How to Troubleshoot ‘There Was An Error Opening This Document’ on Adobe Acrobat

• Users report problems when trying to open particular PDF documents.
• Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader may be one of the main reasons for the error message: An error occurred while opening this document.
• The file is corrupted and cannot be recovered.
• If you keep receiving “There was an error opening this doc,” it could mean that the problem isn’t actually with your browser.
• If the error occurs when accessing the PDF file through the browser, it may be due to corrupted temporary data.

The versatility of PDFs makes them popular among users, making them very handy file types. The error message “An error occurred while opening this document” for PDF files often occurs when users try to open particular PDFs. Today, we’ll show you how to fix the error.

This error can cause a variety of problems, and we have listed all the possible solutions below.

Damaged PDF file: The file you are trying to open may have been corrupted during the download process. You will need to download the PDF file again to fix this.

A recent release of Adobe Reader sets stringent code restrictions that many older formats cannot meet. I was able to fix the issue by rolling back to a previous version of Adobe Reader.

Acrobat Refresh Manager has some known issues and we can explain what you should do if you’re having trouble with the desktop app.

Outdated Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader: Outdated Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader may be one of the main reasons for the error message: An error occurred while opening this document. The file is corrupted and cannot be recovered. Depending on users, the error may be caused by outdated software that does not support a particular PDF file.

Corrupted browser files: If the error occurs when accessing the PDF file through the browser, it may be due to corrupted temporary data. To avoid this, you may need to delete temporary browser data in order to open the PDF file.

Enabling Advanced Security Mode: It turns out that this error message can appear if Advanced Security Mode is enabled. Therefore, you may need to disable the advanced security mode before you start looking for solutions.

Antivirus software should be checked

A constant message like “There was an error opening this document” may not be a browser problem.

A 135 error is displayed when opening the file from the file system or from Adobe when opened from the file system or downloaded. I have only reproduced the problem on one server.

If this happens, try disabling some of the antivirus features and retry accessing the file again. This issue may be caused by antivirus settings, or a virus labeling the file as potentially dangerous. Disabling your entire antivirus might work; just make sure you’re safe without it before you do.

The final option may be to uninstall your antivirus altogether if this does not work. While this will not protect you from viruses, you will be able to use your computer safely.

Microsoft’s BitLocker encryption protects your files even if your hard drive is damaged or stolen, so you will never worry about losing any important data.

Adobe reader’s protected mode should be disabled

As you know, Adobe Reader is a program where you just know you have to do it in a different way than everyone else. In the best possible way, we mean that. Since 1994, we have been doing things our way, and while we are happy to see that others are starting to catch up, we still think we can improve. Here’s how to turn off Adobe Reader’s protected mode.

In your hard disk’s leading directory, locate the “Startup” folder.

Select Properties by right-clicking on “Startup”.

Select Advanced from the menu.

The Environment Variables section is located at the bottom of the page.

Try downloading this file to your computer locally and then opening it with Acrobat / Reader DC if you are trying to open it from a shared network drive or from your computer.

You can view the contents of the APPDATA environment variable by double-clicking on the variable named “APPDATA.”

There was a problem reading this document (14) when I tried to open an email attachment in .pdf format. I installed Foxit Reader for opening the attachment, but it was not working. Is there a different way to open the attachment?

You need to remove everything within the quotes from the key named “adobe.” 6.

Your computer should be restarted.

The PDF file should now be able to be opened.

Change the directory where the PDF file is located

Some users have reported receiving an error message when attempting to open a PDF document. This is usually caused by a long path to the PDF document you are trying to open.

The issue can be fixed by moving the PDF file causing the problem to another folder. If the file opens from this new location, that means the path was too short, and that caused the issue. If you can move the PDF file into another folder, such as your desktop, or even better, to a “root directory”, like C:/ or D:/, that’s what you should be doing. It is unfortunately necessary to move the problematic files to another directory in order to resolve the issue.

It is recommended to install Adobe Reader again

The Adobe Reader installation might be corrupt and this error might occur when you try to open this file.

