FM pdf creation problems

[arvarobert]

I have to say I am sorely disappointed in both the "community" response and the absense of anything from Adobe having been seeking help for this for several months.

When I choose File > Save as PDF quite regularly before I get to the "view" option Acrobat opens with a "ghost" PDF. I call it a ghost because it comes with a filename of a PDF I may have saved at any time over the last few weeks, and it always comes with one page and one graphic (a "Warning" icon that is part of all manuals I generate for machinery). 

Here's the rub: quite often this happens in the middle of my day when I have already used FM for a while or have had Acrobat open to read/generate other documents. Today, however, the first thing I did was open FM to generate a PDF to be sent for review and this "ghost" document came up.

When this happens, FM freezes and my only option is to open the task manager and force FM to close.

I have to say that with ZERO support here (in the "community" and from Adobe) it is time to shop for alternatives to FM and recommend them to my employer for when our current year ends with FM.

[LinSims]

I've been having the same issue over the last few months, although I haven't tried to contact Adobe about it. In fact, about a month ago I had my computer re-imaged in the hopes that this and other issues would clear up. No joy.

If you company works with an Adobe account manager, I would suggest that you get in touch with them and have them act as a go-between in getting you help. If you google for Adobe customer support, you will get a region appropriate phone number; be aware that with the pandemic, Adobe is short-staffed and you will be on hold for a long, long time. I spent two hours on hold about a month ago and I don't expect things have gotten any better. You can also use the live chat support; typing AGENT into the chat window will (eventually) connect you to a live person instead of the bot, but the same caveat about wait time applies.

It's probable that no one in the Acrobat forum tried to provide you with an answer because, and this is important, they didn't know the answer. We are not Adobe employees, we are fellow users like yourself trying to help each other, so complaining about the "lack of support" from other users is a bit rude.

Good luck.

[K.Daube]

I have reported this in the bug base early this year: https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/frmaker-7757 Please vote on this issue to put emphasis on it.

A long story can be found on https://community.adobe.com/t5/framemaker/pdfl-does-not-behave-in-win-10/m-p/10865256

[arvarobert]

Thanks for that, I added a comment and voted.

Today had been the first time it happened "first thing" in the morning prior to even using acrobat.

[LinSims]

Thanks, Klaus. I didn't know this was an issue for so many people! Off to vote, because this is definitely a pain in the a ... fundament.

[arvarobert]

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[StudioSm]

I have the same issues, unfortunately.

No hard evidence - but I believe the issue has something to do with FrameMakers handling of temporary files. If I delete all *.tmp files between sessions, the error goes away. Looks like it at least...

[Russ Ward]

I have no answer but just wanted to add my voice. I see this exact problem randomly, always at the most inconvenient time it seems.

[arvarobert]

I noticed something interesting when today's phantom PDF popped up: it was over 300 pages, and the only thing it contained in all those pages are images that were imported by copy. Now, that is not my preferred way to import images, however I am dealing with legacy documents in some case that were created with graphics that are "long lost" and someone in the document history clearly had no idea how to use FM.

I'm not certain if it's relevant--that the import by copy images are the only content--but thought I would mention it.

[LinSims]

It might be. The only images that show up in my empty PDFs are ones from the reference page (for caution triangles) and the watermark, which is imported by copy. 

[arvarobert]

You point out an interesting thing, the images that come up in my "ghost" PDFs are indeed those I have in the reference pages, and of all things, the caution triangle with the "!" is what I see on the first page every time this happens.

[K.Daube]

Now that I have encountered this bug also in FM 16.0.0.754 - the released version, it's again time to vote on this issue on

https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-7757  (voting is the only pressure in our hands)

Since a random problem by its very nature can not be reproduced on demand, Adobe needs to create a special build which creates a dump on the transition from one sub-process (Mapping tags to marked content) to the last (Postprocessing PDF document). Otherwise the animal can not catched.