Adobe Reader Error (21)

[jenniferR]

Please help!

When trying to save a PDF file to Adobe; I keep getting this error message: "The document could not be saved. There was a problem reading the document. (21) After I close the box, a separate box pops up stating: "Insufficient data for an image." I've tried to update Adobe and also tried the fix, I currently have Adobe Reader 11.0.10. Afterwards the image is distorted and missing things. Please help me!!

[NakulB]

Hi,

I request you to share the screenshot of the error you are receiving.

Also, please let us know if you are facing similar issue with other documents.

Regards,

Nakul

[JenR1962]

We are having the exact same errors with documents generated via Esker's Vsifax software. They can be saved just fine in previous versions.

[Rave]

Hi Jen,

Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention. We are aware of this and our engineering team is working on it.

I will keep you updated in case I have any new information.

Regards,

Rave

[notmyrealname]

I also get this error message: "The document could not be saved. There was a problem reading the document. (21)" and I can get a pop-up saying "Out of Memory". Whose memory, I wonder. I have 12GB RAM and plenty is spare.

FWIW, when I closed Acrobat, my memory usage dropped from 7.2 GB to 3.7GB. When I opened it up again, the usage remained at 3.7 GB and did not increase. I have XI 11.0.10.

[dianar73892616]

Same thing happening here......

[dianar73892616]

Would love to hear a solution? 

[notmyrealname]

Ok, I have a workaround.

First, a preface for the Adobe folks: I had been going to my banking websites (I have more than one) and clicking on their button to download my monthly statement in PDF format. My IE11 browser always offers me the choice to Open, or Save, or Save As. Habitually, each month I select Open so I can first view the document then, in the Adobe reader itself, I click File then Save As. Once I click the final button to actually save it, is when the Error 21 pop-up appears. I noticed that I have no problem when doing the same thing today from another online bank, or from online websites that are not banks. I felt I had isolated the problem to just one certain online bank.

So I called that bank today asking if anyone else had called them to report this problem. Apparently I was not the first one to call because they brought a lady to the phone who acknowledged I was having Error 21 and asked me if the pop-up I saw said their bank name or if it said Adobe. I replied Adobe. She then told me to do this:

The workaround: when my browser offers me the choice to Open, or Save, or Save As, I am to select Save (not Open and not Save As) and let the PDF save itself to my Downloads folder. I did this and it saved. Then, I went to my Downloads folder, found it there under some generic filename they chose (Estatement.pdf) and I opened it and closed it with no errors. So far, so good. I even had her wait while I moved it to the folder where I wanted it to be, and even renamed it, and it's there and saved with no errors. Opens and closes ok. Yay.

She said it is an Adobe problem and that Adobe is working on it. I asked her how did she know that, was the bank in dialogue with Adobe? She said no, they just went to the Adobe site (probably this thread!) and saw where Adobe said they were working on it! She said it is happening because the file is encrypted. I asked her why then does this work ok for my other bank, surely they encrypt as well. Here's where I should have written down exactly what she said. She said something like the other bank probably used different encryption like SSL (?) but this bank changed away from that because it got hacked. I can't recall what type of encryption she said they used.

Anyway, that workaround worked for me. Hope this helps.

[Guest]

This issue seems to have something to do with images that are in the PDF.

When I create the pdf with 'compressed data is encoded binary', this issue is not raised. By default, this option (in our pdf creator, HP Exstream software) is set to ASCII85 encoding, and apparently this encoding causes problems.

Maybe somebody from adobe is able to explain why? And especially: will this issue get a fix soon? Because of all documents that were created in the past, the new version of Adobe Reader is not backwards compatible...

[Origin_Micro]

How will we know when the fix is available, I don't see a way to subscribe to the post for notification.

Our documents that we are experiencing the problem with are attachments to an email from an insurance company.  They are using info Print Fax Manager.  We look forward to a solution because we cannot seem to find a workaround that works for us.