Your operating system may use Adobe Reader as the default PDF viewer, so this is a big problem. Here’s how you can resolve this issue:

Adobe Reader needs to be downloaded and installed.

Pdf Files Not Opening

In Windows 10, right-click on the PDF and select Open With – choose the default program.

You can access Programs and Features through the Control Panel.

Under Programs and Features, click Uninstall Adobe Acrobat Reader.

An Adobe Reader security bypass has been discovered (APSB16-14, CVE-2016-1039).

I get an error message when opening a PDF file attached in Adobe Acrobat; this file cannot be found. I also get an error message when saving the same document to Windows.

Your computer should be restarted.

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader from www.adobe.com/reader/download/acrordownload.html and install it on your computer.

Turn off the Preview pane

Click the small icon on the left side of the pane to turn off the Preview pane option. Go to the folder that contains the troublesome PDF file.

Your preview pane might be enabled in File Explorer sometimes and you may receive an access denied message when opening this document. It is an annoying error message, so you can avoid it by turning off the Preview pane. Using the Alt+P keyboard combination, you can quickly disable the Preview pane, which should fix it.

Download and install the latest Adobe Reader updates

The most popular free software program, Adobe Reader, still faces some problems. Among these problems are the error messages that it displays sometimes informing you that you are unable to access certain files. You can fix this problem quickly by upgrading Adobe Reader, as outdated versions are around. Follow these steps to do so:

It is recommended that you open the program first.

Your updates will be listed in a window that opens up.

Click the “Install Update” button.

Adobe Acrobat Does Not Allow Connection To Smb

A new pop-up appears immediately after I click OK to close the message box. I have clicked OK more than 130 times without result. When I click enter to close the message box, it closes and a new message box appears.

4. Click OK.

Your PC should be restarted when prompted.

You will have to restart Adobe Reader after rebooting.

You should re-download the PDF file

You can usually download PDF files using browsers such as Chrome or Firefox. The browser saves PDF files automatically to your hard drive when you download them. There are times when the browser does not save the file correctly. This results in the corrupted file. To fix the issue, you can follow these steps.

There Was A Problem Reading This Document 105

The error persists even with multiple files saved to new locations after installing Acrobat Pro.

Pdf Cannot Be Displayed

Acrobat Reader needs to be opened, clicked on, then “Edit” and then “Preferences” and then “Internet”. Once you have done this, click the “OK” button to exit.

Can’t Open Pdf Files

PDF files can’t be opened if they have an unsupported file type. Occasionally, Adobe Reader can be mistakenly set as the default application.

Adobe Access Denied

Typically, when you get an error like this, it indicates that there is some sort of permission problem. Check the permissions of that file for your user id.” Try this solution: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1163308.

A web browser may have been unable to access the temporary file on your computer, resulting in the error There was an error opening this document. Document cannot be found in Adobe Reader.

You can open the PDF file by navigating to the folder in which it was saved.

Choosing Properties from the right-click menu will allow you to modify the file.

The Details tab can be found by clicking on it.

Choose Repair File from the menu.

Press OK to complete the process.

Click on the file by double-clicking on the location where it was saved.

Restore Adobe Acrobat Reader’s functionality

Many people around the world use Adobe Acrobat Reader to view PDF documents, and when they do, they sometimes have problems with missing fonts or corrupt files. Here are some steps to repair Adobe Acrobat Reader:

Click Windows logo + X to open the Start Menu.

Then, type “Regedit” in the Search box.

3. Click OK.

You can find fonts within the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Fonts folder.

You can name the folder “New Font Folder” by right-clicking Fonts, selecting New, and selecting New.

In the Fonts folder, create a TrueType subfolder.

Delete all font files located in the folder C:/Program Files (x86)/Common Files/Adobe/Acrobat 8.0/Engines/Win32/Fonts and rename it TrueType.

Once RegEdit has been closed, click OK.

Your computer should be restarted.

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view Adobe PDF files.

Frequently Asked Questions