Acrobat XI suddenly won't recognize my HP Officejet Pro 8620 scanner

Report · May 16, 2016

I have been running Acrobat XI Standard on my Dell Precision T1700 computer running Windows 7 Professional for almost 2 years without a problem. I have been using an HP Officejet Pro 8620 AIO for my scanner interface. About a week ago Acrobat stopped recognizing my HP 8620 scanner.

I have been through all the forum leads relative to this problem and have found many, many others who have faced the same problem as I with many of the leads going back a number of years and a number of earlier versions of Acrobat. Some have been resolved, but it appears many have not. I have tried almost all of the recommended fixes, but I still cannot scan a document using Acrobat. Like many, I can scan using the HP 8620 other programs and I can print from Acrobat through my HP 8520, but I can't scan. So the problem is not with the HP 8620 unit or software.

So I, like many others, have concluded that the problem is not with my Hp 8620 scanner, but resides somewhere in the Acrobat software for scanning.

I have uninstalled and re-installed Acrobat XI at least 3 times (and also Hp Officejet Pro 8620 installation software and drivers) including a reboot and a run of CCleaner to clean up all unnecessary files and then their registry cleaner to remove any stray registry entries. None of this has allowed me to scan from Acrobat. When I go to the "Custom Presets" and try to select a scanner, I have 2 options. 1st is:"Officejet Pro 8620 TWAIN" and the 2nd is: "WIA-HP Officejet Pro 8620 (NET). My Hp 8620 is connected to my network via an Ethernet cable. When I try to select either selection, I get the same message: "Acrobat could not communicate with this device." Because of this message, I cannot select to change any of the other possible options under the "Configure Presets" options.

One of the possible solutions I found in the forums was to try to install Acrobat under another User with Administrative controls. I happen to have another user on this computer (my wife) and I found I can scan under her profile. Under her profile, the scanner device is the : HP Officejet Pro 8620 TWAIN; the Device Transfer Mode= Memory Mode; and the User Interface= Hide Scanner's Native Interface (although this option was grayed out).

I have tried swapping out some of the files in my User/XXXX/AppData/Local/Adobe/Acrobat with the same files in my wife's account, but the ones I've tried did nothing. There must be one or more files in my wife's account that are different from my account that allow Acrobat to communicate with our scanner.

This has been a long ongoing problem with Acrobat (going back a number of years to at least Version 9 of Acrobat) and I'm sure someone in your organization has found the problem.

What do I need to do to allow Acrobat XI to recognize my HP Officejet Pro 8620 scanner?

Report · May 18, 2016

Hi Tunaman44

Please check whether is there any update available for the software after going through "help > check for updates "

Also Follow this thread to reset the preferences for the Acrobat software :- How to reset Preference settings in Acrobat.

Please check after connecting the scanner locally to the device if its connected over any network.

Please refer to this article :- Troubleshooting tips for scanner issues when using Acrobat

If the issue still persist, then would request you to please check with the different user account with Admin Rights to replicate the issue, for this please refer to this article :- Adobe troubleshooting: Using or creating an admin account in Windows 7, 8, Vista

Let me know how it goes.

Regards,

Yatharth

Report · May 19, 2016

Hi Yatharth,

Thank you for your quick response. I have been unavailable for a few

days so my response is somewhat delayed.

I have tried all the suggestions you have made and I can report that the

only solution that allows me to scan into Acrobat XI from my HP

Officejet Pro 8629 AIO unit is to use another user account. I reported

earlier that I could scan into Acrobat XI if I logged onto my computer

using my wife's user account. I went further and created a new user

account with Administrative privileges and was also successful with

scanning. However, I found that there were differences in the scanning

mode between these 2 accounts.

In my wife's account, which was created about 6 months ago, the scanning

mode was: "HP Officejet Pro 8620 TWAIN" with the Data Transfer Method =

"Memory Mode" and the User Interface = "Hide Scanner's Native Interface"

(but it was grayed out).

