FrameMaker 2019 says I need to purchase Acrobat DC to print PDF

[SlowChange]

FrameMaker 2019 will no longer generate PDF versions of my books. It tells me Your Acrobat trial license has expired. Buy now to restore full access to Acrobat. Click okay to buy. When I click cancel, the message just reappears.

A version of Acrobat DC was loaded on to the system two months ago with a trial license. We found Apple's Preview a better choice for our needs so we never purchase a full Acrobat DC license. It appears if you don't purchase the Acrobat license, FrameMaker stops working. Anybody else encounter this?

[Jeff_Coatsworth · Accepted solution]

FM by itself includes a "headless" version of Acrobat that it uses for Print to PDF and Save As PDF actions (the Publish to PDF uses a completely different new engine), so you shouldn't have had to load a trial version of the full Acrobat in the first place. I would uninstall all Acrobat versions, test FM again & if it still thinks it needs the trial Acrobat, to reinstall FM and see how it behaves. If after all that, it still doesn't work, contact the FM folks at tcssup@adobe.com.

[SlowChange]

FrameMaker originally did gernerate PDF documents and continued to even after I oringally installed the trial version of Acrobat DC. It is only after the Acrobat DC trial period experied that FM ceased generation PDF files. For some reason Adobe tied its FM distiller to the Acrobat license.

[pulkitn]

It could be due to the fact that Acrobat installs its PDF printer and then  FM Publish PDF with the same Printer.

After your Acrobat ends, It takes back the PDF printer too.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So uninstall all traces of the Acrobat distiller and reader and see if FM works again.

[SlowChange]

To fix this problem both Acrobat and FrameMaker had to be unstalled and then FrameMaker has to be reinstalled. It appears that Adobe's licensing software was responsilbe for this maylay. Uggg!

[Bob_Niland]

re: It appears that Adobe's licensing software was responsilbe for this maylay.

It's kind of unavoidable. FM has to work with the deminimus PDF path, or the full Acrobat product if installed, both of those share components. Someone deliberately using the full product would want to know when it expired. Automatically attempting to revert to the prior configuration could cause major IT headaches.