Grey Screen in IE 11 after newest DC update

[RXRD]

After the newest Adobe Reader DC update Version 2015.020.20039, my users keep getting a grey screen when opening a PDF in the browser. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the product and it still happens. The only way around is to uninstall and download an older version of Reader.  Is anyone else getting this issue? I keep getting calls from more and more users and when I check, sure enough Adobe Reader was just updated. I need this resolved as soon as possible. It worked just find before the update. Thanks!

[Swenny27]

I had a Windows 7 machine do this again (Sue is her name)

Info about KB3194798 is here.  It contains multiple other KBs FYI but it is only for Windows 10

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3194798

Here's a semi-blurry image of the most recent Windows Update from this PC for reference

[Swenny27]

Something else that may be helpful.  After I add them to Trusted Sites, it seems to prompt them to log in again.  Like the cookie is expiring or something after I add the website to trusted sites

[Guest]

Swenny,

  We're not seeing that at all for any of our customers.

Julian

[JamesAPW]

We have confirmed that the key to this issue is found in Preferences > Page Display > Show Large Images.

We have a web app that has many PDF files our users open.  If the Show Large Images is checked, they do not have a problem.  If it is not checked, certain PDFs do not display.  I say certain because the ones that do open are small PDF files (<50k).  The PDFs that do not are larger (>400K).  We have yet to determine where Adobe has set the cutoff point.  I'd like to know what their reasoning for this feature is.

[Guest]

I'm not sure if this is pertinent or helpful, but I wanted to pass it along...

Several of our folks, but not all, are having this same problem.  The only difference I have found so far is the O/S.  32-bit versions of Win7 appear to be impacted, but 64-bit versions are not.  (Just a theory at this point.)

[rockp45884114]

We have numerous employees with the same problem, so far what we narrow employees still with Windows 7 are OK, but those with 8.1 and 10 having intermittent issue with the PDF opening.

This is going on for a week now.

Any solution so far from Adobe ?

Rock

[adminr99999368]

Our issue is only Windows 7 machines so far and are all 64-bit.

[rockp45884114]

Hello ???... anyone on board ?

[Swenny27]

I believe they are based in India and probably will not respond until early tomorrow morning

[rockp45884114]

I have a hard time to believe Adobe provide support to world based on India time zone ????

[ITRedVision]

Update time:

My company has been working with Adobe tech support directly (via phone calls and screen shares). We think we've identified a fix which will hopefully be pushed out via an Adobe update in the near future. I imagine they have to thoroughly test the update in their testing environment first before they can do a global update so no telling when that'll happen exactly, but know that they are working on it actively (with help from myself and others), and are narrowing down the fix.

For now, I've stated our users are able to work just fine by disabling the Adobe PDF Reader add-on in Internet Explorer, using an alternative browser such as FireFox, or adding the website with the issue to the "Trusted Site" list in Internet Explorer's security settings. Those are just workarounds until a permanent fix can be released.

[Swenny27]

Am I correct that this is going to be an emergency patch of some sort and not just something that is going to be included in a normal update 3 months from now?  Still taking 40-50 calls per day about this

[AshuMittal]

Hi Swenny27​

Yes, we will be addressing this in an out-of-band update soon. Engineering is working on a fix on top priority. We'll share more details as soon as available.

Thanks,

-ashu

[Guest]

Hi,

The following (manual) workaround could be used to unblock critical workflow stuck due to the grey screen issue. It's a plain workaround, we do not recommend doing this manual modifications of registry entries as any mistake there could lead to product issues.

Please note: Official fix/update to be coming pretty soon that would not require any manual intervention of playing around with registry entries.

[Guest]

If this is meant to be a solution then it's no good for us.  We are unable to reproduce the problem ourselves so we can't check if this works ourselves.

Also our customers who use our systems range from corporations down to individuals working from home with next to no computing knowledge.  We are not going to advise the latter to edit the Windows registry as a solution, it is far too risky.

[JainAjay]

Hi Julian,

What Abhishek suggested is a workaround only for next few days to unblock any critical workflows getting impacted due to grey screen. Official solution that will come will be an update without any need of any manual intervention of manipulating any of registry entries or anything similar.

regards

Aj

[Swenny27]

Any updates for us AJ or Manish?

Thanks!

[JainAjay]

Hi Josh,

The following (manual) workaround could be used to unblock critical workflow stuck due to the grey screen issue. It's a workaround only, we do not recommend doing this manual modifications of registry entries as any mistake there could lead to product issues.

Please note: Official fix/update is coming soon that would not require any manual intervention of playing around with registry entries.

Regards

Aj

[Swenny27]

Sorry, I meant if there was a timeframe for the official update that is forthcoming

[JainAjay]

Can't publish an official date as such to maintain the confidentiality. But be assure, our Quality Engineering team is currently testing the fix. As soon as we go all green, official patch/update would be released.

Regards

Aj

[Swenny27]

Thanks for the prompt response.  We appreciate it

[ITRedVision]

Julian, I suggest you tell your clients to simply disable the Adobe PDF Reader add-on for Internet Explorer, or to use a different web browser for now. Hopefully one or both options are viable for them. Both should be easy to convey in instructions. This is how we are tackling our clients who have the issue, along with relaying that the issue is with the recent Adobe Reader patch and will be addressed in a future Adobe patch that should be released shortly.

As a side note, I can confirm deleting the registry key listed above (EmbeddedPDFFeatTest) does indeed work. Again, that is not a good short or long term solution. Just a confirmation that something about that registry key breaks Adobe Reader. Since Adobe tech support is aware of this and has confirmed it on multiple computers, I imagine they are pushing out the emergency patch as quickly as they can.

[locrian1288]

This solution may not work for everyone. Our office did this before ever finding any information about the issue and we still had the problem occur. It was slightly different though, instead of a grey screen we were left with a blank IE window and the report never returned back. It was still intermittent so we ended up having to uninstall the DC version and go back to version 11 or something like that. It was suggested early on in this thread.

[Guest]

We do have two work arounds that we've got our customers to use successfully.  The first is to revert back to version 11 and the second is to add the website to the trusted sites list in IE.

Our application produces a PDF file of labels which can only be reliably opened using Adobe Reader.  The internal PDF readers in IE and Firefox won't work so for us switching away from Adobe Reader isn't an option.

[JaceF]

Hi, we are having this issue extensively in our environment.
It's intermittent but most effects our document management system. We have run
tests and I have been able to establish that when a PDF is opened using a link
from IE it works sometimes but not others. If I navigate to the document
location and open it directly not via the link the PDF opens correctly.

I’ve tried turning the protected mode off which made no
difference. When I run a process monitor I get an access denied on the read
operation when opening via the IE link, if I close IE and go back to open the
same document it usually opens ok.