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Ridil28000261xpvn
Inspiring
January 18, 2023
Answered

Select and copy Text very often doesn't work with Adobe Acrobat Reader. What could be the problem?

  • January 18, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 20808 views

I'm on Windows 10 and no matter what i try, no matter how i mark text (doubleclick or left mouse button down + drag + left mouse button up or even menu/edit/select all), most of the times (but sometimes it does work for the same document where it previously didn't, and while it's still open, no close/reopen has been done), copying text (with CTRL+C, with Right-Mouse-Button-Context-Menu + Copy, with the popup-toolbar and its copy icon or with menu/edit/copy) doesn't copy anything to the clipboard.

 

Copying the same marked text from the same document with the chrome pdf plugin always works.

 

I'm testing with the newest Adobe Acrobat Reader (V 2022.003.20310 64-bit).

 

Here's an example file where sometimes copying works and sometimes it doesn't:

https://www.adobe.com/support/products/enterprise/knowledgecenter/media/c4611_sample_explain.pdf

Note that i did click on "enable all features" when the warning about a potentially unsafe document has been shown.

The "Document Properties" show under Tab "Security", Line "Content Copying": Allowed.

 

This is awfully annoying and some friends told me they have the same problem so that i don't think it's just my pc.

 

    Correct answer Ridil28000261xpvn

    Unfortunately not. I'm still having the problem on multiple systems.


    It's also worth pointing out that it's not like Acrobats copying isn't doing anything; when there's already something in the clipboard and i'm copying from acrobat, the clipboard get's cleared, so acrobat is actually doing something, just not enough or the right thing.

    3 replies

    JR Boulay
    Community Expert
    JR BoulayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 13, 2023

    [MOVED TO THE ACROBAT READER DISCUSSIONS]

    Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe
    Amal.
    Community Manager
    Amal.Community Manager
    Community Manager
    January 18, 2023

    Hi @Ridil28000261xpvn 

     

    ++ Adding to the discussion

     

    Would you mind sharing a small video recording of the steps you are doing and the issue you are experiencing?

     

    Also, please collect  the Adobe CC logs https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-log-collector.html  , Procmon logs (Win Only) https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/acromonitor.html  and share them via document cloud as described here https://helpx.adobe.com/document-cloud/help/sharing-pdfs.html  for further investigation.

     


    Regards
    Amal

    R
    Ridil28000261xpvnAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 19, 2023

    Hi Amal

    This is a company pc and i'm not allowed to install those data collectors. Do they show the complete data they're gathering and allow to manually delete some before uploading? Is the upload automatic or is it possible to cancel?

    However, i did a screen recording of the behavior; please find it attached.

    aclmmbell
    aclmmbell
    Participant
    February 23, 2023

    Hi @Ridil28000261xpvn 

     

    I have tried reproducing the issue using the PDF file you shared and its working fine.

     

    Would you mind sharing the logs requested earlier so that we can isolate this issue for the fix.

     

    Also, try updating the application to the new version 22.3.20314 , goto Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

     

    Regards

    Amal

     

     


    Was there any solution to this? I have the same problem - not using Reader, using the latest version of Adobe Acrobat (no updates available) on Windows 11. I can edit the text in the PDF within Acrobat, but when I simply try to copy text from an open PDF nothing works - not the shortcut, not the dropdown menu button, not the right-click context menu. There is no security on the PDFs, they allow copying of content. 

    Can someone help? It is very frustrating - I work with documents with a lot of text and frequently need to copy from PDFs into other formats. 

      Dave__M
      Community Expert
      Dave__MCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 18, 2023

      For what it's worth, I am running Windows 10 & Acrobat Pro DC Pro - and copying text functions as expected on your sample document.  A thought, though, is that the file opened for me (after clicking the link) in a browser, and my browser settings instruct an online PDF to be displayed in Adobe's browser plugin.  When opened in the desktop Acrobat application, it also behaved 'properly'.  Are you trying to copy the text from inside a browser presentation of the PDF?

      Any additional details you can provide might help isolate the issue.  (And I understand that I am not using Reader, but Acrobat - trying to reproduce your issue with the tools at hand.

      My best,

      Dave 

      R
      Ridil28000261xpvnAuthor
      Inspiring
      January 19, 2023

      Hi Dave

      I downloaded the file to a local harddrive and opened it from there with the newest Adobe Acrobat Reader (V 2022.003.20310 64-bit).

      Then i also opened the same downloaded file in the newest chrome for comparison.

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