Very slow attachment of PDF file to e-mail

[d50leslie]

We're starting to see an issue attaching PDF files to an email.  We're using Lotus Notes 8.0.2-FixPack6, and it appears to happen only for users with Adobe Acrobat Reader X installed on their computers.  It takes several minutes to attach even the smallest of PDF files, whereas other types of attachments are unaffected.

So far only two computers are showing the issue, but the only common threads are Lotus and Reader 10.x.

Is there something going on during the attachment process, or a setting that needs adjustment?

[MichaelKazlow]

Believe it or not Reader has very little to do with the attaching of pdf files to the mail program. It passes off the command to the OS which forwards the command to the email program. It could be that you have a virus or other malware slowing the computer down. It could be that you have one or more virus protection programs, which are working but slowing down your machine. There is very little we can do at this end to track down the problem. You could have other programs in the background causing the issue. The first step to determine what is going on is to scan your computer for viruses and other malware to make sure you are running a clean system. If you have no problems in this area, then turn them off temporarily and try to attach a pdf to an email. Does it take any less time?

[wescov]

I'm having the same problem but not just in Outlook.

Reader 9.x works fine however when you install 10.X and use the attach button within either outlook or Sage to upload a PDF the process either take an extremely long time or crashes the machine.

with outlook you can drag the pdf into the email and it's fine :-s

[NYAPitTK]

We are having the same exact issues with some users at my company. We're running Lotus Notes 7.02 (yes I know a little old but we're non profit and upgrades come slowly). I've been trying to work with one user's issue and it appears to be pointed solely at Adobe. The problem is that I can't install a previous version due to the requirements of the users needs. I was able to attach multiple documents of items other than Adobe files. I uninstalled adobe and was able to then attach the files that was previously not able to when they didn't have a program associated with them. It's definitely not a virus. I've also gone ahead and uninstalled and reinstalled Lotus Notes from scratch. This all started happening when our company users all started getting pop ups about protected mode (which is the most annoying thing possible). I've looked into multiple other settings within Adobe and still haven't found an answer. I'll continue trying some things and if I find a solution will post it.

[derekread]

We have the same issue here. The only solution we have found is to remove Adobe Reader 10 and install 9.

Affected applications: anything that creates a link to a PDF file or attaches or embeds a PDF file.

Including: Outlook 2003 and 2007, Excel 2003 and 2007. The various Word functions for linking do not seem to be affected.

The symptom in most applications is that it appears to be frozen. However, after waiting somewhere between 4 and 5 minutes whatever was occuring allows the standard linking or embedding process to finish. When we monitor Task Manager we see no additional processes appearing so we assume this is either a symptom of all these different applications (perhaps they all just happen to share the same flaw which seems unlikely though possible) or perhaps they are calling a standard Windows API that Adobe Reader 10 has altered or broken.

Once the file has been linked to, attached or embedded using one application it appears that repeating the process doesn't always immediately trigger the bad behavior again. So, if you attach a PDF to an Outlook email then try to link to the same file in Word or Excel (or embed it as an "object") then you might not see the issue. Shutting down all software may trigger the issue again and rebooting or restarting Windows will cause the problem to occur.

Note that the size of the PDF document does not seem to matter, though of course if an attachment is being made then the encoding adds some additional time (proportional to file size).

At first when I heard from staff about this issue I had the same feeling as MichaelKazlow, however, clearly Adobe Reader 10 is the trigger causing these issues. In addition to reverting to Adobe Reader 9 we have a few people using other 3rd party PDF readers (without issue).

[fred1965]

I have the same problem between Win XP SP3/Outlook 2003 and reader 10.00.01... does anybody from Adobe have a real solution ?

We're on a "more than 10 000 computers platform", it is impossible to go backward (uninstall Reader X and re-install reader 9).

At least, is Adobe taking care of this issue ? Do we have to install a 3rd party PDF reader ?

Thanks for your help

[kiwicr1]

Same issue here - Outlook Express on Windows server 2003. Suddenly started to take 3-4 minutes to attach a PDF attachment (irrespective of size) to an email. Other documents were fine. Finally realised the change happened when Adobe reader was updated to 10.0.1 Just uninstalled and returned to 9.4 and problem instantly disappeared. 10 is obviously checking something in the background that 9.4 is not. The email is frozen until the attachment is made. You can get to other applications and use them while the attachment is occurring - but the email remains out of bounds until the attachment is made. Hopefully adobe will investigate this. It doesn't always happen but happens over 90% of the time for this user

[fred1965]

I found a way to solve the problem by installing the new Reader in the default directory : C:\Program Files\Adobe...

But before that, I:

1/ launched the desinstallation of the previous version with the command I found in HKLM \ Software \Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall \

2/ deleted manually the regkeys I identified as "important" (HKLM\Software\Adobe\Reader...)

3/ deleted manually the previous Adobe Reader directory (which wasn't C:\Program Files\Adobe,etc...).

I don't know exactly why but it seems that as soon as I ask for an installation in another directory than C:\Program Files\Adobe,... the problem appears and only in that case.

[sparky52t]

I've unfortunately joined the club of slooooow attaching pdfs to Outlook 2003 after installing Acrobat Pro X.

Before I try anything rash, I wanted to understand that it's the reader that's causing the problem and not the full blown Pro X program?

Does Adobe have an official fix for this yet?

[Guest]

I use LN 6.5, XP SP3 and Reader 10.1 and I have problem with slow attaching too:

1. When I use drag&drop PDF to email, all works fine

2. When I use Attach Icon almost always I must wait few minutes to attach pdf (LN sleeps)

3. I see that Reader is used when:

          -open folder with pdf files

          -attach pdf to email

I see that  acrord32.exe is starting with that arguments. Of course that action is not starting when Reader 10 is uninstalled.

ARGUMENTS: /b /id 4004_777 /if pdfshell_sh17bb1ec4-db2f-49b3-9c75-06feea6e9b03
APPLICATION: c:\program files\adobe\reader 10.0\reader\acrord32.exe
ARGUMENTS: --channel=4112.0012fb74.1335818259 --type=renderer /b /id 4004_777 /if pdfshell_sh17bb1ec4-db2f-49b3-9c75-06feea6e9b03
APPLICATION: c:\program files\adobe\reader 10.0\reader\acrord32.exe
ARGUMENTS: /b /id 4004_921 /if pdfshell_sh45b022c5-c26e-436f-9440-3d72fb6d603a
APPLICATION: c:\program files\adobe\reader 10.0\reader\acrord32.exe
ARGUMENTS: --channel=4872.0012fb74.1598259427 --type=renderer /b /id 4004_921 /if pdfshell_sh45b022c5-c26e-436f-9440-3d72fb6d603a
APPLICATION: c:\program files\adobe\reader 10.0\reader\acrord32.exe

The problem occurs not, when on PC  is installed older version of Reader (<10) or isn't installed any reader.

Patch 10.1.1 wasn't fix this problem

[Guest]

Can someone elaborate on the registry changes made to get Adobe X to play well with Email attachments?

I have the same exact issue as everyone else does, where attaching anything else works fine, but once Adobe is upgraded to Reader X, attachments take minutes.

Thanks!

[SonicGT73]

We just upgraded from 9 to 10.1.1 on WinXP SP3 and Outlook 2007

We are seeing this issue not on all pc's but on some, any resolution to it besides downgrading to the old version?

[ByronHuffman]

Under Preferences/Online Services, I disabled "Use Share Pane when sending email attachment" and have had no problems since.

[BSWorkWork]

We got the same Problem here because of the Update from 9.4 to 10.1.

When I attach a PDF to LN 8.5 the process nlnotes.exe opens the pdfshell.dll and LN switches to "not responding" for two minutes.

The funnny part: when i replace the 10.1 activeX-folder with an copy of the 9.4 activeX-folder, everything works fine.

Uninstalling and registrycleaning didn't work and I can't test the solution of ByronHuffman cause the Online Services were deselected in the "Adobe Customisation Wizard".

ANY solution would be great.

[BSWorkWork]

Ha got the solution:

Reg delete “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ColumnHandlers\{F9DB5320-233E-11D1-9F84-707F02C10627}”

this regkey points to the pdfshell.dll which causes every other application that wants attach a pdf to run veeeeeery slow.

delete it and you lose the PDF Info Tab in the properties of a pdf-document but you will gain performance and stability^^

[SgtSarcasm_jsl]

Initial reports from one of my users is that this fixed their issue with downloading .pdf files from emails in Salesforce.  I'll be checking with other users that seem to be afflicted as well.

Thanks

[ajamdeman]

I had the same issue with attaching a PDF-file to an e-mail and the same happens when uploading a PDF-file to IBM Connections. I tried you're solution by deleting the HKCR-reg.key. but this did not solved the problem. I tried the next solution and this resolved my issue:

• Open a commandbox (cmd.exe)  with administrator rights.
• Go to the folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX
• Type regsvr32.exe /u pdfshell.dll (this command will unregister the pdfshell.dll)

You can use Adobe Reader without any problems.

PS.

I wonder why pdfshell.dll creates this issue. If Adobe Reader works normally without it, then why install it.

I discovered that the pdfshell.dll gives you an info tab when you rightclick on a PDF-file, but the info in this tab is empty. When you open the PDF-file in Adobe Reader and you look for the properties you get all the info you need.

[sparky52t]

Thanks so much for this fix. It was just the one for my situation. Sending attachments is a big part of my work so you can imagine how frustrated I've been. Thanks again.

[hwuAdobe]

I've been trying to replicate this problem w/Outlook 2007 and R10.1.4 and haven't had much success.

PDF attaches within 1 second for me in Win 7 x64.

Was hoping to get key'd in so we can resolve for our customers.

PDFShell is a COM dll that offers integration into the Windows explorer shell.  It subscribes to various MSDN documented COM hooks so things like: PDF Tab, Thumbnail under x86, and other services work well.

Are these scenarios intermittent (select few users), or common case?

Any suggestions would be valuable as I can try and advocate these points within.

Thanks

David

[Guest]

Hi there,

Wow a 2 years old thread and problem is still alive! @Adobe if you want more details, ask me.

I have this same problem using Windows 2003 R2 and Reader 11. I have a freeze of 40 seconds when I attach a PDF file (only with a PDF file, no problem with a .doc file or others).

It's not really attaching to an email program as I use Progress 4GL code to open a Windows requester and select the PDF file in it. So it's only the fact that I select the file that produces the freeze. There is not attachment or any other action that takes place.

Here is an extract of a log of ProcessMonitor (full log available upon request):

"Time of Day","Process Name","PID","Operation","Path","Result","Detail"

"15:07:38,8754715","AcroRd32.exe","9672","RegCloseKey","HKCU\Software\Classes","SUCCESS",""

"15:07:38,8754885","AcroRd32.exe","9672","RegCloseKey","HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\0001","SUCCESS",""

"15:07:38,8754981","AcroRd32.exe","9672","RegCloseKey","HKU","SUCCESS",""

"15:07:38,8755152","AcroRd32.exe","9672","RegCloseKey","HKCU\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\11.0","SUCCESS",""

"15:07:38,8755305","AcroRd32.exe","9672","RegCloseKey","HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\11.0","SUCCESS",""

"15:07:38,8755457","AcroRd32.exe","9672","RegCloseKey","HKCU\Software\Adobe\Adobe Synchronizer\11.0","SUCCESS",""

"15:07:38,8755602","AcroRd32.exe","9672","RegCloseKey","HKCU\Software\Adobe\CommonFiles\Usage\Reader 11","SUCCESS",""

"15:08:19,3721944","AcroRd32.exe","4012","Process Start","","SUCCESS","Parent PID: 8240, Command line: ""C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"" /b /id 8240_7696 /if pdfshell_sh5ccce3bd-2e1a-4873-94f6-1c0908017e8d --shell-broker-channel=broker_pdfshell_sh3f285e85-dfe5-4244-9ee7-8eae8a24fba4, Current directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32, Environment:

; =P:=P:\Progress\Wrk\Goujon

; ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users

; APPDATA=C:\Documents and Settings\Administrateur\Application Data

; ClusterLog=C:\WINDOWS\Cluster\cluster.log

; CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Fichiers communs

; COMPUTERNAME=GOUJON01

; ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe

; DL0=P:\Progress\Wrk\Goujon

; DLC=P:\Progress\Dlcv100B

; DLT=P:\Progress\Tmp\TmpGoujon

; FIC_PF=ccEvolubatLoc.pf

; FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO

; HOMEDRIVE=C:

; HOMEPATH=\Documents and Settings\Administrateur

; LIB=P:\Progress\Dlcv100B\LIB;

; LOGONSERVER=\\GOUJON01

; MODE_ACCES=-debugalert

; MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=C:\Program Files\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader\plugins\

; NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=2

; OS=Windows_NT

; Path=P:\Progress\Dlcv100B\BIN;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem

; PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH

; PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=x86

; PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 2, GenuineIntel

; PROCESSOR_LEVEL=6

; PROCESSOR_REVISION=0f02

; ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files

; PROMPT=$P$G

; REP_BASE=BD

; SESSIONNAME=Console

; SystemDrive=C:

; SystemRoot=C:\WINDOWS

; TEMP=C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp

; TMP=C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp

; TYPEORDI=NORMAL

; USERDNSDOMAIN=GOUJON.LOCAL

; USERDOMAIN=GOUJON

; USERNAME=administrateur

; USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\Administrateur

; VERSION=2

; windir=C:\WINDOWS"

"15:08:19,3721974","AcroRd32.exe","4012","Thread Create","","SUCCESS","Thread ID: 5872"

"15:08:19,3806697","AcroRd32.exe","4012","QueryNameInformationFile","C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe","SUCCESS","Name: \Program Files\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"

"15:08:19,3810845","AcroRd32.exe","4012","Load Image","C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe","SUCCESS","Image Base: 0x400000, Image Size: 0x169000"

"15:08:19,3813039","AcroRd32.exe","4012","Load Image","C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntdll.dll","SUCCESS","Image Base: 0x7c920000, Image Size: 0xc9000"

Check the gap between timestamps "15:07:38" and "15:08:19".

The freeze doesn't happen everytime but it happens very often too.

What I know is that when it happens once, I can try the same 10 times in a row, in a few seconds and I never have a freeze. If I stop and wait some minutes and try again, I most probably have the freeze again.

I'll probably switch to Reader 9 or another company reader in the near future, but if you want me to help find the problem tell me pretty soon.

Philippe

AmigaOS betatester

[tessd_loki]

I had/may still have a problem that was occurring when I tried to attach a PDF I've either opened or saved to a directory using Adobe Acrobat X Pro.  I hit the Share button, tell it to attach the file, it launches the email application (which happens quickly), but once it's sent, it just hangs there with the "Launching email application" box.  Doesn't  matter how long I left, it just froze, so I had to quit Adobe altogether.  But of course, as I typed this, I just tried doing it again and it's behaved perfectly - so now I don't know if it's the new PC I got yesterday (running Windows 8.1) or if it's the network playing up.  I didn't have this problem with my old PC.

[hwuAdobe]

If there are no properties defined for a given PDF file, of course the PDF tab contents will be empty.

Please use the Microsoft's "Windows 7 Client Software Logo.pdf" as a reference, it has all the nice properties set and viewable within the PDF tab incl title, author, etc.

This is only applicable within x86 environments.

[sparky52t]

I don't know if you're still looking for a solid cause/fix for this but I've found my workaround. #17 - adjamdeman has given me the fix that allows for fast attachment of pdfs to Outlook2003 emails.

This seems to happen nearly everytime Acrobat comes up with another upgrade. It's happened so often that I've bookmarked this page and refer to it often.

I'm running an aging Windows XP machine with Acrobat X Pro.

[BSWorkWork]

Happy to hear this solution helped for you too.

Don't forget to reboot the client, so the registry hack can take effect.

[nullitum]

I have the same issue on a Windows 7 x64 machine with Outlook 2007.  It had Reader X, which I removed and installed Reader 9.5.1.  I also tried the registry key deletion and the regsvr32.exe command line with reboots between each step and nothing has solved my issue.  The PDF files (3MB each) do eventually attach sometimes, but it takes a good 45 seconds for each file, during which Outlook reports "not responding".