whistles than it is with making sure its baseline products work properly and supporting the user base that got them the size they are today. 

[BHHSmichael]

You'll have to do better than that my friend. You're not going to solve it this way. No one in software development dept can look at the algorithms related to the message about 150k views have garnered since 2012? Is there a log file that you can point me to that I could send to you? Or perhaps I can turn a feature on to start logging for the future? If you don't have a log file feature perhaps the software team can add a log file feature so we can see the stack and better help your team. I imagine there is a fun little exception being hidden by that message we keep seeing.