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SAP GUI 7.6 for Windows is crashing when attempting to view PDFs with acrobat DC installed

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
November 12, 2020
8 replies
50178 views

So this issue is similar to the issue: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/sap-gui-for-windows-crashing-in-adobe-acrobat-dc-2015-15-006-30417/m-p/9771866#M96060

Except this crashing happens on SAP GUI 7.5 and 7.6 with the latest patches. After multiple hours of testing, we have determined that with acrobat DC pro installed the crashes start happening, even if Reader is set as the default application. Once acrobat DC pro is uninstalled, and we re-install reader the crashing stops.

This error started up approximately 2 weeks ago. Our IT dept did not make any updates to the user laptops, however, the Adobe auto-update does run. They are set up with Reader as default with DC as a pdf editor. This has worked great for months, and now we are at a loss as to what do.

We have tested with multiple windows patch levels, SAP GUI versions, and patches, and the results are pretty consistent.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks, everyone.

Brandon

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Amal.

Hi All

The optional update (ver. 20.13.20066) addressing this issue is now available (Windows Only). Please try to update the application to the new version available from the help menu > check for updates or you can manually download the patch using the link: https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/ReleaseNotesDC/index.html

Regards

Amal

Amal.

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hi All

The optional update (ver. 20.13.20066) addressing this issue is now available (Windows Only). Please try to update the application to the new version available from the help menu > check for updates or you can manually download the patch using the link: https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/ReleaseNotesDC/index.html

Regards

Amal

M

moniskhan

Participating Frequently

Hi Amal,

I am using Adobe 2017 and due to the Update 17.011.30180 Planned update, Nov 03, 2020 , the same issue occuring to me also with SAP GUI 7.6.

For me it happence one time fine and next time it crashes.

Is there also a patch update available or planned for Adobe 2017, as Adobe DC optional update is not applicable for Adobe 2017.

Kind Regards,

Monis

S

Srinivas5D31

Participant

The problem is confirmed by several users. Another Thead Adobe reader not printing from embedded print preview SAP in the Adobe forum also addresses the problem. There is a hint to switch off the Protected Mode in Adobe Reader DC for testing purposes:

Please try to turn off the protected mode for testing (Windows only) and see if that helps. Go to Edit > Preferences > Enhanced Security > Uncheck ‘Enable Protected mode at start up’ , turn off the protected mode and uncheck Enhanced Security > Click OK and reboot the computer.
Note: Turning off the security may possess security risks, please turn on the security after testing.

The user in question confirms that printing will then work, albeit more slowly. However, switching off Protected Mode reduces security. The error is also addressed here. The Adobe Reader DC 2020.013.20048 works against it. This concerns SAPGUI 7.40 to 7.60.

Workaround via Group Policy

Addendum: Phillipp Scheerer told me on Twitter that the IT department had to switch off the ‘protected mode’ for compatibility reasons. For this purpose there is a group policy, which is stored in the following key:

HKLM\SW\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockDown

Change the 32-bit DWORD registry entry bProtectedMode = 0 to 1 Then the PDF loads as expected.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

That is the point, why does it work with FoxIt PDF (or other web browser) without switching Protected View and/or Protected Mode off but not when you have Internet Explorer11 integrated with Acrobat or Reader?

The Internet Explorer integration with Acrobat is defective, in this case the Adobe Reader PDF add-on integration.

You don't need PDFs to open in Internet Explorer exclusively if you're getting these issues with Protected View, Protected Mode, App containers, etc.

I don't think Micrososft cloned their own version of a Chrome-based web browser and named it "The new Microsoft Edge Browser" for no reason.

IE Explorer 11 has been phased out and rejected by many websites that has moved to supporting only Chrome-based or Mozilla-based web engine browsers.

I don't work in the civilian sector, and if you're behind federated networks that share single sign-on (federated identity) across many other federated websites and thrid-party websites, you'll clearly see how many times these websites will notify the users that the page(s) that you're trying to hit cannot be viewed in IE11 because is not supported anymore (this include URLs with links to download a specific PDF document or view in the web browser). And they even recommend to use Fierfox or Chrome to get access to those portals.

You'll notice, however, that the Adobe PDF Internet add-on will still pop up, and MS Windows will ask the user if this program should have access or not.

From the configuration side point of view, and the consistent backdoors and other troubleshoting problems, (like this topic with SAP GUI), considering all other Internet Security Zones, and MS OS security zones that interact together, and also interact with Acrobat and Reader, It is quite annoying.

