Adobe Acrobat Chrome Extension doing multiple calls

Report · Sep 06, 2022

We have an online application that is limiting the PDF download to only once. We've found that users have been complaining of the attachment not being downloadable. Further investigation showed that the issue is only happening when users are accessing their PDF via Chrome with the Adobe Acrobat Extension. From what it looks like, the extension is doing multiple calls to the file thus resulting to the file not being accessible due to the limit. Can you please check on this and see what can be done to mitigate such problems. The only solution we ahve so far is to have users uninstall the extension and try to download their file again.

Report · Sep 08, 2022

Hi Reynold Joy259869475mmi,

Thank you for reaching out.

Please elaborate on the term "limiting the PDF download to only once". Do you mean that you cannot download multiple PDFs at once?

Do you get any messages when trying to download the PDFs from that particular website?

Is it a public website? If yes, please share the link with us to replicate the behavior.

Please share the step-by-step workflow you use to download the PDF and the screen recording.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · Sep 08, 2022

Hey Meenakshi,

The application is limiting the download to only once, it's a security feature. Unfortunately, it's a user-authenticated web application.

What we've seen is that when the user clicks on the link to download, the new tab opens (as expected) but we then see that the tab opens the extension and the same link is passed as a parameter in the url, something like -> chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/{{url}}. And yes, we have confirmed that this is only happening on Chrome when the extension is present.

We are not sure how the extension or Chrome handles the PDF attachments, but it just recently caused issues. What I'm theorizing is that something changed on how Chrome calls the extension where when it sees that the file downloaded is supported by the extension after accessing it, it then calls the extension to re-trigger the download via the extension. Maybe what it was doing before is to download the file and then open it with the extension?

Please let me know if there is anything else I can provide.

Report · Nov 13, 2024

Did anything ever come of this? We have the same issue and I see others online do as well

Report · Nov 13, 2024

Hi anthony_7098,

Thank you for reaching out.

Please let us know if this happens when downloading PDF from a particular website. It would be helpful if you could share the website address and video of the complete workflow. We will get this checked.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · Apr 21, 2025

Hi Meenakshi,

I'm also diagnosing an identical issue to the above. We have a system whereby PDF content is generated and made available for download from our web server a single time, i.e. the content is deleted after the initial fetch.

We've observed the Adobe Acrobat Chrome Extension (v25.4.2.2) double-fetching the content, this leads to a user-facing 404 error. These IIS logs show how our server receives two back-to-back request for the same URL (/files/reports/4762e24f82d9200b8d569355dfa98ca2.pdf), and the resulting 404 error on the 2nd request:

2025-04-21 17:16:31 W3SVC2 WS-TN2 192.168.101.129 GET /files/reports/4762e24f82d9200b8d569355dfa98ca2.pdf - 443 - 192.168.11.123 HTTP/1.1 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows+NT+10.0;+Win64;+x64)+AppleWebKit/537.36+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/135.0.0.0+Safari/537.36 ASP.NET_SessionId=vhnwocy2m2dbx55payi2ikww https://test.vertifi.com/vcp/re/re_ach_main.aspx test.vertifi.com 200 0 0 4970 833 66

2025-04-21 17:16:31 W3SVC2 WS-TN2 192.168.101.129 GET /files/reports/4762e24f82d9200b8d569355dfa98ca2.pdf - 443 - 192.168.11.123 HTTP/2.0 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows+NT+10.0;+Win64;+x64)+AppleWebKit/537.36+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/135.0.0.0+Safari/537.36 ASP.NET_SessionId=vhnwocy2m2dbx55payi2ikww - test.vertifi.com 404 0 0 1486 625 0

We've found a few tricks that we can use as a workaround, though we'd much prefer to see this fixed in the Extension, it should not be fetching the content more than once.

Our workarounds:

1. defer the file deletion at our server

2. enable short duration caching in browser

context.Response.Cache.SetExpires(DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(60));
context.Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.Private);

I'd be more than happy to work with Adobe on this matter, I'm a US-based software developer, we have a number of clients affected negatively by this issue.

Kind regards,

Chris Smith

Vertifi Software, LLC

Report · Apr 23, 2025

I am also experiencing the same issue. My system also generates a PDF and then deletes it after the first retrieval. The Adobe Acrobat Chrome extension attempts to retrieve the PDF a 2nd time, and this fails because the PDF has already been retrieved and deleted. This issue only occurs when a user has the Adobe Acrobat Chrome extension.

Report · Apr 24, 2025

Hi Vertifi and ryan_7369,

Thank you for reaching out.

Please share the screen recording so we can understand it better. It will help us replicate the issue. We will share it with the team and discuss it further.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · Apr 24, 2025

Hi Meenkashi, a screen recording won't be very helpful, and I don't have any Windows screen recording tools avilable to me, but can suggest alternatives:

1. a live meeting (e.g. Microsoft Teams) where I can demonstrate the issue. I'm generally available weekdays 630a - 12p ET. This should take no more than 15 minutes

2. I provide instructions for you to reproduce the issue

I can be reached at chris.smith@vertifi.com

Regarding #2,

1. send me a message to prepare a test file on our server at URL https://test.vertifi.com/files/reports/test.pdf. I will let you know when its ready

2. then disable Adobe Chrome extension and point your browser to https://test.vertifi.com/files/reports/test.pdf, you'll see a PDF. If you try fetching again it will fail, as our server deletes files after they are fetched once

2. send me a message to restore test.pdf, I will let you know again when its ready

3. then enable Adobe Chrome extension and try fetching again, you'll get a 404

This is happening because the Chrome extension is double-fetching the content. I'll be able to provide web server logs showing a single fetch when the extension is disabled and a double-fetch when its enabled

Report · Apr 25, 2025

Hi Vertifi,

Thank you for sharing the information.

