Recently started getting an error during combining of files regarding files that are already PDFs

[ceponatia]

Good morning!

At my office we use Gmail for our client-facing email and when we receive attachments we have to print the email as a PDF and then combine the attachments into one document before printing it to our virtual printer which sends it to a database queue. This has all worked perfectly fine until about a month ago when occasionally, but somewhat frequently, when combining files I get an error in Acrobat stating it can't convert a file to PDF... but the file it's referencing is already a PDF. If I open the PDF on its own and then import the other pages everything works fine. Does anyone know why this error could be happening? I can still get the job done using the import method but being able to select all the files and then click "combine in Acrobat" is much faster and I have to do hundreds of such emails a day.

Thanks in advance!

[ceponatia]

Here's a screenshot of what occurs. I work for a court so I've had to redact some of the information but I don't think it's relevant. The attachments are image files but this happens regardless of file type, and only to the PDFs in the group. 

[MeenakshiNegi]

Hi Ceponatia,

Thank you for reaching out.

As the issue occurs with the PDF only, could you please share the steps you do to create that PDF?

Would you mind sharing any sample PDF on which the issue occurs?

Share the steps you do to combine PDFs that result in the error message.

Share the Acrobat Pro DC and OS version.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

[rachel25141376eupk]

Tips to fix-

Please check for any pending updates of Acrobat from help>check for updates, reboot the machine after installing the updates and see if this brings any difference.

You can also try repairing the Acrobat from help>repair installation.

Regards,

Rachel Gomez

[ceponatia]

Sorry, I didn't get a notification that someone replied until another user commented below! I can't share any of the files because they all contain confidential information but generally the process is saving an incoming email in Gmail as a PDF and combining it with whatever attachments were in the email; those range from .jpegs and .pngs to Word documents and other PDFs. I only get errors in the PDF files though.

To combine them, I open my Downloads folder, highlight the relevant files, right click, and click combine in Acrobat. This works fine for the first few documents, but eventually it will start giving me that error. If I close the program and reopen it, the error is resolved. So, I don't think it's a problem with the PDFs but with the application.

My current Acrobat version is Pro DC 2022.002.20191

[turnm]

I have been having the same problem for the last month or so. All the files I am trying to combine are pdf's. None of them are fillable forms, none are password protected. I checked for updates and there are none. I get the error whether I try to combine multiple pdf's into one pdf or if I try to combine them into a portfolio. The only difference I can see is there is a different pdf icon for the files that it will combine vs. the ones it will not combine. Any help would be appreciated. 

[MeenakshiNegi]

Hi turnm,

Thank you for reaching out.

As mentioned above, the icon for the files that throw an error differs from other PDFs.

Would it be possible to share any sample PDFs from those files? 

Please share the current Acrobat and OS versions as well.

Thanks,

Meenakshi