[bryans88137497]

Same problem...Our IBM Unix system uses a program called VSIFax (Esker) to create PDF documents such as invoices.  Users that have updated to Acrobat version 11.0.10 can open the PDF but then when trying to save the document the get a message "This document could not be saved.  There was a problem reading this document (21)."  The problem is only occuring with updated version 11.0.10 (11.0.9 works fine).

[dianar73892616]

Same thing happening here.....any thoughts?  Any effective responses?

[Origin_Micro]

We have the same problem as well.  One of our insurance companies sends coverage limits from info Print Fax Manager.  We never had this problem before, don't understand why all of a sudden in March we cannot save these documents to the customers file on our server.

  Can't attach the screen shots of the error messages we saved to word doc here. 

[Trin2014 · Accepted solution]

I received an email with a pdf document attached.  Had all the same issues as listed in this thread.  Error (21), Insufficient data for an image", Save As created a document without nothing in it. I tried saving to my downloads folder, but had same issues even when I moved the file from downloads folder to final location and manually changed the name of the file.  SOLUTION:  save the file directly from the email to the desktop.  Then move that file to where I wanted to store it on my computer and manually change the name.  Now, when I open the document I see all the information in the document. 

[jesusp44347377]

Trin2014‌ this didn't work for me.

[Guest]

same issues here and I have the DC reader installed so it is the latest and greatest 

[kimd8562049]

If like me you are just trying to save comments, you can save them to a separate file: Comment -> Options -> Export to Data files.  It will make a separate .fdf file with your comments. Then close the pdf file without saving.  When you open it next, go to Comment -> Options -> Import Data file and choose the .fdf file. 

[Guest]

More information about this issue can be found here:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1672655

A "quick" fix that worked for me was to uninstall Adobe... then download the base install for Adobe Reader 11.0.

Then download each of the individual updates and run them sequentially. 

I've installed back up to the last security update which is version 08 and have been able to do normal Save As operations.

You will have to disable automatic updates in order to stay at version 08 until Adobe resolves this issue in a later release.

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=10&platform=Windows

Adobe Reader 11.0 - Multilingual (MUI) installer    AdbeRdr11000_mui_Std

Adobe Reader 11.0.01 update - Multilingual (MUI) installer    AdbeRdrUpd11001_MUI.msp

Adobe Reader 11.0.02 update - All languages    AdbeRdrSecUpd11002.msp

Adobe Reader 11.0.03 update - Multilingual (MUI) installer    AdbeRdrUpd11003_MUI.msp

Adobe Reader 11.0.04 update - Multilingual (MUI) installer    AdbeRdrUpd11004_MUI.msp

Adobe Reader 11.0.05 security update - All languages    AdbeRdrSecUpd11005.msp

Adobe Reader 11.0.06 update - Multilingual (MUI) installer    AdbeRdrUpd11006_MUI.msp

Adobe Reader 11.0.07 update - Multilingual (MUI) installer    AdbeRdrUpd11007_MUI.msp

Adobe Reader 11.0.08 security update - All languages    AdbeRdrSecUpd11008.msp

[c-3pjoe]

Set the "Zoom" to 1% and try to save it again.

If you have Adobe Acrobat then go to Tools>Protection>Remove Hidden Information. Remove all the information, set the "Zoom" to 1% and try to save again.

[Teri2971470026dr]

I had the same error message on a document I created in Adobe Acrobat 2016.  I wound up exporting the document to a Word document and then saving as a PDF.

[DaveSawyer]

I had the same problem, I downloaded a PDF with a password. Properties show it as PDF 1.7 produced by Acrobat Distiller 23.0 Windows, 256-bit AES document encryption, I tried to remove the password (Security Settings, Change Settings, unclick Require for Open) and save it, but got "There was a problem reading the document (21)" on attempting to save. I did a slightly different attempt that worked. From Security Settings selected "No security" from the dropdown (Security Method) instead of change settings popup. Then it saved fine. But I lost the password requirement for editing and/or encrypting contents.