Adobe Acrobat, wtf

Pogo

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Dec 7, 2012
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My Acrobat suddenly refuses to work at all. Whether I try to open a pdf or open the program directly it tells me it "can't find it". I've updated, uninstalled and reinstalled, no change. Also went and downloaded fresh installer, ran that, and the installation failed and the installer disappeared.

Anyone else getting this?
 
Last edited:
It only affects morons, so the Peanut Gallery need not get excited.

Actually, some of the updates aren't all backward compatible? I changed over to that Foxit Reader thingy and haven't had a problem yet. Or, maybe you clicked on something that automatically 'saved' all your pdf's to another file extension without realizing it? Check the file extensions in the pdf names first whenever you run into this kind of stuff.
 
My Acrobat suddenly refuses to work at all. Whether I try to open a pdf or open the program directly it tells me it "can't find it". I've updated, uninstalled and reinstalled, no change. Also went and downloaded fresh installer, ran that, and the installation failed and the installer disappeared.

Anyone else getting this?

OK I did it again again, and now I'm able to open a pdf. We'll see how long it holds up.

Gave me some weird screen that wanted me to "sign in" for something. I just closed it.
 
It only affects morons, so the Peanut Gallery need not get excited.

Actually, some of the updates aren't all backward compatible? I changed over to that Foxit Reader thingy and haven't had a problem yet. Or, maybe you clicked on something that automatically 'saved' all your pdf's to another file extension without realizing it? Check the file extensions in the pdf names first whenever you run into this kind of stuff.

All pdf extensions are fine, it was the program itself. I had tried multitudinous pdfs and nothing would open, while other files (media) had no issue.
 
Word processor software or downloader or something, sounds like, with some kind of "save these files as ..." issues.
 
Word processor software or downloader or something, sounds like, with some kind of "save these files as ..." issues.

I never ever save anything as a pdf if I don't have to. These are all downloaded manuals.

Seems to be working now, although Adobe wants to take me on some kind of "tour" (must be Hallowe'en) and the icons have all changed, but they work. Just have no idea what went wrong on a day when too many other things are going down. Must be "Mercury in retrograde".
 
My Acrobat suddenly refuses to work at all. Whether I try to open a pdf or open the program directly it tells me it "can't find it". I've updated, uninstalled and reinstalled, no change. Also went and downloaded fresh installer, ran that, and the installation failed and the installer disappeared.

Anyone else getting this?

This may at least point you in the correct direction.
Known issues | Adobe Acrobat DC, Reader DC
 
Word processor software or downloader or something, sounds like, with some kind of "save these files as ..." issues.

I never ever save anything as a pdf if I don't have to. ".

It works the other way, too; if you accidentally click on save pdf files as some other file type and it does so automatically, it will change all of that file type to the other.

In any case, it obviously isn't that, so no worries, just some conflict somewhere that shut itself down.
 
My Acrobat suddenly refuses to work at all. Whether I try to open a pdf or open the program directly it tells me it "can't find it". I've updated, uninstalled and reinstalled, no change. Also went and downloaded fresh installer, ran that, and the installation failed and the installer disappeared.

Anyone else getting this?

This may at least point you in the correct direction.
Known issues | Adobe Acrobat DC, Reader DC

Thanks, I actually had that page opened before. When it started babbling about a "sign-in screen" I closed it.

We'll never know what went wrong but it's back now reinstalled. I strongly suspect Adobe put a suicide gene in the first iteration so they could try to extort money.
 
My Acrobat suddenly refuses to work at all. Whether I try to open a pdf or open the program directly it tells me it "can't find it". I've updated, uninstalled and reinstalled, no change. Also went and downloaded fresh installer, ran that, and the installation failed and the installer disappeared.

Anyone else getting this?

This may at least point you in the correct direction.
Known issues | Adobe Acrobat DC, Reader DC

Thanks, I actually had that page opened before. When it started babbling about a "sign-in screen" I closed it.