Let's work together on this. Please prepare the test file and let us know when it is ready. We will replicate the issue and then check the logs.

If needed, we'll arrange a Teams call for more information.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · Apr 25, 2025

Thank you!, I will follow up on Monday as I'm leaving soon for the day.

Report · Apr 28, 2025

Hi Meenakshi,

We're ready for you.

https://test.vertifi.com/files/reports.test.pdf

Once retrieved this file will delete from our server. Please message me here (or preferably at chris.smith@vertifi.com) to restore the file, I'll also share our web server logs which will show the HTTP GET arriving at our server.

With the Chrome extension disabled we get a single GET and you should see PDF content.

With the Chrome extension enabled we receive two GET requests, respond to the first with the PDF content and an HTTP 404 error on the second.

Report · Apr 28, 2025

oops typo on the URL, its https://test.vertifi.com/files/reports/test.pdf

Report · Apr 29, 2025

Hi again Meenakshi, aplogies yesterday a process running on our server deleted the https://test.vertifi.com/files/reports/test.pdf file, its restored and in place again today

Report · May 02, 2025

Hi Vertifi,

Thank you for your efforts.

However, the link opens with a 404 error. Please try adding the file again and let us know.

I will check again later here.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · May 02, 2025

Hi Meenakshi, the file has been restored and is in place now

Report · May 02, 2025

Could you please send me an e-mail when you're ready to test so I can ensure the file is in place? [personal information removed by the moderator] I'm generally available 6a-2p ET

Report · May 08, 2025

Hi Vertifi,

If you can upload the file today, we are available until 2 p.m. EST to check it.

Let me know if that can be done.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · May 08, 2025

The file is in place now (~8a ET)

Report · May 08, 2025

Hi Vertifi,

Thank you for updating the file. We opened the link mentioned above: https://adobe.ly/3EZkeaD, which opened a test file. Then we tried to download it, and it worked without any issues. The file was downloaded and saved on the system.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · May 08, 2025

I see a single fetch in our logs at 8:18a ET:

2025-05-08 12:18:18 W3SVC2 WS-TN2 192.168.101.129 GET /files/reports/test.pdf - 443 - 103.43.112.97 HTTP/2.0 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows+NT+10.0;+Win64;+x64)+AppleWebKit/537.36+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/135.0.0.0+Safari/537.36 - - test.vertifi.com 200 0 0 115200 709 1296

When I tried the same earlier with the Adobe extension v25.4.2.4 enabled I see double fetches:

2025-05-08 11:42:39 W3SVC2 WS-TN2 192.168.101.129 GET /files/reports/test.pdf - 443 - 192.168.11.123 HTTP/1.1 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows+NT+10.0;+Win64;+x64)+AppleWebKit/537.36+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/136.0.0.0+Safari/537.36 _ga=GA1.1.1545771483.1734617667;+_ga_YXJXGRJKNW=GS1.1.1744651340.8.0.1744651340.0.0.0;+ASP.NET_SessionId=f3vzztas3lxkq0tfewrpjv45 - test.vertifi.com 200 0 64 115176 879 375
2025-05-08 11:42:39 W3SVC2 WS-TN2 192.168.101.129 GET /files/reports/test.pdf - 443 - 192.168.11.123 HTTP/2.0 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows+NT+10.0;+Win64;+x64)+AppleWebKit/537.36+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/136.0.0.0+Safari/537.36 _ga=GA1.1.1545771483.1734617667;+_ga_YXJXGRJKNW=GS1.1.1744651340.8.0.1744651340.0.0.0;+ASP.NET_SessionId=f3vzztas3lxkq0tfewrpjv45 - test.vertifi.com 404 0 0 1486 685 15

Report · May 08, 2025

Hi Vertifi,

Could you share the screen recording with the test file? So we can see what is happening.

We tried, but the issue is not reproducible on our end. Can you check the same workflow on your personal machine (not your work machine) and let us know if you experience the same behavior?

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Report · May 08, 2025

Hi Meenakshi,

Just to be certain, you are using Google Chrome with the Adobe Acrobat extension installed and set to open downloaded PDFs?

Report · May 08, 2025

> Just to be certain, you are using Google Chrome with the Adobe Acrobat extension installed and set to open downloaded PDFs?

Yes, Chrome Version 136.0.7103.49 (Official Build) (64-bit)

> Could you share the screen recording with the test file? So we can see what is happening.

We tried, but the issue is not reproducible on our end. Can you check the same workflow on your personal machine (not your work machine) and let us know if you experience the same behavior?

I don't have screen recording capabilities, nor do I think this would be useful. We key the URL, hit ENTER, and see a 404 error. When reviewing our web server (Microsoft IIS) logs we see the double fetch. When we turn off the extension everything works and we see a single fetch in our server logs.

Additionally, this issue has been reported by outside clients (i.e. not on our network), we've been able to readily reproduce. They have also observed that disabling the extension resolves the issue.

Report · May 09, 2025

Hi Vertifi,

Thank you for reaching out.

Please upload the file once again today. We will try changing the settings to see if it can be reproduced.

Let us know once the file is available. We will be available till the same time as mentioned above.

Thanks,

Meenakshi