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_SLawson_
Participating Frequently
January 18, 2008
Answered

"There was an error opening this document. The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is i

  • January 18, 2008
  • 41 replies
  • 82022 views
"There was an error opening this document. The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect."

I tried different versions, no avail.

I think it has to do with the password somehow, but I do not know. I can copy the files from the web folder to my desktop and they open fine (after entering the password AGAIN), but I can not open them directly form the web folder - it does not ask for the password again, just pops up the error.

Adobe's support really upset me (insert explicative here) by keeping me on the phone for 20 min, collecting all sorts of information about me (not the problem) with some lady who barely spoke English, just to tell me to go to the website. No surprise they need to charge for tech support, customer service is doing everything but "service". I hate companies that do this. I am thinking of using another PDF reader, I have heard good things about them. Check

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software

Has anyone ever been able to find a fix? I can not find anything on this site.
    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Divine_reliability16B8

    We are running windows Vista for us saving the file and renaming it worked.

    Thanks for the advice

    41 replies

    H
    Help32615589lyhq
    Participant
    February 28, 2024

    Hello, 

     

    The solution I came across for my environment (Computers are joined through Azure AD) was:

     

    1. Sign in to your computer using  an admin account that is not experiancing this issue.

    2. Delete the account entirely under system properties > Advanced > user profiles.

    3. sign back in to re create the account.  

    4. Sync all the users data back through OneDrive.

     

    This will probably work for other environments too just make sure you have your data backed up and saved somewhere other than the account that you are about to delete.

     

    Hope this helps. 

     

    D
    Adobe Employee
    deepakb13786652
    Adobe Employee
    June 29, 2023

    Hi SLawson,

     

    Please test the steps:

     

    1. Go-to https://admin.microsoft.com/ and Sign in with same Id that user is using while connecting  SP account.
    2. Microsoft Admin centre will open.
    3. Now, click on “Show all” in the bottom of Left hand side menu.
    4. Admin centre will expand->click on SharePoint.
    5. A new window will open, click on ‘Policies’ option in left hand side menu->click on Access control option
    6. On right hand side, 4 options will be shown, click on last option “Apps that don’t use Modern Authentication”-> select ‘Allow access’. Then wait for 15-30 mins and try again to connect.

     

    B
    Bearsk1n
    Participant
    February 1, 2011

    I discovered another source for this problem is a mixed MAC / PC environment where the MAC users have placed a non-standard character in a directory name.

    As Windows/Adobe traverses the path it fails on the invalid directory name.

    Using Windows Explorer I could see the Boxes representing unprintable characters, I simply renamed the problem directory and all worked perfectly.

    A
    Anonymous
    August 26, 2011

    You nailed it.  The error was exactly what the error message said.  The Mac users used "invalid" characters in the directory path.  It would work fine for them, but the PC users couldn't open the file.  The non-displaying characters prevented it.

    Nice catch!

      D
      Divine_reliability16B8Correct answer
      Participant
      January 10, 2011

      We are running windows Vista for us saving the file and renaming it worked.

      Thanks for the advice

      D
      Dipos
      Participant
      November 5, 2010

      Hello

      here 's the easiest way and it worked pretty well with me

      if u have an gmail account u just compose a message containing the file that u cant open to ur self (ur g-mail account)  then  open the message and click on view and voila

      i wish it work with u guys

      A
      Anonymous
      September 3, 2009

      I came across the problem when opening a particular PDF file this morning--I did a google search and then I am here.

      Just found out the cause of my problem. I was opening a file that has a filename containing Chinese characters (I am Chinese :-)). Now the problem is gone with the file renamed.

      I guess this problem might happen on files with a filename in other non-English languages as well.

      _
      _SureshAnnangudi_
      Participant
      May 13, 2008
      I had similar problem. Here is how I solved it.

      I deleted all the temporary files in the folder (C:\Documents and Settings\[user profile]\Local Settings\Temp). The number of files was 65000+, but was occupied only 4mb. Then the acrobat opened properly.
      For more solutions:
      http://www.deerbrook.com/downloads/sysreqs/Bridging/new_page_1.htm

      Hope this helps.
      _
      _Phillip_Millhollen_
      Participant
      May 7, 2008
      Awesome find J. O'Connell. Our company (Daptiv), which is a SaaS provider, had implemented WebDav, but we couldn't figure out why some users could download PDF files within their browser and why others were receiving the infamous error that many people reported above since about June 2007. The issue seemed to be isolated to users who had Windows XP and Office 2007 installed. I requested the patch you referenced and now everyone is happy and I am a hero.

      The only problem that some of our users are experiencing is that they are unable to download and open PDF files that are larger than about 25k. The browser window opens and they can see the download status in the lower left hand corner of the browser, but it stalls at various times during the download. It is only happening for a couple customers that we know of, that are each behind their company's firewalls. The users try to download the files at home and have no issues. They are not having problems with any other file type, just PDFs. From troubleshooting with them, I have determined that it is not determined by either browser version (IE6 & IE7) or Adobe Reader Version (v7 & v8). Does anyone have an idea what network, browser or other setting could be causing this issue?
      _
      _George_Blessing_
      Participating Frequently
      April 17, 2008
      Howdy, everyone!

      Wow, J O'Connell! You definitely receive the GOLD STAR for this find!

      I, too, have tested the installation of the patch on machines that have the 907306 WebDAV patch and the PDF functionality has been restored!

      I am hoping that Microsoft will make this patch generally-available rather than keeping it as a "non-public" patch. From everything I've read and the past research I did, I can't see where having these two patches distributed via Microsoft Update would cause any negative side effects. If you use Acrobat Reader with WebDAV, you're good to go. If you don't, no big deal!

      Thanks to all for the knowledge sharing! Good work!

      George B.
      _
      _SLawson_Author
      Participating Frequently
      April 16, 2008
      Winner winner - chicken dinner...

      I installed the patch and then realized I needed something else installed (per MS's site). I never did do the previous install or even look to see if it was installed, but I did get this patch and it is working.

      Thanks.
      Show more replies
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