Users unable to open PDF's after recent Adobe Reader DC update 18.009.20044

[amos5]

I work in IT support and have had a number of users complaining over the last 4 days that they are unable to open PDF's using Reader, this seems to be when they open an email attachment that causes the most issues, the file never opens and eventually they receive an unable to connect to DDE server message box in the background

If I look at the processes running on their PC, there are multiple instances of Adobe reader running, if I kill these off it will either let me open 1 attachment or it will look like it is going to open but their is just a blank white page, if I try to open another attachment it does not open at all until I kill off any adobe reader processes.

The only way I have found to resolve the issue is to uninstall and install an older version of reader.

This has happened on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 machines running Outlook 2013 and 2016. Users have commented this started happening after Adobe reader ran an update.

I have checked the registry and all users have had AcroViewR18 set in the registry: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\acrobat\shell\open\ddeexec\application

Please advise

[marks46809717]

Having the same issue with several of our client. The common factor I'm seeing with the particular PDFs is that they are generated using the same application/engine/api:

[gianthead74]

Here is more info

Re: Blank PDF then hang on exit

[AshuMittal]

Hi all,

Sorry for the inconvenience.

We are aware of this issue and the fix is currently undergoing internal validations. We will confirm once the patch is available for general public.

Thanks for your patience,

-ashu

[AshuMittal · Accepted solution]

Hi all,

Adobe Acrobat and Reader official update containing the fix for this issue is now available. This update will be automatically pushed to all existing installations of Acrobat and Reader. If you want, you may also manually trigger the update by opening the application and going to Help > Check for Updates.

More information about this release is here: Acrobat Help | Release notes | Acrobat DC and Acrobat Reader DC | Update

Please try it out and let us know your feedback.

Thanks for your patience and support!

-ashu

[marks46809717]

No issues being reported by our clients after the update, (all Windows-based , desktop and Terminal server users).

So far so good!

[AshuMittal]

Great news!

Thanks for confirming marks46809717​.

-ashu