PDF Embeds in Excel document cause Adobe Reader to Hang

[Philip Love]

Hi,

I have a particular Excel document that hangs when opening the PDFs that are embedded in it, this has been occurring since the start of last week and has gone from one user to five being affected. This lead me to believe it was related to the latest updated, when using a version of Adobe Reader v22 there are no issues at all. However on the latest version, the application Acrobat Reader will hang on 95% of the embeds and not load, and on the remainder it wil say "An error exists on this page, Adobe may not display the page correctly. Please contact the person who created the PDF document to correct the problem." again this spreadsheet works fine with older versions of Acrobat Reader. Other Excel documents that have embeds seem fine, it's only this particular one so I think it is possibly something in the PDFs corporate template that Reader is having the issue with now.

I've tried ensuring that all users were on the latest versions of Office 365 and Adobe Reader. I've performed clean installations of both applications, but have been unable to identify the cause, any help would be appreciated.

[Amal.]

Hi there,

Hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out. I'm sorry to hear you're running into this issue.

From what you've described, it does seem like the problem is tied to that specific Excel document. Since the file works fine in earlier versions of Reader (like v22) and with other Excel files. Would you mind sharing the version of the Acrobat Application and the OS you are using? Go to Help > About Acrobat and make sure its updated to the latest version 25.01.205XX Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once. 

Also, try opening a different embedded PDF file and see if that works.

As you’ve already done some troubleshooting by reinstalling both Office 365 and Acrobat, and ensuring all users are up to date. Here are a few other things you could try next:

1. Test with Protected Mode Off (for troubleshooting and testing only)
Go to  Preferences (Ctrl, Cmd+K) > Security (Enhanced) > Temporarily disable “Enable Protected Mode at startup” and “Enable Enhanced Security” > Click OK and reboot the application. 
Then try opening the embedded PDF again. If it works, the issue might be linked to security restrictions. 
Note: Please turn on the security after testing to avoid any security risks.

2. Try opening the embedded PDF outside Excel:
Right-click one of the embedded PDFs in Excel > Save it locally > Open it directly in Acrobat.
This can help confirm if the problem lies with the embed mechanism or the PDF content itself.

3. Check the source PDFs:If possible, re-export or regenerate one of the embedded PDFs, and check for the issue.

Let us know how it goes.

[Philip Love]

Hi Amal,

Thanks for responding, here are the versions: 

Adobe Acrobat (64-bit) - 25.001.20531

Windows: Win 10 Pro - 10.0.19045.5965

                  Win 11 Pro - 10.0.22631.5472

                  Win 11 Enterprise - 10.0.26100

I've ensured all Windows/Adobe updates were carried out. I've even tried it on a newly imaged device and have the same issue on these versions.

The same process is followed for generating and embedding Purchase orders in three different sets of spreadsheets. Opening Embedded PDFs works in two of them on the latest version.

Your solutions:

1. It did not resolve.

2. Yes you can open it outside of Excel, there is no option when right clicking the PDF to save it locally.

3. Re-exporting the PDF causes the same issue as soon as it is embedded.

As it only affects one of three sets of spreadsheets, the unique factor would be the corporate branding on the Purchase Order being different to the working sets. I wonder if the issue is possibly with fonts or symbols, it's just odd how Acrobat reader only seems to have a problem with them in the latest version.

I appreciate your assistance so far.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Hope you are doing well and thanks for providing the detailed information, we really appreciate the effort you've put into testing across multiple systems and setups.

Since the issue is only affecting one specific set of spreadsheets with embedded PDFs (while the other two work fine), and given that all devices are up to date and you've even tested on freshly imaged systems, it does suggest something specific to the affected PDF files themselves.

Based on what you've described, here are a few things worth considering:

Possible Cause: Fonts/Symbols in Corporate Branding: You're likely on the right track with your suspicion; custom fonts, symbols, or branding elements embedded in the problematic PDFs could be causing compatibility issues. 

Things to try:

1. Open the problematic PDF directly in Acrobat (outside of Excel) and go to document properties (Ctrl,Cmd+D) >  Fonts to check for any non-standard or embedded fonts. If custom fonts are listed, try regenerating the PDF with system fonts only. Also, if you’re using third-party tools or macros to generate these POs, double-check if the export settings differ between the working and non-working sets.

2. Excel Embedded Object Limitations

Excel handles embedded objects through OLE (Object Linking and Embedding), and sometimes certain PDF features (like JavaScript, advanced font embedding, or unusual encoding) don’t interact well with OLE.

Try:

• Embedding a simplified version of the same PO PDF (e.g., with branding temporarily removed) to see if the issue disappears.
• If possible, test embedding the same file using an older version of Acrobat Reader to confirm whether this is a regression introduced in version 25.001.20531.

Additional Steps to Narrow Down:

• Try embedding the problematic PDF as an icon instead of directly as a preview in Excel to see if access behaves differently.
  To embed a PDF as an icon in Excel, navigate to the Insert tab, click Object, select Create from File, browse to find your PDF, then check the Display as icon box before clicking OK. This will insert a clickable icon representing your PDF into the Excel sheet
• If you can share the problematic PDF (with sensitive info redacted), it will help to reproduce and troubleshoot further.

[Philip Love]

Hi Amal,

Thanks again. The fonts on the original PDF were only Arial, Arial Bold, Arial Italic, so I've asked the company responsible for the templates to reproduce without the branding hopefully this will help diagnose.

Embedding works fine in V22 of Acrobat Reader which was the version I had to hand, I've not checked more recent versions yet. Apologies, I also should've included that the PDFs were already being embedded as an icon. 

Should we not have any luck with the branding I'll possibly share a redacted version of one of the PDFs. However I'm potentially using the situation to encourage a change in how they work, as based on the information you've provided and that also that I've found, OLE is potentially susceptible to issues such as this, and could reoccur in future.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Thanks for the update.

It’s good to know the fonts used were just Arial, Arial Bold, and Arial Italic. Asking the company to remove the branding sounds like a good move, that might help find out what’s causing the problem.

Great to hear that embedding works fine in Acrobat Reader V22. No worries if you haven’t tested newer versions yet.

If removing the branding doesn’t solve it, sharing a redacted version of the PDF could be useful. And yes, you're right , OLE can sometimes cause these kinds of issues, so switching to a different method might help avoid problems in the future.

Thanks again for sharing all this info. Hope it gets sorted soon.

[JR Boulay]

[MOVED TO THE ACROBAT READER DISCUSSIONS]