Acrobat failed to connect to a DDE server

[sophiefischer]

I have searched the forums and tried everything listed in the other posts.

1. Repair the installation

2. Turn off Enable Enhanced Security

3. Check registry entry and change to AcroViewR18

4. Check file association is set to Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat

What I have discovered is :-

a. Only some PDF documents have the issue however when you open a "problem" document you cannot open any further PDF documents

b. Problem documents for me have mainly been related to finance systems generating the PDF.

c. When opening the "problem" document I only get a blank page with nothing displayed or Acrobat failed to connect to a DDE server. Printing the document results in a render of the document and display the PDF on the screen; however multiple copies of Adobe RdrCEF are started. Closing the document results in one copy of Adobe RdrCEF closing but Adobe Acrobat Reader DC process being left running.

d. Any attempt to open another document spawns multiple copies of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC even if you only click once to open the document.

e. End tasking the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC processes one at a time will suddenly terminate all of them and the Adobe RdrCEF processes so I am guessing this is the problem process.

f. Switching the PDF file extension to Chrome works fine and all documents including the problem document can be opened.

I tried to log a support call with Adobe but gave up after 45 minutes on the phone trying to get through to them.

[JJAR94]

I had this same issue with a couple of customers of mine.

The issue definitely revolves around the latest update for Adobe DC.

To work around this issue for the time being I have removed Adobe DC from the clients computer.

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Install for all versions  - Follow this link and download Adobe Reader instead of DC

Once this is installed PDF's will all work as normal. I will then update back to DC once a fix has been released

[AshuMittal]

Hi all,

Sorry for the inconvenience.

We are aware of this issue and the fix is currently undergoing internal validations. We will confirm once the patch is available for general public.

Thanks for your patience,

-ashu

[sophiefischer]

Hi Ashu,

Thanks for the update. Do you know when the fix will be issued please ?

[AshuMittal]

Hi,

It is tentatively scheduled for release by end of this week.

-ashu

[AshuMittal · Accepted solution]

Hi all,

Adobe Acrobat and Reader official update containing the fix for this issue is now available. This update will be automatically pushed to all existing installations of Acrobat and Reader. If you want, you may also manually trigger the update by opening the application and going to Help > Check for Updates.

More information about this release is here: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/release-note/acrobat-dc-november-29-2017.html

Please try it out and let us know your feedback.

Thanks for your patience and support!

-ashu