Windows Explorer does not display PDF previews.

[Grafik Barton]

For about a month now, PDF previews in the preview pane of Windows 11 Explorer haven’t been working. PNG and JPG files display fine. Even previews of AI, IDML, and similar files show up. I heard it might be due to Acrobat settings, so I enabled the option to allow previews/thumbnails there. I also reinstalled Acrobat. I’ve asked AI, but I still have no idea what’s going on. I don’t have any other PDF viewer installed, just the full version of Acrobat. What should I do? Is anyone else experiencing the same issue? (My drives are half-empty, cache is cleared, I have a Ryzen 9, 64 GB RAM, 4060 GPU… so it’s definitely not a hardware issue.) 

Could the problem be on Adobe's side?

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from using the community bugs">

[Amal.]

Hi there 

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out. We are sorry for the trouble you are experiencing.

The PDF Shell component in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader allows you to see the thumbnails of PDF documents in Windows explorer, on both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Windows. By default, this feature is OFF. You can enable it using a specific setting available in the preferences.

• Open Acrobat or Acrobat Reader. Select the hamburger menu   > Preferences.

• In the Preferences dialog box, choose General in the Categories list, and then select the Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer check box.

• Click OK.

• Wait for a few seconds while Acrobat is configured to show thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer.

  Note:

  If you don't see the Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer checkbox, update your Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to the latest version. To automatically update from the product, choose Help > Check for updates and then follow the steps in the Updater window to download and install the latest updates.

  For more information please check the help page https://adobe.ly/4kV0eFr 

[simon_5083]

I have spent hours and hours trying to resolve this problem using all the fixes out there on the web (Adobe, Windows, others). I have a Windows 11 OS on a Windows Surface ARM laptop 7th Edition.  I have the latest Adobe Acrobat free reader (have uninstalled and installed twice). The message that appears in Windows Explorer Preview pane is 'This file can't be previewed'.  Can you please recommend a solution?

[S. S]

Hi @simon_5083,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for your experience with preview files on Windows Explorer using Acrobat.

This is a known limitation with Acrobat on ARM devices, as Acrobat runs on Emulation mode for ARM devices.

More info about it here: https://adobe.ly/3GG7JBE

Hope this clarifies the question.

Regards,
Souvik.