We'll never know what went wrong but it's back now reinstalled. I strongly suspect Adobe put a suicide gene in the first iteration so they could try to extort money.
My Acrobat suddenly refuses to work at all. Whether I try to open a pdf or open the program directly it tells me it "can't find it". I've updated, uninstalled and reinstalled, no change. Also went and downloaded fresh installer, ran that, and the installation failed and the installer disappeared.

Anyone else getting this?

This may at least point you in the correct direction.
Known issues | Adobe Acrobat DC, Reader DC

Thanks, I actually had that page opened before. When it started babbling about a "sign-in screen" I closed it.

We'll never know what went wrong but it's back now reinstalled. I strongly suspect Adobe put a suicide gene in the first iteration so they could try to extort money.
Did you recently add a drive to your computer, or make any big windows changes?
 
My Acrobat suddenly refuses to work at all. Whether I try to open a pdf or open the program directly it tells me it "can't find it". I've updated, uninstalled and reinstalled, no change. Also went and downloaded fresh installer, ran that, and the installation failed and the installer disappeared.

Anyone else getting this?

This may at least point you in the correct direction.
Known issues | Adobe Acrobat DC, Reader DC

Thanks, I actually had that page opened before. When it started babbling about a "sign-in screen" I closed it.

We'll never know what went wrong but it's back now reinstalled. I strongly suspect Adobe put a suicide gene in the first iteration so they could try to extort money.
My Acrobat suddenly refuses to work at all. Whether I try to open a pdf or open the program directly it tells me it "can't find it". I've updated, uninstalled and reinstalled, no change. Also went and downloaded fresh installer, ran that, and the installation failed and the installer disappeared.

Anyone else getting this?

This may at least point you in the correct direction.
Known issues | Adobe Acrobat DC, Reader DC

Thanks, I actually had that page opened before. When it started babbling about a "sign-in screen" I closed it.

We'll never know what went wrong but it's back now reinstalled. I strongly suspect Adobe put a suicide gene in the first iteration so they could try to extort money.
Did you recently add a drive to your computer, or make any big windows changes?

Nape. Nothing like that at all.
 
What I know may or may not have anything to do with it, but probably does...
Adobe products are only sold by subscription services, also known as legalized force purchasing...anyway...if you had an installer for a product that is a subscription model it would require you to sign in before launching. If you don't, it simply shuts down and will not open anything until you do sign in.
Acrobat is not free. Adobe Acrobat reader is. Perhaps you were installing the non-free version by mistake.
 
What I know may or may not have anything to do with it, but probably does...
Adobe products are only sold by subscription services, also known as legalized force purchasing...anyway...if you had an installer for a product that is a subscription model it would require you to sign in before launching. If you don't, it simply shuts down and will not open anything until you do sign in.
Acrobat is not free. Adobe Acrobat reader is. Perhaps you were installing the non-free version by mistake.

This is the Reader. That's all I do with pdf.

Seems to be back to normal now but the original one crashed and burned. It didn't give me a sign-in to set up or open; it did throw up a screen at some point when I first opened it that said something about signing in. I didn't see any point and closed it, and it hasn't been back. And the original one never did that.
 
What I know may or may not have anything to do with it, but probably does...
Adobe products are only sold by subscription services, also known as legalized force purchasing...anyway...if you had an installer for a product that is a subscription model it would require you to sign in before launching. If you don't, it simply shuts down and will not open anything until you do sign in.
Acrobat is not free. Adobe Acrobat reader is. Perhaps you were installing the non-free version by mistake.

This is the Reader. That's all I do with pdf.

Seems to be back to normal now but the original one crashed and burned. It didn't give me a sign-in to set up or open; it did throw up a screen at some point when I first opened it that said something about signing in. I didn't see any point and closed it, and it hasn't been back. And the original one never did that.
Ah...than perhaps the installer has malware embedded. Unfortunately that is very common with Acrobat Reader.
Maybe that wasn't your case, but I only get the installer from Acrobat's own website. And I always choose "customize installation" and be sure any hidden programs are set to do not install. Even Acrobat puts in things like Norton products etc. in so you should never just click install..always check custom install
 
What I know may or may not have anything to do with it, but probably does...
Adobe products are only sold by subscription services, also known as legalized force purchasing...anyway...if you had an installer for a product that is a subscription model it would require you to sign in before launching. If you don't, it simply shuts down and will not open anything until you do sign in.
Acrobat is not free. Adobe Acrobat reader is. Perhaps you were installing the non-free version by mistake.