In the new "Acrobat" account (with Administrative privileges) the

scanning mode was: "WIA-HP Officejet Pro 8620 (NET)" with the Data

Transfer Method = "Native Mode" and the User Interface = "Hide Scanner's

Native Interface" (but it was grayed out).

In both cases I could not change the mode nor the Data Transfer

Interface. So these 2 user profiles were using 2 completely different

interfaces, without the ability to switch the interface, but both

scanning properly.

In my original user profile I cannot select either of the "TWAIN" not

the "WIA" option. Each time I try to select either option I get the:

"Acrobat could not communicate with this device." error message.

So, although I cannot understand why my wife's account and the new

"Acrobat" account use different scanner interfaces, I do know that _my

user account_ is preventing Acrobat XI from accessing the HP 8620 scanner.

So the question is: What is there in my user account, that Acrobat XI

needs, that is preventing Acrobat to access my scanner? Acrobat can

print to the HP 8620 device, but it can't find the scanner.

I'm sure that within the Adobe Acrobat organization there are personnel

who understand the coding and the "hooks" into the Windows 7 software

which allow Acrobat to recognize the Windows 7-connected HP 8620

scanner. It appears that one of these "hooks" may be missing or

corrupted. And the fact that everything was working just fine a few

weeks ago leads me to suspect that possibly a change from a Microsoft

Update may have led to my problem.

However, in looking back through the Acrobat Forum for a number of

years, I found that this is not the first time people have lost their

scanner connection. It is also not unique to Acrobat XI. It has been a

problem for users of Acrobat IX as well as Acrobat XI. Some users appear

to have been successful in regaining the use of their scanners, but it

appears that there are others who did not.

So I have to assume that the Acrobat staff has done significant research

into this problem that appears to be related to the "user interface"

and, hopefully, they have an answer.

Please provide my above listed experiences to the Acrobat staff with the

hope that they have an answer to where the problem specifically lies and

how to remedy my situation.

After spending good money to purchase a quality product such as Adobe

Acrobat XI, I should not have to create a new user account and switch to

that account just to scan documents into the Acrobat software.

I appreciate your assistance and look forward to your solution.

Best regards,

Peter Anderson (Tunaman44)

Report · Jun 13, 2016

Yatharth, - I am posting this reply here as I tried to send it via E-Mail (twice) and it was rejected as "address unknown" although this was the address I had used in my previous correspondence. I don't know what is going on at Adobe, but it doesn't certainly doesn't look good to its customers.

It has now been 15 days since my last request to you on May 28th (see below), 25 days since I replied to your initial response on May 19th (see below), 26 days since your original response to me on May 18th (see below) and 4 weeks since my original posting on May 16th. I still cannot scan a document into Adobe Acrobat XI using the Acrobat software - and none of your suggestions have corrected this problem. Your lack of follow-up with further suggestions leads me to believe the following:

1. Adobe Technical support staff such as yourself are so overloaded with work solving technical problems with Adobe software, you lack the time to respond to all the outstanding problems. (I doubt this in correct.)

2. Adobe lacks the technical expertise to diagnose the problem and provide a solution. (I seriously doubt this is correct.)

3. Although this problem has been known for a number of years, in various releases of Acrobat, Adobe feels they have spent enough research time and money on the problem and chooses to simply ignore the customers who still have the problem. After all, they already have our money we paid to purchase the software. Maybe the owners with these problems will spend more hard-earned money and buy a newer version of Acrobat in the hope the problem will go away. (I'm beginning to suspect this is the case.)

In any case, I would greatly appreciate a reply from you or one of your colleagues - hopefully with additional suggestions to correct the problem.

Thank you.

Peter Anderson (Tunaman)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hi again, Yatharth, (Posted on May 28th)

It has been a week and a half since I sent you my response below and I have not heard back from you. Could you please update me on the status of resolving my problem of not being able to scan from my User Account using Adobe Acrobat XI?

Thank you.

Peter Anderson (Tunaman)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hi Yatharth, (Posted on May 19th)

Thank you for your quick response. I have been unavailable for a few days so my response is somewhat delayed.

