"A drawing error occurred" Error

This error is still occurring in 2022 with Adobe Reader DC 22.002.20191.

The only fix that works for us is to restart Adobe Reader (which suggests that the problem is not with a given file, but with the application), and then one will get a day or two of correct operation before the problem recurs with a random file.

This issue seems to be associated with printing errors where Adobe will report it is unable to print the file, yet it sends the correct number of blank pages to the printer.

Another fix is to use a non-Adobe application to open the pdf. This solves both the rendering and printing issue.

I've been using Adobe acrobat DC (which I pay $15.00/month) for over a year now and all of a sudden I can't use it.  Any pdf I try to open (from other sources and PDFs I have created) just crashes the whole program.  I get a drawing error and then it shuts down.  I spent 5 hours yesterday going through troubleshooting I found online and NOTHING works.  I've uninstalled and reinstalled.  Im not tech savvy but I can read and follow directions.  Since I can't spend another 5 hours wasted on this issue I guess I'm just going to have to cxl my subscription and figure out something else.  This is ridiculous.  I have a simple windows computer that is maybe 2-3 yrs old and I don't do much on it except create and access word, excel, and pdf documents.  

I am getting this exact thing happening since last Thrusday, 1.21.21.  I have checked for updates, but found none, tried the work around and it does work partially.  Is there any fixes that I cannot find?

These drawing error messages are generated due to the document representing an image. A work around for these pdf's is to select the print icon. Select "Advanced" to the right of the "Printer" and "Properties", and then select the "Print As Image" option, then choose "OK". Document will then print without the "A drawing error occurred" message.

Here are some observations and potential work-arounds (I say 'potential' because while our initial results have been good, who knows if the error will come back later).

Observations:

1) this problem seems to primarily impact PDFs with larger images (scanned or otherwise)

2) this problem seems to occur more frequently in the Adobe Internet Explorer Add-in

3) this problem seems to occur more frequently in the 32 bit version of Internet Explorer

4) this problem seems to occur more frequently if the user account is a Standard User (not administrative)

We ran Procmon against the Adobe Reader IE Add-on and saw the following:

-An Adobe based executable called RdrCEF.exe ("C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroCEF\RdrCEF.exe") attempts to write files to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\WebResources\Resource0" and seems unable to do so when user is Standard User. These RdrCEF.exe write errors disappear when running as administrator.

Potential Workarounds:

-We think that we are seeing a decrease in the "low memory" and "drawing" errors when running the 64bit version in Internet Explorer.

-Although this is not viable for our environment, we suspect that running Internet Explorer as administrator would yield positive results

-Disabling the Adobe IE Add-in also seems to showing positive results in our test group (this solution has had the best impact so far)

I am having the same issue with the drawing error and unable to open pdf's in acrobat reader dc 18.011.20063.

I have checked for updates, but do not need them.  I downloaded the patch from your website to no avail.

The pdf's are created on Corel Draw X8. Other pdf viewers open the files without any problem.

I had no problems prior to the latest version of acrobat reader.

How can this be solved as I am trying to send out Church newsletters to many people who cannot use adobe for this.

Good Day

I've recently had a similar problem, black box instead of a mouse cursor and unable to open any pdf files due to "A drawing error occured".

What helped me is deleting the DC folder in C:\Users\*yourusername*\AppData\Local\Adobe\Acrobat and letting adobe reader rebuild it.

I did try just deleting  IconCacheRdr.dat

but that didnt work.

Just posting this in case someone else comes across this issue.

Windows 10 build 17134

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC File Version : 18.011.20058.33888

We're also seeing the same thing at an enterprise level.  Running newest version of reader, but seeing Memory error and drawing error.  Machines impacted are all Windows 10 1803. We have 1703's and 1709's that are functioning perfectly.  Error happens with extreme frequency across multiple machines.

Please advise.

I also have trouble open my scanned file in DC. is it possible that it is because our pdf files somehow get corrupted???

Hello,

We had this issue today also (after rolling out to the latest version of Reader DC). We use Equitrac for print job release and the issue was occurring with scan to PDF.

After some testing, we determined that PDF files could be opened in the latest version of Reader DC 2018 if we:

1) Turned off OCR

2) Turned off compression

3) Forced PDF scan to b & w (not extensively tested)

We did not want to disable OCR so opted to temporarily disable compression until a new DC 2018 update is available which resolves the issue. Uninstalling DC 2018 and reinstalling DC 2017 was an option internally, but less so for various external stakeholders that we deal with. We have confirmed that the non-compressed PDF files were opening successfully by the same external clients that had issues opening the compressed PDFs.

Hope that helps someone else!

Dan