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jamesp59619740
Participating Frequently
March 15, 2015
Question

Adobe Reader could not open a pdf file - either not supported file type or file damaged

  • March 15, 2015
  • 2 replies
  • 36496 views

On March 5th, I started getting the Adobe Reader error message "Adobe Reader could not open a pdf file because it is either not supported file type or the file has been damaged.

I get this when I try to open the pdf file as an attachment in Outlook 2013 from my G-Mail account.  If I save the attachment and then try to open the pdf document, I get the same error4.

I get this error message with every pdf file that now comes to me in Outlook.

If I log on to my G-Mail I am able to open the pdf document.  If I also save the attachment to my computer, I do not get the error message when I open the pdf file. This would suggest the file is okay

This would lead me to believe the problem maybe with Outlook.

I'm using Adobe Reader XI v11.0.10

I'm using Windows 8.1

Is anyone encountering this same issue with outlook?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    J
    jamesp59619740Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 27, 2015

    I had someone send me an e-mail with a small pdf document attached and I got the error.  They then used their copier at work to e-mail me a pdf document and that worked..  I uninstalled Adobe XI and installed an older version (10.1.4) and the error occurred.

    Around the same time I experienced this Adobe problem, I'm encountered some other Outlook issues and I'm wondering if they are related to my Adobe problem. I'm at the point of ready to uninstall/Re-install Office 2013 to see if the problem still persists.

    Has Stuarts35968459 encountered other Outlook 2013 issues beside this Adobe problem?

    A
    Anonymous
    March 27, 2015

    I also tried an earlier version of Adoe Reader to no avail.  I have had no problems whatsoever with Outlook 13, I've had it for about 18 months.  I scan all files regularly and everything is updated regularly.  No new updates are available on any of my software.  I also checked Norton settings to be sure that somehow something wasn't being blocked.  No luck there either; I also did a troubleshooter on all of my Microsoft settings.  Nothing there to fix either.  Does Adobe ever let you chat with them?  I wonder if this is something that requires them to do some research.

    ~graffiti
    ~graffiti
    Braniac
    March 27, 2015

    I copied it again.  Do you see it?  BTW, how do I set privacy?  (I'm new at this)

    I opened with two different notepads and got different information.here it is from Windows Notepad.  First few lines are:

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"

    http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd

    >

    <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

    <head>

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

    <style type="text/css">td img {display: block;}</style>

    </head>

    Here it is from MS Notepad:

    <HTML><HEAD><style>.ending {font-family: Calibri; font-size: 18px;}</style><BODY><TABLE><TR><TD colspan=100%><a href="http://www.trulynolen.com/questionnaire?l=14115468&o=141050070&z=85087-7515"><img src=http://newsletter.tnolen.com/email/service.png border=no></a></TD></TR><TR><TD align=center class="ending">If you would not like to receive email communication from Truly Nolen in the future, please <a href="http://newsletter.tnolen.com/unsubstart.asp?b=14115468&z=85087-7515&e=ss52@earthlink.netwsletter.tnolen.com/unsubstart.asp?b=14115468&z=85087-7515&e=ss52@earthlink.net">click here</a></TD></TR></TABLE></BODY></HTML>


    I had someone release your post with the code.

    That looks like an HTML page. It's not a pdf file.

    pwillener
    pwillener
    Braniac
    March 16, 2015

    It appears to be a problem with Outlook.  Can you tell us:

    1. what is the exact file size (in bytes) when downloading such a PDF from Outlook?
    2. what is the exact file size when downloading the same PDF from the Gmail web interface?
    J
    jamesp59619740Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 16, 2015

    The pdf document size is 305 KB.  It's the same document that is being downloaded in Outlook and G-Mail.

    You are probably right that it is more likely an Outlook related problem because I cannot send any messages that contains an attachment.  The message just sits in the Outlook Outbox.  The Send/Receive shows an error "cannot connect to the network (0x800ccc13)", which is clearly not the case since I'm able to do other things on the Internet..

    A
    Anonymous
    March 27, 2015

    I have the same problem, but sometimes it will open.I don't do anything differently and haven't figured out why some will open.  I don't think any pictures will open, and possibly if something, like a survey from a website, was emailed, it won'[t open.  I have a 1 KB pdf file that won't open and I receive the same pop up message.  I also tried saving it to my hard drive, but still couldn't open it.  Others can. I'm also using windows 8.1, outlook 13, & adobe reader XI. This is so frustrating.  I didn't have the problem before and ran troubleshooter to no avail..Maybe something in an auto update?

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