unable to print PDF's from the terminal server

This solution worked for me. I was having an issue from Win 2010 laptops accessing applications via Win 2016 RDS Service via RemoteApp

EDIT: It appears I missed the link earlier in this thread that goes to a thread with a user named Aardum ( or so? ) who may have figured out the issue. He wrote up an article on what he did, but that link no longer works. However, I found it here:

Fix numerous print issues with RDS 2012 by cleaning up your print environment | Digital Zombies

I have not had a chance to read it yet but will tomorrow. I hope it helps us all.

(original erroneous post):

We have been fighting this for as long as I can remember on our 2012r2 RDS Farm. The printers are installed on a 2012r2 print server and assigned to users based on group membership via a GPO on log in. The behavior we see is everything is fine until suddenly they can not print an Adobe PDF. We see that the default printer is usually unchecked even though it is still the default, and when an attempt to print is done, there is no progress bar.

We found that if we remove the default printer and run gpupdate that it will put the printer back and we see the check mark. The user can then print.

How many jokes are there now that start with 'how many Adobe Software Engineers does it take to...? I mean it has been YEARS.

Based on tests performed on a Windows 2012 R2 Remote Desktop Server, the PDF print failure on terminal servers problem seems to be related to Acrobat's security features, specifically the Sandbox Protections. 

To test the situation for yourself, open Acrobat, click Edit / Preferences / Security (Enhanced) and clear the check box under "Sandbox Protections" labeled Enable Protected Mode at startup. Click Yes to the warning message, then OK to accept the changes. Restart Acrobat and then try to print your document.  I found I was able to print any and all PDF documents, almost none of which was able to print previously.

BIG CAVEAT!  I do not recommend this workaround for production environments because of seriously diminished Acrobat security, but you can best assess the risk within your own network. The problem is the result of a bug that Adobe needs to fix, the sooner the better.

Test environment: Windows Server 2012 R2 with Remote Desktop Services installed, Adobe Acrobat Reader v2018.011.20038, Word and Excel 2010; several different models of HP laser printers with printer specific drivers installed, Konica Minolta copiers with universal drivers installed, Cute PDF Writer

Also tested: Adobe Acrobat Reader updates, Acrobat Reader Repair Installation, designating servers as trusted hosts, both within Windows and within Acrobat Reader, designating specific folders and files as trusted, disabling Enhanced Security - none of these steps, alone or in combination, resolved the failure to print issue.

Hi,

are there any News to this?

we have the same Problem on our RDS-Farm (Server 2016) Printing over a Printserver (Server 2016). Most time printing from Acrobat Reader works fine, but sometimes for one or more random Users printing from Acrobat Reader stops working. When thi happens, the print progress Window doesn't show up anymore. After restarting the Print-Spooler and/or reconnecting the Printer or simply wait till next day the Problem disappears. 

Kind Regards

Oliver

We have same issue . Widows 2016 TS , printer sever is 2016 too . then it happens , I have to restart print spooler and it would be fine for about one day !! sometimes I restart the server midnight and I will not have the problem next day !!

looking for an update from Adobe !

Hey all

any news from Adobe on this issue?

we have exact same issue.

GPO shared printers with problem printing from adobe reader, all other documents works fine!

it could be really nice if an update very soon could solve this issue

thanks Morten

I am posting here just to add that I also have a Server 2016 Citrix environment with GPO printers and have printers that stop working in Adobe Reader and Acrobat DC. I can print from any other application such as Word, Outlook, a browser, but not PDFs in Adobe Reader. I can print PDFs in Chrome or another application but not Adobe.

I've found that restarting the print spooler on the server, then readding the printers (gpupdate /force) works. It's far easier than rebooting entire servers, but I will also be installing the printers locally as a workaround as I simply cannot deal with this.

Really hope the bug fix is coming soon. At least it's a known issue.

Hejsa,

Vi har samme issues Windows server 2016 RDS setup, med printere der er deployed via GPO.

Alle printere er tilknyttet en printserver.

Alle brugere ingen problemer med at printe fra Word, excel, etc.

Dog kan de ikke printe fra Adobe Acrobat Reader 2017.011.30068 uden først af fjerne den GPO deployede printer for at så tilføje den manuelt igen.

Hi All

davidd52442143​ did Tariq Ahmad Dar contact You. Got PM from him, but since I can't use more time on this, I've asked him to grab a hold of You. But I acctually can't see he posted anyting here????

@Daniel (in Danish): Du kan installere printerne lokalt på terminal serverne, var den eneste måde vi kunne få det til at virke på, og havde endda prøvet flere forskellige PDF viewere, men havde samme eller lign. problem. Det kunne reelt være et Microsoft problem, da det er flere viewere det udviser lignende problemer, men som sagt, havde vi brugt oceaner af tid på at få det til at køre, men eneste løsning var i vores tilfælde at installere printerene lokalt på terminal serveren Ikke lige frem best practices.........

Kind Regards/Med Venlig Hilsen

Kim

Hi again!

Any updates to resolve it and keep GPO deploy?

R.

S.