FoxIt PDF, and others, don't seem to have a problem because it doesn't have a PDF add-in that integrates (or better said, ties up or enslave) Acrobat to the operating system via a web browsing-only experience, plus they don't seem to respect any of these Micrososft's built-in security features anyway.

While it is convenient for enterprise environment with WANs and Intranets, A PDF editor or a PDF viewer should not have any type of access to a file system and synchronize that file system with all of your personal files out to the Internet without the user's consent to begin with. But that is just a personal opinion.

And from a security standpoint, as long as computer users continue to prefer to do everything via web browsers (and not through the native PDF progran that was intended to be used as the PDF handler..)Protected View, versus Protected Mode, versus sandboxing, versus containerized apps, versus Enhanced Protected Mode, versus 64-bit process for Enhanced Protected Mode is all meaningless, and it shouldn't be interacting with Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader if using a web browser is such a "de facto" workflow.

So I would say to disable the add-on from toolbars and extension. https://www.lifewire.com/prevent-adobe-from-opening-pdfs-in-ie-153338

Updates will overwrite any prior customized installs that you had, so based on the guidance posted in those links, automatic updates should be disabled and enforeced via Group Policy. Also, users must not have the ability to switch the default PDF handler in their system. You can disable that ability via regisrty and also to Enable / Disable PDF preview thumbnails in Windows Explorer.

AnandSri

Community Manager

Hi!

We're sorry for the trouble you had. For further investigation purposes, we need some information/logs from the affected machines so that we identify the root cause.

I have shared the steps/information of collecting specific logs and dumps in a private message, please check the private message inbox of your community profile, and share the information in the same private message only.

Thank you all for your patience and for your cooperation on this.

Regards,

Anand Sri.

dalea72953627

Participating Frequently

Anand, I have sent the info back in the Private Message.

Thanks.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Hi,

When you say : "We have tested with multiple windows patch levels, SAP GUI versions, and patches, and the results are pretty consistent."

Where these machines all cloned from a disk image?

If yes, please review : SAP Frontend Installation Guide - Hardware and Software Installation Requirements

Are these computers using SAP Business Client? Also check where it says : Configuring Local Security Handlig if you're using local security handling.

Does that mean that you installed different (older? newer?) versions of SAP GUI? In which versions of MS Windows is this hapening?

If yes, are these other versions than 7.50 and 7.60 older than 7.40 ?

If you've migrated to 7.60, were the old configuration files created from scratch or migrated with the old configuration format ? Also were the migration of the configuration files deployed with the SAP GUI using SAP UI Landscape configuration format?

It is possible that the PDF files that are misbehaving and crashing in Acrobat could be in the old file format.

See here: SAP Frontend Installation Guide - Page 10 , Section 2.2- Configuration Scenarios

Specifically this part:

 Note
After file migration, you can only work on the files in the new format

See this other Note:

De-support for saplogon.ini and related configuration files
As of SAP GUI for Windows 7.60, the old configuration format for SAP Logon entries (saplogon.ini,
sapmsg.ini, saproute.ini) is no longer supported by SAP GUI for Windows. SAP GUI for Windows can still
handle this old format for compatibility reasons, because there may be external applications needing this
old format, but using SAP GUI for Windows 7.60 with the old format is not supported. SAP will neither test
this format nor correct issues affecting it. Therefore, all installations of SAP GUI for Windows 7.60 and
newer must use SAP UI Landscape (available since SAP GUI for Windows 7.40).

Also, you mentioned about "ntdll.dll", when you inspect the crash log or trace logs what is the "Faulting Application Name" , is it Acrobat? Reader? something else? And what is the "Faulting application path"

Please provide if it happened in this path:

C:\Program Files\Faulting Application\MyFaultingApplication.exe

I don't think the issue is due to a corrupt .dll of the WINNT OS kernel but rather an incorrect module registration after an update took place in those machies or something similar. To re-register a module(.dll) check this additional reading :

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-fix-ntdll-dll-errors-2624474

To be on the safe side, are all the Visual Studio and C++ redistributables also updated to reflect their current version(s)?

See here:

https://blogs.sap.com/2013/04/17/fixing-the-windows-side-by-side-configuration-is-incorrect-error-sapadmin/

And also check this blog:

https://apps.support.sap.com/sap/support/knowledge/en/2035293

Specially this NOTE:

SAP GUI 7.50:

On 31st of March 2020 support for SAP GUI for Windows 7.50 will end (see also SAP Note 147519). Existing patches will remain to be available in SAP Support Portal for a while,
but as of April 2020, no further corrections (not even security related ones) will be provided for release 7.50. Furthermore, we will not process incidents which relate to issues that only
occur in SAP GUI for Windows 7.50 or an older release.

