Pdf file is see through/blank and displays a weird date for the title

Report · Jul 18, 2018

I had a weird glitch in adobe reader XI and wanted to see if anyone had ideas as to what caused it. I had several pdf files open and I am not sure if I had closed them all or not but after being away from my computer at least 20 minutes I had an open pdf file that was named July 16, 2018 (this happened on the 18th and I do not have any files with that name), it said page 1 of 7 but was blank where you could see the screen through it and wouldn't let me do anything. After closing the file no other pdfs were open and this file did not show up in my recently opened files. Everything opened fine after that and I have never had this happen before so it has me a little worried that it could be a sign of a virus (unlikely but never can be to sure). I am thinking an open file got corrupted but can't recreate the event and am not positive that a pdf doc was actually still open but I don't know if adobe could just open on its own like that and create a random file. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this (any help is appreciated)?

Report · Jul 19, 2018

Hello MaryC,

We're sorry for the trouble you had, Adobe Reader is a free software to View, Print, Sign, and Annotate PDF files, it cannot create any PDF file by its own. For detailed information, you can refer to Adobe article Answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.

With your issue description, I will suggest scanning your computer thoroughly using any paid security software to eliminate any chances of any infection.

For Reader, you can repair the installation file of Adobe Reader from help>repair installation, reboot the machine after repairing Adobe Reader.

As you mentioned that the file with blank pages is not listed in the Recent list, then it seems that the file is no longer available on your machine. If you find the file, will request you to scan it using security software, If it's infected and the infection is a self-extracting or self-executing file, it will launch as soon as you open the document.

Recommended action is to delete the file and update the Adobe Reader to the latest patch available from help>check for updates. Reboot the machine after updating Adobe Reader.

Note: Adobe Reader 11 is old and out of support product and the security patches and updates are not available. The recommendation is to install and use the latest version of Adobe Reader DC Adobe - Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Distribution as it has Security and improved functionality and Updates safeguard your system against malicious attacks through PDF files.

Let us know how it goes and share your observation.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.