Unable to open PDF report in acrobat reader

[Jay5C5A]

SQL Server Reporting Services  2019  report exported to PDF  and able to open in all browsers, but unable to open acrobat reader. It’s working fine in SSRS 2016.

While open the PDF in acrobat reader getting this message “There was an error open this document .The file is damaged could not be repaired

[Andy5E22]

No solution to this issue as of Feb 2021?

[Dov Isaacs]

When no sample file is supplied such that we can analyze what's going on, it is impossible for anyone to determine whether the issue is a problematic PDF file or a problem in the software. If @Jay5C5A  would be willing to provide a sample, we could try to assist.

[Chris needs a fix]

I have attached a simple PDF generated by SSRS2019 that gives the above error and is able to be cleanly opened by both Chrome and Edge

[Dov Isaacs]

Thanks. I can duplicate the problem but regrettably, it doesn't open enough to be able to run Acrobat's built-in diagnostic tools. It does open in both our mobile reader (iOS and Android) and the Adobe web viewer.

I'm sending this off to others in engineering to analyze.

[Dov Isaacs]

BTW, is the failure to open the PDF file in desktop Adobe Reader (i.e., Windows or MacOS) or on the mobile versions (iOS or Android)? I can successfully open this file on the Adobe Acrobat Mobile Reader for iOS.

[Andy5E22]

Does not open in Windows 10 Adboe Acrobat Reader DC  ver: 2020.013.20074

Most recent version for Windows 10 downloaded from Adobe.

[Dov Isaacs]

OK. With some of my comrades here at Adobe we have found the problem.

In fact, the file you provided does not conform to the ISO PDF file specification which states:

The last line of the file shall contain only the end-of-file marker, %%EOF.

This particular file contained some JavaScript and HTML after the %%EOF. And that is strictly non-kosher and could be indicative of other corruption in the PDF file. A “fixed” copy of the file is attached!

The fact is that the other viewers (including Adobe's own mobile and web-based viewers seem to be lenient about this error and after opening the PDF file, search backwards to find the %%EOF characters. We will investigate further and see whether we can add some “leniency” to our desktop products (or at least provide better diagnostics).

[pzaidel]

Any progress on this?  It's still happening with the latest version of Acrobat DC. 

[Ria Tagra]

Hi @pzaidel ,

Hope you are doing well.

Thank you for reaching out to us. We would love to help you out with this. Could you please provide us little more information? If possible do share some relevant screenshots with us. Once we've got that information from you, we can take a closer look.

Regards

Ria

[Akil3]

Ria,

After we upgraded to SQL Server Reporting Services  2019  report exported to PDF  and able to open in all browsers & Nitro PDF, but unable to open acrobat reader. It’s working fine in SSRS 2016, but after we upgrade it showing error to open.

While open the PDF in acrobat reader getting this message “There was an error open this document .The file is damaged could not be repaired.

I have attached the document for your review.

[pzaidel]

Hi @Akil3 - we ended up having to make code changes to how we termiate the file stream back from SSRS.  Removing the highlighted line below, fixed the issue: 

[Akil3]

Thank you @pzaidel 

Let me try on this change and update the same.

[Akil3]

@pzaidel 

We made this change but still its not working.

[pzaidel]

Here is the complete changeset @Akil3 

[Gallwood]

You have to have the Response.End() because this will ensure the response is fully flushed and ended correctly.
If you don't have the Response.End() the render will add %%EOF to the end of the PDF portion of the file.

If you open the PDF in Notepad, you can see the %%EOF added incorrectly.

Your PDF file (in Notepad) will look something like this

endstream
endobj
startxref
75456
%%EOF

[Richard_ASU]

Our group at Arizona State University is having the same problem with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2017 when exporting reports as PDF files.  Adobe Acrobat DC version 2022.001.20085 on Windows 10 is unable to open those files, stating: "There was an error opening this document. The file is damaged and could not be repaired."

Based on @Dov Isaacs comments, I am able to remove the text after %%EOF in the affected files and am then able to open them.  But this is not something we can ask our customers to do.  This was not a problem with SSRS 2012, even though the same text existed after the %%EOF line.

I am attaching three files generated by a third party vendor's application:

1. rptheader2012.pdf: a test PDF file export using SSRS 2012 which opens in Acrobat DC.  The PDF file version looks like it is 1.3.
2. rptheader2017.pdf: a test file created by the same application using SSRS 2017 which will not open in Acrobat DC.  The PDF file version seems to be 1.7.
3. rptheader2017-edited.pdf: a copy of the second file where I removed the text following %%EOF. This file does open in Acrobat DC.

Does Adobe have an expected time when an update will be made available that will fix this problem since Dov mentioned he was able to "successfully open this file on the Adobe Acrobat Mobile Reader for iOS"?  This is affecting our reporting services server upgrade schedule.

[Alexandru27063669qikf]

Hello everybody, any update for this issue?

Thank you,

Alex