Going back to the .dll issue, just remember, to re-register a .dll to use these steps:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/844592/how-to-register-a-dll-file

If you perform this action from the command prompt (you may need to open the command prompt as Admin) make sure that you run REGSVR32.EXE in the directory path where the .dll is located (not from anywhere else).

Sorry about my long reply... I just wanted to throw in the mix some other avenues of approach.

dalea72953627

Participating Frequently

We are seeing the same issue as well with 2020.013.20064. SAP GUI version 7.60PL2. When we backrev adobe to 2020.012.20048 is works just fine again. Below is the event log when it crashes. Looks like it is the AcroPDFImpl.dll that is dumping.

Faulting application name: saplogon.exe, version: 7600.1.2.1156, time stamp: 0x5d3e2ccb

Faulting module name: AcroPDFImpl.dll_unloaded, version: 20.13.20064.12623, time stamp: 0x5f91f8a9

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x000447ab

Faulting process id: 0x1c2c

Faulting application start time: 0x01d6b8fd018817a2

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP\FrontEnd\SAPgui\saplogon.exe

Faulting module path: AcroPDFImpl.dll

Report Id: 3315dad4-6e9f-4d83-ba5a-3c1f852af351

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

ninad_apsingekar

Participating Frequently

Hi Experts ,

We are also facing the same issue with SAPGUI 7.4 PL 8. We also tried upgrading to SAPGUI version 7.5 PL 15 and 7.6 PL08 as well but we got the same result. We are on Adobe Pro Version 2020.013.20064. It all started around beginning of November. I uninstall Adobe pro and just keep Reader crashing stops or if we leave Adobe pro installed and also install Reader with the same patch level as Pro, crashing stops . I put Adobe pro back to a previous version (August) then SAP stops crashing. Any solution/suggestion would be great!

Amal.

Community Manager

Hi Brandon,

Hope you are doing well and sorry for the trouble. As described, you are experiencing crash on SAP GUI 7.5 and 7.6 with the latest patches.

Would you mind sharing the version of the Adobe Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version of the application please go to Help > About Acrobat

Also, for testing purpose, please try to turn off the protected mode (Windows Only). Go to Edit > Preferences > Enhanced Security > Uncheck 'Enable protected mode at start up', Turn off the Protected mode and uncheck enhanced security > Click OK and reboot the computer.

Note: Turning off the protected mode may possess security risks. Please turn on the security after testing.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards

Amal

B

Brandon5FB917699955Author

Participating Frequently

Hi Amal,

Version is 2020.013.20064

We have attempted it with Protected mode and enhanced security turned off with the same results.

Also Test Screen Name we have an open ticket with SAP to have them work this from their side also. I am waiting for a response from them now, they are looking into options other than the trace logs. I'll try to keep everyone here updated as well on what they have me do/what I find out.

Thanks,

Brandon

clairec75416908

Participant

Hi,

We're having the same problem. Adobe Pro Version 2020.013.20064 installed and it causes SAP to crash every few times you go to open a PDF preview within the application.

I found that if I put Adobe pro back to a previous version then SAP stops crashing.

I've also attempted turning off protected mode and enhanced security and found that it still crashes.

If anyone does find the magic answer I'd really love to know!

Thanks,

Claire

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Meanwhile... we might have ideas, but you haven't told us yet what your symptoms are. What crashes? A SAP app, Reader or Pro? What messages?

B

Brandon5FB917699955Author

Participating Frequently

Ah good point. The only error we are getting is in the event log, showing that saplogon.exe crashed by the ntdll.dll file in windows. This happens specifically when using the SAP VIM 7.5 patch lvl 6 module when the buyers go in to view Invoices. In most cases they can view one pdf invoice without a problem, but when they go to the second one it crashes with pretty regular consistency. The configuration is with the latest version of Reader installed and set as default, with DC setup only to be used when a pdf needs to be edited. If DC is the only adobe software installed the crashes still happen, but if it is just reader then they stop. My thought is that SAP GUI must be reaching out to DC somehow using that dll and it's not liking something there.

B

Brandon5FB917699955Author

Participating Frequently

We have attempted multiple options to make sure that the ntdll.dll file is not corrupted, and even replaced it outright from another laptop that had just been imaged with no luck.