unable to print PDF's from the terminal server

Report · Mar 10, 2016

Hi Guys,

We have a terminal server that is only being used by two users for the next couple weeks however both of them are having issues usually not at the same time but has happened where they are not being able to print PDF's but are able to print word docs etc.

When this happens the green tick on the default printer has also disappeared but when right clicking on that printer we are able to tell it is set to the default.

We have tried updating the drivers, uninstalling Adobe Reader and reinstalling, restarting print spooler and a few other things but the only resolution is actually restarting the server which cannot be done every time and I need to resolve this before everyone migrates from the old server.

I am not sure how to proceed and would love some help, is this a Server issue or Adobe Reader issue?

Report · Jan 23, 2018

Hej Daniel

In Danish:

Ja, du har med stor sandsynlighed ret, MEN min begrundelse for at det kan være noget MS relateret, var at jeg prøvede diverse andre PDF readere: Foxit, SumatraPDF m.f.. De havde alle lignende problemer i vores setup Det var et helt nyt miljø ved en kunde, så nye servere og ny installation. Jeg tænker måske noget med printer driver type 3/type 4 og evt. tilhørende modes, men fik aldrig "rodet" med det, da vi skulle videre, og ikke havde uanede ressourcer til at kikke på det

MVH

Kim

Report · Jan 23, 2018

Hej Kim,

Det lyder også træls.

I kan åbne PDF'erne via Google chrome som en nødløsning, evt. installere google chrome extension for at kunne printe via Chrome, hvis jeg ikke husker helt forkert.

Synes bare det er mærkeligt det kommer sådan pludseligt, specielt når jeg ikke har opdateret windows i, i hvertfald en måned, og problemet startede ca sidste uge. men jeg kan se vi har fået ADobe reader opdateringer, for det begrænser jeg ikke.

Men kan godt se hvis du har forsøgt med Foxit, sumatra osv, at det godt kunne være et andet problem. Skal vi satse på det er en bug i Adobe, eller skal vi forsøge at troubleshoot ydeligere?

Bruger i ikke en print server, eller har i en terminal server, som har en delt printer?

Report · Jan 30, 2018

In Danish, @moonlye

Hej

Ja, det er noget være rod Vi havde bare en DC der aggerede printserver, selv om servere bør være funktionsbestemte (alt efter hvilken gud man tror på), da kunden så kunne "spare" en server

Man kunne selvfølgelig prøve, at installere printerne direkte på TS'en fra printserveren uden om GPO, det eneste jeg lige kan komme i tanke om man kan prøve ellers.

Jeg tror på det er noget GPO/Printer bestemt ved MS, da som sagt jeg syntes andre PDF reader produkter udviste lignende "opførsel". Ved dog ikke om det er ændret, da det er noget tid siden jeg har rodet med det. Kan være der er fixet noget, men hvis andre har problemet stadig, frygter jeg at problemet stadig er der. Kunne minde lidt om de klassiske problemer der er ved drev GPO'er (update/replace) Måske der kan være noget med et gpo refresh interval eller noget i den dur?

MVH

Kim

Report · Jan 23, 2018

Hej Daniel

In Danish:

Nu kører vi almindelig "rent" Windows miljø, ikke Citrix. Jeg installerede printerene som domain admin på terminal serverne, så alle havde adgang til dem - Det er så trælst hvis du er i stort miljø Ved den kunde jeg gjorde det ved var der kun ca 20 brugere, og 4-6 printere - Så det var ikke så slemt, og man kunne leve med, at alle kunne se alle printere. Det er noget "sjusk", men det var den eneste måde vi kunne få det til at køre på.

Report · Jan 30, 2018

Hejsa,

Vi har samme issues Windows server 2016 RDS setup, med printere der er deployed via GPO.

Alle printere er tilknyttet en printserver.

Alle brugere ingen problemer med at printe fra Word, excel, etc.

Dog kan de ikke printe fra Adobe Acrobat Reader 2017.011.30068 uden først af fjerne den GPO deployede printer for at så tilføje den manuelt igen.

Report · Jan 30, 2018

I am posting here just to add that I also have a Server 2016 Citrix environment with GPO printers and have printers that stop working in Adobe Reader and Acrobat DC. I can print from any other application such as Word, Outlook, a browser, but not PDFs in Adobe Reader. I can print PDFs in Chrome or another application but not Adobe.

I've found that restarting the print spooler on the server, then readding the printers (gpupdate /force) works. It's far easier than rebooting entire servers, but I will also be installing the printers locally as a workaround as I simply cannot deal with this.

