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Anonymous
October 31, 2011
Answered

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

  • October 31, 2011
  • 22 replies
  • 456672 views

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.

    Correct answer Redmundial80
    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

    22 replies

    Show previous replies
    C
    Chilly52
    New Participant
    August 28, 2020

    I have the newest version of Acrobat Pro DC, I followed the steps above but I am still unable to search for test. The document is 365 pages, does anyone have any suggestions on why?

    P
    Peg5ED1
    New Participant
    August 14, 2020

    Might want to add that you need to close the file and reopen it.  Otherwise it doesn't work right away.  

    R
    RebeccaA48
    New Participant
    October 5, 2020

    I followed your suggestion, but it did not work either.  Would uninstalling & reinstalling Adobe work?

    D
    djkrys
    New Participant
    July 8, 2020

    It appears Adobe is absolutely rubbish at doing the one thing it's supposed to do.  I too have just discovered I have a pdf manual that I cannot search.  The document contains text but it is not in any format that can be understood - for example if I copy the word "Control" from the document, this is the result ".-20.+", I understand if the text has been compressed for the web, however, if only the program could then decode it back when loaded wouldn't that be an amazing idea. What a shame that they haven't bothered.  I have a document, I can read it page by page, I can select all the text but if I paste it into anything other program it is gibberish so they may have just as well sent me a jpg and have done with it.  What is the point of Adobe Acrobat Reader if it can't undertand it's own compression.

    C
    Clarice Qiu
    New Participant
    May 22, 2020

    You can print the document as pdf. Then transfer the digitally printed pdf document into word. Then use the word document for searching. #hack

      C
      Cesare5E34
      New Participant
      January 26, 2021

      Yes, it worked.

      In my case, I only converted the document into word and searched on it, but...

      Really strange things happen in the world. I think it is because of Covid 19, isn't it?

      S
      SSUMMERS27
      New Participant
      October 8, 2019

      I am having same issue when searching drawings. 

       

      I was advised the following:

       

      "The only thing that gets locked is the viewport. None of our layers our locked.

      For our tags, they are annotative blocks that get edited per instance."

       

      Can someone explain how to fix this please?

       

      Thank you!

      G
      georgehifi
      New Participant
      November 23, 2019

      This is also happening to me, I cannot use word search, it come up with "no matches were found.

      This is the PDF I'm looking at and trying to search. 

      https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=10469042&IDKey=8145247719B0%0D%0A&HomeUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO1%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526d%3DPALL%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsrchnum.htm%2526r%3D1%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526s1%3D10469042.PN.%2526OS%3DPN%2F10469042%2526RS%3DPN%2F10469042

       

       

       

      A
      AlanBountham
      New Participant
      May 6, 2020

      I tried the edit - preferences - purge cache and it did not work.

      I eventually got it to work by clicking the EDIT PDF tab, and it made the document "editable".

      after that, the search function worked. 

      if its a big document, go to settings and click "make all pages editable", and i'll run thru all the pages.

      im using adobe acrobat pro 2017.

        B
        billdakelski
        New Participant
        August 7, 2018

        this did not work for me, it only happens in some docs and not others

        AnandSri
        Community Manager
        AnandSriCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        August 7, 2018

        Hello Billdakelski,

        We're sorry for the trouble you had with Adobe Reade. Does these PDFs contain images only or text as well? Are those scanned PDF?

        If after trying the suggestions above, you are still experiencing the issue, try repairing Adobe Reader once from help>repair installation(only for Windows), reboot the machine after repair.

        Make sure that you have the latest version of Adobe Reader installed, check for any pending updates from help>check for updates. Reboot the machine after installing any updates.

        If it is specific to one PDF, Is it possible to share the PDF file with us so that we can test it at our end? To share the file, please use Adobe Send feature, login to https://cloud.acrobat.com/send using your Adobe ID(email) and password, upload the file, share the link to files via private message only, How Do I Send Private Message

        What is the dot version of Adobe Reader installed? To identify refer to Identify the product and its version for Acrobat and Reader DC

        Is it a Mac or Windows machine and what is the version of OS installed?

        Let us know how it goes and share your observation.

        Thanks,

        Anand Sri.

        shalinis38966990
        shalinis38966990
        Participating Frequently
        July 11, 2016

        I am trying to attached the file/image, ...here you go.

        D
        defaulto5c0g28itq6b
        New Participant
        January 31, 2021

        Hi,

         

        I saw your thread and think I found a fix for your pdf search issue. Nothing worked for me either. 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 🙂

        shalinis38966990
        shalinis38966990
        Participating Frequently
        July 11, 2016

        I cannot select or highlight it.  Which I was able to do earlier.  Somehow I cannot do anything on Adobe.

          J
          JayPP
          New Participant
          May 15, 2020

          I have Adobe Reader DC version 2020.009.20063 and tried two or three recommended ways to solve this by going to the registry... did not work.  I solved my failure to search problem simply by going to EDIT, PREFERENCES, SEARCH and de-selected "ENABLE FAST FIND."  Now I can search my 571 page document with ease.  Prior to this discovery, when I tried to search, I got an "exception processing message 0xc000007b" message.

          A
          Anonymous
          May 21, 2020

          Thanks a lot for the help. I've been looking for a solution for a long time and the only tip that worked was yours!

          shalinis38966990
          shalinis38966990
          Participating Frequently
          July 11, 2016

          Adobe acrobat reader DC Release Version 2015.010.20056

          R
          Redmundial80Correct answer
          New Participant
          June 10, 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
            shalinis38966990
            shalinis38966990
            Participating Frequently
            July 11, 2016

            I cannot search since I have Windows 10.  Please help.

            try67
            try67
            Adobe Expert
            July 11, 2016

            I submitted the screenshot on forum. It went to OssieMac. Can you see as

            well?


            This file is composed of images (probably scanned ones). As such you can't copy or search the text in it.

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