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jmann9876
New Participant
September 29, 2021
Question

Automatic Upgrade from Acrobat Reader DC to Pro

  • September 29, 2021
  • 7 replies
  • 56574 views

Over the past week, we have been experiencing strange behaviour where the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is automatically upgraded to the Adobe Acrobat Pro version of the application. It's not until we blocked Automatic Updates using the "bUpdater" Registry Key that this behaviour has stopped. As multiple users utilise the system it may well be possible they are initiating the upgrade but as they don't have Windows Administrative Rights then it shouldn't be possible to upgrade the software.

 

Has this behaviour changed recently? I've noted another post in these forums from this month where their version was automatically upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit and a new (undocumented) Registry Key was required to fix, bUpdateToSingleApp. Are these related?

 

Adobe 32bit Updating Automatically to 64bit - Adobe Support Community - 12400606

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    7 replies

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    Jay29352150k83i
    New Participant
    November 3, 2023

    Ask your team if anyone tried the "free trial" of pro.  I tried it for a week, went in and canceled it but some period of time later I had Pro.  It billed my company credit card 19.99 for a year and Accounting didn't question it.  I didn't get emails telling me I was getting billed and just quit trying to figure it out.  Ond day after a year, the bank put the card on a hold for an unrelated reason and Adobe wouldn't let me read anything until I paid the $19.99.  Wouldn't even let me cancel.  

    Check your statement and see if you've been getting billed unawares. 

    Jay

    E
    ExhaustedTech
    Inspiring
    May 24, 2022

    Just in case anyone else looks here later for a solution...

    The issue is that 64bit Reader gives people the option to sign-in with Adobe credentials. If you have any staff with a Pro subscription, they are able to upgrade Reader to Pro on the machine, without admin credentials. This should not be the case but Adobe refuses to acknowledge it being an issue. I'm guessing it's their way of forcing you to upgrade all staff to Pro.

     

    What I've done as a workaround, is implement these two registry keys:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown\bSuppressSignOut= 1

     

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown\cServices\bUpdater= 0

     

    These remove the Sign Out buttons from the upper right and Help menus. I added them to the Acrobat Customization Wizard so it automatically installs with the package but I suppose you can do it with GPP as well. If you don't want to reinstall Adobe, GPP may be your best bet. 

    I did NOT disable all Adobe Services in the Acro Cust Wizard because there are some that our staff use. I've heard you can disable that as well and it will work but I have not personally tested it. I just wanted a way to stop people from signing in, which prevents Pro users from being able to upgrade.

    J
    Jay29352150k83i
    New Participant
    July 13, 2023

    I can't understand how this is still an issue a year later, and why it didn't happen to me and ALL my computers until July of 2023. Mind boggling.  

    I am not experienced enough to do registry editing, but It seems i'll have to uninstall it and just reinstall reader DC or something!

    E
    ExhaustedTech
    Inspiring
    July 13, 2023

    This shouldn't still be an issue for anyone since Adobe DC is now a Unified installer. If you don't have a Pro subscription, it will stay as Reader. If you have a Pro subscription and login, it converts your Adobe to Pro. Do you have the DC Unified installed?

    S
    Slonki
    Participating Frequently
    October 11, 2021

    Also tried the regedit thing but still upgrades automatically..

    Need an urgent fix for this, that is NOT upgrading to Pro, because that is not what we asked for.

    Raetsheren
    Raetsheren
    New Participant
    December 1, 2021

    Same here, really annoying problem.

    S
    Slonki
    Participating Frequently
    March 25, 2022

    The regisrty key to prevent upgrades from 32bit to 64bit worked for about 2 mmonths for me but now i have the same issue has before 😞

     

    Its so distruptive and stressful to everyone involved


    Its probably never being fixed if its been flagged as a known issue for this long. 6 months since an Adobe offical said "Yes, it is a related issue and the team is aware of it.".

    Probably just another way of forcing people to pay for something they dont want..

    S
    Slonki
    Participating Frequently
    October 8, 2021

    Noticing the exact same behaviour on one of our customers shared terminal server. Ive tried disabled both the service for Adobe update, and the scheduled task for updating but it seem to be upgrading on its own anyway. Trying the bUpdater regedit fix now too in hopes of a solution..

    J
    jmann9876Author
    New Participant
    October 6, 2021

    Thank you Jamie and Meenakshi. As an update to this issue, we are still experiencing the problem, even with the two mentioned Registry Keys established in the environment. We haven't been able to identify what has been triggering the upgrade, so for now we have moved to another 3rd-party application for opening PDFs. When we receive a response from Adobe with a suitable fix we will look at testing this and reverting back.

    Meenakshi Negi
    Community Manager
    Meenakshi NegiCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    October 1, 2021

    Hi Jmann,

     

    Thank you for reaching out and sorry for the trouble.

     

    Yes, it is a related issue and the team is aware of it.

    I would suggest you to use the registry key fix as suggested in the another thread.

    We will update you if we get any information on this from the team.

     

    Thanks,

    Meenakshi

      sandboxed thoughts
      sandboxed thoughts
      Participating Frequently
      October 22, 2021

      I've read this response a few times now. From what I can tell, it seems to suggest that Adobe is aware of this and it is not considered an issue. Should we just stop providing Adobe Reader to our customers and start looking for alternatives if they have no need for the paid Adobe apps??

        J
        JamIT
        New Participant
        October 25, 2021

        That's my thinking as well. It has caused such a headache for our entire organisation, and has persisted to be an issue even after painfully deploying the Registry fix to multiple clients.

        I have already started to move clients to different PDF readers as a result. Unsure how such a huge organisation can have such a bizarre fault, it's almost like they're hoping people will just start paying for Pro...

        J
        JamIT
        New Participant
        October 1, 2021

        Hey mate,

         

        Just thought I'd give you a heads up, I work for an IT firm and we have (so far) 3 different clients that have had nearly every machine upgrade itself from Adobe Reader 32-bit, to Acrobat Pro. It has broken a lot of things, and is definitely not due to users clicking upgrade, due to the simultaneous upgrade of all machines.

         

        I'm hoping Adobe soon find this common fault and deploy a fix, as it's creating a lot of work for us at the moment!

         

        Cheers

        -Jamie

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