Really hope the bug fix is coming soon. At least it's a known issue.

Report · Feb 16, 2018

Hey all

any news from Adobe on this issue?

we have exact same issue.

GPO shared printers with problem printing from adobe reader, all other documents works fine!

it could be really nice if an update very soon could solve this issue

thanks Morten

Report · Feb 17, 2018

Adobe is working on a bug fix for this issue. However, it’s been a few weeks and still no response or timeline as to when this will be fixed.

David Bristow

Information Technology Manager

City of Castlegar

Direct: 250-365-8972

Email: dbristow@castlegar.ca<mailto:dbristow@castlegar.ca>

http://www.castlegar.ca

Join us on Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/pages/City-of-Castlegar/230338926976408?sk=wall>

Follow us on Twitter<http://twitter.com/#!/castlegarcity>

Report · Feb 21, 2018

Hi David

Thanks for the update. Hope they find a solution. I've had some time to reflect on the problem, and was thinking, even if i really don't like it, that maybe its possible to use Microsoft edge as default PDF viewer (yes, I know its limited funktionality, but it could be a workaround for people that just views and prints PDF files). Unfortunately, I know the probability that users will welcome than, could be a bit low But, as mentioned, just an idea

Kind Regards

Kim

Report · Feb 22, 2018

In our environment, I am using "Foxit Reader" as our default pdf viewer/reader. If people need to do tasks that require Adobe Acrobat Pro, then they specifically open pdf documents in Adobe Acrobat Pro, make changes, then re-open the pdf documents in Foxit Reader to print. Yes, it's a workaround but okay for now.

I just emailed the engineer assigned to our case as to Adobe's progress on this issue. I'll post once/if I hear back.

David

Report · Feb 22, 2018

Hello David,

Thank you for the update.

I noticed a new update came out on our Citrix servers. Do you have any idea if that update includes the "fix"? We are still struggling a lot with this. We use Google Chrome as an alternative on normal PDF's, however, it does not work through our Navision. So kind of screwed there.

Best regards

Daniel

Report · Feb 22, 2018

We use Microsoft remote desktop not Citrix. So, unfortunately I don’t know if this will fix your issue or not. It certainly won’t fix our issue.

David Bristow

Information Technology Manager

City of Castlegar

Direct: 250-365-8972

Email: dbristow@castlegar.ca<mailto:dbristow@castlegar.ca>

http://www.castlegar.ca

Join us on Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/pages/City-of-Castlegar/230338926976408?sk=wall>

Follow us on Twitter<http://twitter.com/#!/castlegarcity>

Report · Jun 13, 2018

Have you received any updates from Adobe?

This is affecting both our Windows Server 2012 and 2016 terminal servers. PDF printing stops working but printing out of other applications will still work (such as Microsoft Word). The default printer check box may also disappear out of Devices and Printers. Our temporary solution is to disconnect and reconnect the printers.

All of our servers are using the latest version of Adobe Reader DC 2018.011.20040 .

Report · Jun 14, 2018

Hello itt91808232,

I have not received anything from Adobe, we keep our Adobe up to date, but still experience this with Citrix 2016 terminal servers.

I have told my users that if they experience this, they must change their PDF reader to Google Chrome, and try again the next time they log on. Because we cannot find any patterns in this, I gave up, never met anyone as unserious as Adobe regarding this.

Best regards

Daniel

Report · Jun 25, 2018

We are having the same issue with RDS 2016. We're currently using Foxit as a workaround, but I need more information about this bug. Has anyone seen anything official about it?

I assume there is still no sign of the fix.

Report · Jun 28, 2018

We started to test Foxit Reader on a few of our 2012/2016 terminal servers. So far the test has been going very well. We're considering rolling it out to all servers if Adobe doesn't have a fix sometime soon.

Report · Feb 22, 2018

Hi David

Strange You got FoxIt to Work. We had a similar behavour with that (but, was a long time ago I'm encountered this problem, might be a new version of FoxIt Works). We tried at that time a range of PDF viewers (FoxIt, Sumatra and PDC Complete), but had as mentioned similar problems, but maybe the other Guys found a fix to the problem

Thanks for the Update, looking forward to what Adobe Engineers have to say.

Kind Regards

Kim

Report · Feb 19, 2018

We have same issue . Widows 2016 TS , printer sever is 2016 too . then it happens , I have to restart print spooler and it would be fine for about one day !! sometimes I restart the server midnight and I will not have the problem next day !!

looking for an update from Adobe !

