Skip to main content
I
icecream2times
New Participant
November 14, 2009
Question

Can't open a pdf file: there was an error opening this document access denied

  • November 14, 2009
  • 24 replies
  • 246262 views

Could anyone help in this problem I am facing. I have scanned documents as PDF and they opened nicely but after I renamed the files I am not able to open them. I get the message 'There was an error opening this document. Access denied'. When I try to copy/paste the document I also get the message 'cannot copy accounting 3: access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and the file is not currently in use'. I resterated Windows but still get same message although new files I scan open nicely even if I rename and/or copy/paste. Thank you

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    24 replies

    T
    Trina True
    New Participant
    August 22, 2016

    I also had this difficulty. I found that if I forward the email containing the attachment to an email on my phone, it will open. I then send it back to my PC and voila, it will open.

    kathrynu29201281
    kathrynu29201281
    New Participant
    July 25, 2016

    In order to open up my pdf documents on my PC I had to download the documents onto a flash drive and install them in my laptop.   The documents open immediately on the laptop.   Then I downloaded the documents that I placed in my laptop onto a flash drive and used it to open up the documents in the PC.  All the documents I had the problem with were all documents that I had previously scanned into the PC.   Wish there was an easier fix. 

    J
    jstockco
    New Participant
    September 21, 2015

    The length of the combined path and file name may be too long.  Try shortening the file name so it and the path do not exceed a total of 230 characters.  I've run into the same error several times and shortening the file name has always resolved it.

    C
    cherrys63621929
    New Participant
    September 17, 2015

    ‌anyone here experience error in opening pdf that only has 447 kb while in fact im currently using adobe version higher than 10..can u please help me guys, i badly need the form

    S
    stephenk42878409
    New Participant
    September 18, 2015

    This was happening to me because the file path was too long, regardless of the file size, and in Adobe XI.

    I would suggest moving the file to somewhere with a shorter file path or making the filename shorter and trying to open it again.

    jinkywilliams
    jinkywilliams
    New Participant
    September 10, 2015

    I just ran into this issue with a customer (attempting to open only specific PDFs resulted in "There was an error opening this document. Access denied."). What ended up being the issue was the file name size. Between the file path and the file name, it had just gone over the amount of characters Windows could handle, and to quote Jonesy ("Hunt for Red October"),

    "it kind of runs home to mama".

    We decreased the length of the filename, and that resolved the issue for each PDF which had formerly been inaccessible.

    I doubt this will be the case for all instances of this issue, but it's what resolved things for us.

    S
    stephenk42878409
    New Participant
    August 25, 2015

    I know this is an old post but just in case, like me, anyone is still having this problem, I have just discovered that this error message is displayed if the file path is greater than 256 characters. This is happening in Adobe Reader XI so is still a current problem.

    Rename the file or folders to reduce the path size and the file will open fine.

    Hope that helps someone,

    Stephen

    K
    kylf78968367
    New Participant
    June 27, 2015

    If you are unable to read the PDF content and you are getting an error option as access denied. This error is shown when the pdf has been protected by password.So you need to crack the password to read the pdf file. This password can be cracked by using PDF Password Recovery for Mac. This is a very helpful tool by which you can crack both the user password and owner password that is set on the pdf files.

    P
    Phil_Bart
    New Participant
    February 3, 2012

    I had a problem like that.  This worked for me!

    http://www.longPathTool.com

    Path too long.

    Error cannot delete file: cannot read from source file or disk

    Cannot delete file: Access is denied

    There has been a sharing violation.

    Cannot delete file or folder The file name you specified

    is not valid or too long. Specify a different file name.

    The source or destination file may be in use.

    The file is in use by another program or user.

    Error Deleting File or Folder

    Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

    Path too deep.

    A
    AMSBBH
    New Participant
    July 19, 2012

    We are also having this issue.

    It started recently after we changed permissions on the file servers.  If a user does not have read/write access to the folders above where a PDF file lives, then we get access denied errors when they try to open them....  even though the user does have traverse permissions on the above folders.  We typically use a shortcut or mapped drive to get into the lower folder.

    All our other programs (MS Office, etc.) seem to work fine opening files in this arrangement, but Acrobat Reader 10.1.0 does not.

    We would upgrade to the latest version if there was a 1 shot easy-to-use MSI file for deployment to the latest version, but apparently a full MSI installer is only available for major version releases. (but that is for a different thread!)

      K
      Adobe Employee
      Kshakti
      Adobe Employee
      July 19, 2012

      Hi,

      You just need to Launch Reader 10.1.0 ->  go to help and press check for updates. Reader will update to the latest version.

      Thanks,

      Shakti

        M
        mbrownnyc11
        New Participant
        December 13, 2011

        It appears that instead of adjusting any write permissions, I was also able to solve this problem by allowing the user Traverse/Execute and List folder contents NTFS permissions to the first folder off the root of the share.

        If S:\accounting\annual\2010\march\acrobat.pdf if the file, I gave traverse + list NTFS permissions to s:\accounting\, and the user was able to do it.

        You can turn off protected mode via the registry:

        HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\10.0\Privileged\ REG_DWORD: bProtectedMode = 0

        M
        mistervibe
        New Participant
        November 16, 2011

        There is absolutely nothing special going

        Server=SBS 2003

        Client=XP SP3

        Share=Nothing special and domain users have full rights

        It couldn't be more cut and dry.

        K
        Adobe Employee
        Kshakti
        Adobe Employee
        November 17, 2011

        Hi,

        Thanks for the information.

        Is it possible for your client that he/she can try to reproduce the issue with another netwrok share on any other server other than SBS2003.

        I am not able to reproduce the issue with any other server edition of Windows Server 2003 at my end. If the issue is reproducible for other servers also for your cleint then we can be sure that it is not specific to any server.

        Thanks,

        Shakti

        T
        taz2000
        New Participant
        December 6, 2011

        This has started happening to use in the last couple of weeks. Turning off protected mode does solve the problem.

        The files are stored on a Netgear ReadyNAS and are being access from a Windows 2008 server. Adobe Reader version is 10.1.1.

        The file will open fine by manually browsing to the file and double clicking it. However, when I try to open the file using the VB code "Call ShellExecute(0, "open", strPDFName, vbNullString, vbNullString, 2)" I get access denied.

        The above code does work fine if I turn off protected mode.

        Show more replies
        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
        Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices