Encrypted PDF Password error

[jctech2025]

Hi All,

Got a tough question for the community.  We have a staff member that uses his Iphone for everything in the building.  I recently set him up with the WIFI in the building.  He got a PDF document from an inspector.  He went to try to print it from his phone to the building printer.  The printer threw with the error above and it said "Password is missing or incorrect".

There was nowhere on the Iphone to indicate a password was needed to print the document.

I checked the properties of the file.  It is password protected but only to modify.

I tried to print the document from my mac, printed without issue.  We also tried to print from Windows, printed without issue.

I then tried to print the same document from my Android phone.  I presented with "Printing not available, this document cannot be printed because the author has disabled printing".

Anyone know where I would look to to find out why this happens on mobile devices and not on desktop machines? What to look for next?  Sorry if this is a lot but I don't diagnose PDF issues everyday.

Thanks,

[S. S]

Hi @jctech2025,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the trouble with printing files on Reader Mobile.

The print workflow on iOS and Android is not something handled directly by our app, but a handshake between Acrobat and the OS's native print feature.

When this is executed, an image file is created, which gets blocked for files with any sort of restrictions.

The same is not experienced on PCs with Windows or Mac, as they have the capability to handle such operations natively. 

Since this is a technical limitation, we welcome your feedback here: https://adobe.ly/4lThDjn to ensure it reached the dev team for review and future implementations.

Hope this gives you a clarity.

Regards,
Souvik.

[jctech2025]

Hi Souvik,

Thanks for the reply.  So if I'm reading this right, the mobile device print operation is modifying the file that Acrobat gives it , thus causing the password restriction?

So for native print operation on mobile devices, know how to process encrypted PDFs from Acrobat?

Still procesing this, partly so that I know how to make this easier going forward.

Thanks,

[S. S]

Hi @jctech2025,

Thanks for the response. 

Native PDF viewers or printers, at times, can bypass security layers of a PDF which Acrobat cannot.

In such scenarios, have you tried printing the file directly from your Files Managers/Files App instead of going through Acrobat? 

You can use Acrobat to review the file, and then print it through the operation menu options of your Files App.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Souvik.

[jctech2025]

Hi Souvik,

Thanks for the update.  When you say native viewers or printers, do you mean like built in apps that come with the os?  

I didn't try to print from my file manager app, I just tested printing from Acrobat on my phone using a non protected file.  That worked.  So it told me the issue was something to do with Acrobat and encrypted files.

This all helps.  In the end I'm making sure I better understand how Acrobat handles opertions like this.  It was a never before seen scenario so I wanted to research.  I thought that if security was put on a file, it didn't matter what you used to open it and view, you would still be bound by the security put in place on it.

Thanks,

[S. S]

Hi @jctech2025,

Glad to know that I was able to clarify your concern.

When I refer to native viewers, it could mean Preview for iPhone or Google PDF viewer for Android. 

These apps bypass security layers, this giving you an overview of how the file would look, however, since Acrobat has a lot more functionalities to provide with respect to file handling and viewing, we cannot bypass security layers.

Also, since printing is not a native function for apps on mobile, but more of a shared functionality between the app and the OS, the handshake is a bit complicated for files with security added.

Regards,
Souvik.