This is the Reader. That's all I do with pdf.

Seems to be back to normal now but the original one crashed and burned. It didn't give me a sign-in to set up or open; it did throw up a screen at some point when I first opened it that said something about signing in. I didn't see any point and closed it, and it hasn't been back. And the original one never did that.
Ah...than perhaps the installer has malware embedded. Unfortunately that is very common with Acrobat Reader.
Maybe that wasn't your case, but I only get the installer from Acrobat's own website. And I always choose "customize installation" and be sure any hidden programs are set to do not install. Even Acrobat puts in things like Norton products etc. in so you should never just click install..always check custom install

Yes, I caught those barnacles -- they were McAfee IIRC.
 
What I know may or may not have anything to do with it, but probably does...
Adobe products are only sold by subscription services, also known as legalized force purchasing...anyway...if you had an installer for a product that is a subscription model it would require you to sign in before launching. If you don't, it simply shuts down and will not open anything until you do sign in.
Acrobat is not free. Adobe Acrobat reader is. Perhaps you were installing the non-free version by mistake.

This is the Reader. That's all I do with pdf.

Seems to be back to normal now but the original one crashed and burned. It didn't give me a sign-in to set up or open; it did throw up a screen at some point when I first opened it that said something about signing in. I didn't see any point and closed it, and it hasn't been back. And the original one never did that.
Ah...than perhaps the installer has malware embedded. Unfortunately that is very common with Acrobat Reader.
Maybe that wasn't your case, but I only get the installer from Acrobat's own website. And I always choose "customize installation" and be sure any hidden programs are set to do not install. Even Acrobat puts in things like Norton products etc. in so you should never just click install..always check custom install

Yes, I caught those barnacles -- they were McAfee IIRC.
McAfee and Norton are both diseases. They are both basically malware disguised as anti-malware. Sure they will filter out any and all malware they catch...unless they are paid to allow it. Both allow virtually any adware and many spyware applications.
You are better off using a secure browser like Brave, it will do more to stop viruses/malware than any anti-virus on the planet.
 
What I know may or may not have anything to do with it, but probably does...
Adobe products are only sold by subscription services, also known as legalized force purchasing...anyway...if you had an installer for a product that is a subscription model it would require you to sign in before launching. If you don't, it simply shuts down and will not open anything until you do sign in.
Acrobat is not free. Adobe Acrobat reader is. Perhaps you were installing the non-free version by mistake.

This is the Reader. That's all I do with pdf.

Seems to be back to normal now but the original one crashed and burned. It didn't give me a sign-in to set up or open; it did throw up a screen at some point when I first opened it that said something about signing in. I didn't see any point and closed it, and it hasn't been back. And the original one never did that.
Ah...than perhaps the installer has malware embedded. Unfortunately that is very common with Acrobat Reader.
Maybe that wasn't your case, but I only get the installer from Acrobat's own website. And I always choose "customize installation" and be sure any hidden programs are set to do not install. Even Acrobat puts in things like Norton products etc. in so you should never just click install..always check custom install

Yes, I caught those barnacles -- they were McAfee IIRC.
McAfee and Norton are both diseases. They are both basically malware disguised as anti-malware. Sure they will filter out any and all malware they catch...unless they are paid to allow it. Both allow virtually any adware and many spyware applications.
You are better off using a secure browser like Brave, it will do more to stop viruses/malware than any anti-virus on the planet.

Yep, I already do Brave. And I have Avast (arrr) so I don't need conflicts.
 
As another poster posted the sign-in part is most likely malware and you should do a root and scan when that happens.

My brother downloaded firefox a few years back and got hit and I had to root out the damn malware...
 

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