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Search function in PDF not working for words in a pdf document

Guest
Oct 31, 2011 Oct 31, 2011

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I am using Adobe Reader Ver 10.1.1 (All updates)

 

I have a pdf document in which I am unable to search for words. No words in the document are found even though they do exist. If I copy a word from within the document and paste it into the search criteria then instead of getting the word that I copied, I get substitute characters and it can in fact find these characters as the word being searched.

 

The document is a catalog and can be downloaded from the following URL.

 

http://www.carbatec.com.au/getcatalogue?zenid=d1cuvbat0ois0g37r0r33vnah1

 

I will appreciate any help as to why I cannot search for words in the document.

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General troubleshooting , Windows

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

New Here , Jun 09, 2013 Jun 09, 2013
  1. Open up PDF file in Adobe Reader
  2. Go to the top menu bar and click Edit then Preferences
  3. When the Preferences box opens, select the Search category on the left
  4. When in the Search category look to the bottom and click on the Purge Cache Contents box/button
  5. Finally Click OK in the bottom right of Preferences and re-attempt search
  6. The PDF should now be fully searchable

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New Here ,
Jan 31, 2021 Jan 31, 2021

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Hi,

 

When I download my eBay orders as "Microsoft print to Pdf". I couldn't search for a keyword. But when I downloaded them as "save as Pdf" this fixed the problem. 

 

So it could be the format you are downloading the pdf in the first place. 

 

Hope that helps 🙂

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New Here ,
May 18, 2021 May 18, 2021

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Alternative solution: I had a PDF that was also failing to find keywords confirmed to be in the document. I had exported a Word document to PDF rather than using the Save as Adobe PDF option. It seems that there is a significant difference when using the export to PDF vs save as functions in Word. Side-note; the save as feature used Adobe Acrobat to generate the file - not sure if that is significant for the final result.

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New Here ,
May 30, 2021 May 30, 2021

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I can't search words within a pdf either. I have windows 10, and pdf files are opened within the microsoft edge browser. I click on the magnifying glass at the top of the pdf and i type in any word, even the word "and" or "the" and nothing is found.

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New Here ,
Sep 17, 2021 Sep 17, 2021

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I had the same issue, I have Adobe Acrobat DC. Normally i would print to PDF in which case i could not search for word that i clearly could see on the document in fornt of me. 

Solution: 

Do NOT "print to PDF"

if on a web page:

1. right click 

2. select print

"save as PDF" and i was then able to search and find the words

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New Here ,
Mar 12, 2022 Mar 12, 2022

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The solution did not work for me.  I am trying to search inside the BSG Player's Guide. I have it downloaded to a PDF and I made sure to open it in Adobe Reader and I made sure I had updated Adobe.  No luck.  According to others here, the issue is that the PDF was created to NOT be searchable?

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New Here ,
Nov 03, 2022 Nov 03, 2022

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Hello,

 

I am expericing this same issue. I cannot serach key words or use my ctrl+f to find a word. The seach box pops up but say "no items found" and will not find the words I am looking for. I have already followed steps to purge cache and it was NOT sucessful. I have adobe acrobat Pro DC 32-bit. It is critical for my work that I can use ctrl+f to serach and find words. Hoping someone can help as soon as possible. There is also a small grey dotted box right at the tip of my cursor in these documents and a few headlines of my doc are highlighted in blue which has never occoured berfore. Please advise. Attached is a picture of when I serach the word mental. That word i sclearly listed in the document. 

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New Here ,
Jan 20, 2023 Jan 20, 2023

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It's January 2023 and Adobe has not fixed this on their end. I have this issue and the steps below did not solve. 

12 years, no fix. That is tech debt. 

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New Here ,
Mar 29, 2023 Mar 29, 2023

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Having the same problem, and it seems to have just started.  Semi-recently upgraded to Windows 11, and don't recall accessing this particular PDF since the changeover, however, needed to (it's a town map on a game I play)... Before, I could Ctrl-F search for a place/name on the map, and it would go through and highlight it, and other instances of it, like you normally do.  I just went to search for something, and it's telling me that it can't find anything, even though what I'm searching for is right in front of me...  I performed the Open PDF in the reader, Edit > Preferences > Search > [Purge cache contents]  & get told  "Some files could not be deleted. They may be in use, or you may not have access rights to delete them."

Went and checked the properties, even made a copy with all possible properties removed, loaded that, and tried again... it still didn't find anything, and still gave me the "Some files could not be deleted." line.

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New Here ,
Mar 29, 2023 Mar 29, 2023

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My search seems to work now ... This is my version of Reader :

[image: image.png]

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New Here ,
Mar 29, 2023 Mar 29, 2023

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Lucky you... and all I see is:

[image: image.png], no actual image...

My version is the latest, it seems version 2023.001.20093 64-bit

since there are no available updates.

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New Here ,
Apr 12, 2023 Apr 12, 2023

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Still having a problem searching the PDF...and so far it seems to be the ONLY PDF that isn't letting me find things within it. Just to be sure, I tried searching for something in another PDF...it found it fine, this is the only PDF I really need to search through, as it's a Game Map, and makes finding routes from point A to point F easy (despite it being outdated.)

I tried the cache clearing, but I keep getting told some files may be in use, or I may not have access rights to delete them, even when I Initially Open Adobe, and haven't loaded a PDF to begin with, it still doesn't allow me to clear the cache. I've even gone through and repaired the Adobe install, trying to reset everything (it seems to have cleared out my browser's cache of opened web pages (blank homescreen with pinned & unpinned "quick pages" ...after repairing adobe install, and closing the Edge program I wasnt opening, computer fully crashed & rebooted, after rebooting, screen of previous webpages is blank save for a few pinned ones> ... Re-opened map pdf, search for something that's directly in front of me "Instructions" ... "searched entire PDF, nothing can be found" ... zoom in on the small text on the PDF:

' If you can read this text, then you’re ready to use the map! Use your ‘Find’ command (Ctrl+F on Windows, Cmd+F in OS X) and then type the exit or room name you’re looking for. Your PDF reader or browser should automatically center upon the results '

Well, apparently not.. it USED to... Adobe Reader version: 64-bit, 23.001.20143.0, freshly downloaded & installed.

Windows version: 11 Home

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