I have tried all the suggestions you have made and I can report that the only solution that allows me to scan into Acrobat XI from my HP Officejet Pro 8629 AIO unit is to use another user account. I reported earlier that I could scan into Acrobat XI if I logged onto my computer using my wife's user account. I went further and created a new user account with Administrative privileges and was also successful with scanning. However, I found that there were differences in the scanning mode between these 2 accounts.

In my wife's account, which was created about 6 months ago, the scanning mode was: "HP Officejet Pro 8620 TWAIN" with the Data Transfer Method = "Memory Mode" and the User Interface = "Hide Scanner's Native Interface" (but it was grayed out).

In the new "Acrobat" account (with Administrative privileges) the scanning mode was: "WIA-HP Officejet Pro 8620 (NET)" with the Data Transfer Method = "Native Mode" and the User Interface = "Hide Scanner's Native Interface" (but it was grayed out).

In both cases I could not change the mode nor the Data Transfer Interface. So these 2 user profiles were using 2 completely different interfaces, without the ability to switch the interface, but both scanning properly.

In my original user profile I cannot select either of the "TWAIN" not the "WIA" option. Each time I try to select either option I get the: "Acrobat could not communicate with this device." error message.

So, although I cannot understand why my wife's account and the new "Acrobat" account use different scanner interfaces, I do know that my user account is preventing Acrobat XI from accessing the HP 8620 scanner.

So the question is: What is there in my user account, that Acrobat XI needs, that is preventing Acrobat to access my scanner? Acrobat can print to the HP 8620 device, but it can't find the scanner.

I'm sure that within the Adobe Acrobat organization there are personnel who understand the coding and the "hooks" into the Windows 7 software which allow Acrobat to recognize the Windows 7-connected HP 8620 scanner. It appears that one of these "hooks" may be missing or corrupted. And the fact that everything was working just fine a few weeks ago leads me to suspect that possibly a change from a Microsoft Update may have led to my problem.

However, in looking back through the Acrobat Forum for a number of years, I found that this is not the first time people have lost their scanner connection. It is also not unique to Acrobat XI. It has been a problem for users of Acrobat IX as well as Acrobat XI. Some users appear to have been successful in regaining the use of their scanners, but it appears that there are others who did not.

So I have to assume that the Acrobat staff has done significant research into this problem that appears to be related to the "user interface" and, hopefully, they have an answer.

Please provide my above listed experiences to the Acrobat staff with the hope that they have an answer to where the problem specifically lies and how to remedy my situation.

After spending good money to purchase a quality product such as Adobe Acrobat XI, I should not have to create a new user account and switch to that account just to scan documents into the Acrobat software.

I appreciate your assistance and look forward to your solution.

Best regards,

Peter Anderson (Tunaman44)

On 5/18/2016 3:00 AM, Yatharth Vikram Singh wrote:

You have been mentioned

by Yatharth Vikram Singh in Re: Acrobat XI suddenly won't recognize my HP Officejet Pro 8620 scanner in Adobe Community - View Yatharth Vikram Singh's reference to you

Hi Tunaman44,,

Please check whether is there any update available for the software after going through "help > check for updates "

Also Follow this thread to reset the preferences for the Acrobat software :- How to reset Preference settings in Acrobat.

Please check after connecting the scanner locally to the device if its connected over any network.

Please refer to this article :- Troubleshooting tips for scanner issues when using Acrobat

If the issue still persist, then would request you to please check with the different user account with Admin Rights to replicate the issue, for this please refer to this article :- Adobe troubleshooting: Using or creating an admin account in Windows 7, 8, Vista

Let me know how it goes.

Regards,

Yatharth

Report · May 29, 2016

Hi again, Yatharth,

It has been a week and a half since I sent you my response below and I

have not heard back from you. Could you please update me on the status

of resolving my problem of not being able to scan from my User Account

using Adobe Acrobat XI?

Thank you.

Peter Anderson (Tunaman)