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Hi,

are there any News to this?

we have the same Problem on our RDS-Farm (Server 2016) Printing over a Printserver (Server 2016). Most time printing from Acrobat Reader works fine, but sometimes for one or more random Users printing from Acrobat Reader stops working. When thi happens, the print progress Window doesn't show up anymore. After restarting the Print-Spooler and/or reconnecting the Printer or simply wait till next day the Problem disappears.

Kind Regards

Oliver

Report · Apr 18, 2018

Based on tests performed on a Windows 2012 R2 Remote Desktop Server, the PDF print failure on terminal servers problem seems to be related to Acrobat's security features, specifically the Sandbox Protections.

To test the situation for yourself, open Acrobat, click Edit / Preferences / Security (Enhanced) and clear the check box under "Sandbox Protections" labeled Enable Protected Mode at startup. Click Yes to the warning message, then OK to accept the changes. Restart Acrobat and then try to print your document. I found I was able to print any and all PDF documents, almost none of which was able to print previously.

BIG CAVEAT! I do not recommend this workaround for production environments because of seriously diminished Acrobat security, but you can best assess the risk within your own network. The problem is the result of a bug that Adobe needs to fix, the sooner the better.

Test environment: Windows Server 2012 R2 with Remote Desktop Services installed, Adobe Acrobat Reader v2018.011.20038, Word and Excel 2010; several different models of HP laser printers with printer specific drivers installed, Konica Minolta copiers with universal drivers installed, Cute PDF Writer

Also tested: Adobe Acrobat Reader updates, Acrobat Reader Repair Installation, designating servers as trusted hosts, both within Windows and within Acrobat Reader, designating specific folders and files as trusted, disabling Enhanced Security - none of these steps, alone or in combination, resolved the failure to print issue.

Report · Apr 19, 2018

Hello Thomas,

I would've never guessed it could related to something like that lol.

I will test it out, It works on some of our Citrix servers, but not all.

My setup is currently Windows 2016 Remote desktop, with Citrix XenApp. Mostly HP printers all over. Using the Generic drivers.

We have too many different types, and had a lot of driver issues when using specific on all of them.

Let me just test out your suggestion regarding the Sandbox protection and get back to you soonest.

Best regards

Daniel Jean Schmidt

Report · Apr 24, 2018

Hi,

yesterday i had another User with that issue, so i've tested the "Protected mode workaround" discribed by Thomas and printing function instantly worked (no Reboot / Loggoff or what so ever).

But, as Thomas mentioned, this is not realy a solution for production systems.

Currently i'm looking whats different between out Clients and the Terminalserver Systems. I dont undestand why it's only happening on RDS Servers.

The two Major differnces from our RD Farm to the Fat-Clients are:

- Antivirus Exclusions

- AppLocker enabled (on the RD Systems)

Had anbody tested somthing related to this two sections before?

@Thomas

You've written

The problem is the result of a bug that Adobe needs to fix

Is that offical? I didn't found any infos right now where Adobe acknowledes that this is a bug.

@Adobe

It's quite frustrating that there is no Info from Adobe about that Issue.

I found many Threads about that Topic but no so solution and almost no comments from Adobe on that.

Kind Regards,

Oliver

Report · Apr 25, 2018

Hi Oliver,

I had mixed results. When a user has the issue, if they log off, and get on another Citrix server, it might work, it might not. There is no logic to it. 😕

Anyway, I had a user with the issue, I tried to disable it. I got the box back, showing it was gonna print, thats already 1 step further, but I got an error instead saying the Document could not be printed. anyway, I might believe it could be something else, so I'm gonna try again the next time I get the same PDF problem.

I'm currently investigating if there is a GPO to disable sandbox protection. Should I report back my findings?

Report · Apr 26, 2018

Hi MoonlyDK,

we have exactly the same beahviour. The Problem appears and disappears randomly. We can't nail it down to a specific User / SessionHost.

Found the following blog entry. Problem seems to be older than i thougt:

http://activedirectoryfaq.com/2014/04/problem-acrobat-reader-protected-mode-terminal-server/

Infos on GPO and sanbox protection are most welcome.

Report · May 24, 2018

Hi OK1982,

Thanks for the link.

I experienced that, If a user has this problem, and I disable the "Enable Protected mode at startup" the box appears again, as it wants to print, but it then gets an error saying it cannot print.

I will try and keep investigating. Still a big hassle for us.

Best regards

Daniel