Re: "There was an error opening this document. Access denied" - Reader X.

I have been opening PDF files sent to me as email attachments for years without problems with XP SP2-3. Now, all of a sudden, I get this message for dozens of incoming "attached" PDF files. Must be independent of PDF file characteristics because message is there regardless of whether attached PDF is plain text, encrypted or password protected,  also, Reader X seems to open most other PDF files stored on my C:\ drive. Googled the problem and there are hundreds of people out there with variants of the same problem but no apparent solutions! Here is the message:

Help!  Thanks!

1. Mail client - not sure what this means - using Eudora 7.1.0.9.

Note that I have, until Reader X, received and successfully read,

hundreds of PDF attachments.

2. No. Everything is Eudora defaults. Nothing fancy.

3. Yes. Only AVG free. Same note as 1. above i.e. no problems for ages.

4. Yes twice. Uninstalled, reboot, install, reboot. Also tried the

"repair" utility in Help twice.

I am now seriously considering uninstalling and going back to Reader

9x. Held back by possibility that more emailed PDF attachments may be

written by more recent version and 9x might not be able to read them

all. After all, I only downloaded version 'X'  because one PDF file

said it needed it.

I could send a PDF file that gives the error if that helps

Thank you

Thanks for that. You are sure to be right. After many hours I also found a similar solution.

In my case, I found that if I went to the email attachment file directly i.e. C:\.....\ApplicationData\....\Qualcomm\....\Attach\ - Reader X opened it no problems.

So the problem, for Adobe, is clear. Reader does not open a PDF file in Eudora (even if one right clicks and uses "Open With") but will open it if you go direct to the file itself.

100islands message on the Reader X sandboxing is on the right patht, this is the cause of the issue.  To resolve, navigate to Edit -> Preferences.  Select the General section and uncheck the box to Enable Protected Mode at Startup.  This resolved my issues with opening PDFs across a mapped network drive with Reader X.

Be aware, this disables the sandboxing, so you are more exposed to attacks using PDF scripting as the infection vector. 

My HelpDesk team started deploying Adobe Reader x and boom!!! all of these users cannot open PDF documents stored on the network, including network share folders and Network Drives.

I hope a fix is released soon, for now we went back to Adobe Reader 9.

also unchecking the "Enable Protected mode at startup" worked like a champ!

Thanks!

There's a way to fix this problem:

- Open Adobe Reader X

- Go to Edit - Preferences - General section

- Uncheck the option called "Enable Protected Mode at Startup"

- Save the changes, close Adobe Reader and it should be fixed.

Let me know if this worked for you!

Hi,

Please update to the latest update version of Adobe Reader X. Do not un select the Protected Mode dialog as that is just a  workaround to the problem.

But in that way Reader will not be secure. So we should always keep the checkbox 'Select Protected Mode' always checked.

Thanks

They were already in a share

This happens to me when I transfer files from a flash drive to my Windows 7 computer.  This also happened a lot on Vista.  Sigh.  I know this is an old thread, but anyone doing a current search on this issue may be served by my solution:

1.  Right click on the offending file and select 'Properties'

2.  Click the 'Details' tab

3.  Click on 'Remove properties and personal information' link at the bottom of the box

4.  Another box will open, click 'OK' (Create copy will all permissions removed)

5.  Adobe will create a copy of the file with all permissions removed.

6.  You can now delete the unopenable file and rename the copy without the '- Copy' extension.

I know there is probably another way to do this, but this works.  You can also transfer the file to a flash drive and it should open. 

ManishPali wrote:

 

Please try with latest update Reader 10.1.

The problem still exists for me with Reader 10.1.0, accessing files on a mapped UNC network share. Disabling Protected Mode allowed the files to open.

Note that the grayed-out icons with "X" in the corner were present for various file types. Microsoft Office files opened fine and their icons returned to normal once opened. For PDF files, Reader gave the "Access is denied" error when Protected Mode was enabled. Once it was disabled, Reader would open the files and the PDF icons returned to normal.

The Protected Mode log contained a lot of the following:

[07:21/18:01:35] NtCreateKey: STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED

[07:21/18:01:35] real path: \REGISTRY\MACHINE\Software\Adobe

[07:21/18:01:35] Consider modifying policy using this policy rule: REG_ALLOW_ANY

[07:21/18:01:35] NtCreateKey: STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED

[07:21/18:01:35] real path: \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe

[07:21/18:01:35] Consider modifying policy using this policy rule: REG_ALLOW_ANY

[07:21/18:01:35] OpenEvent: STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED

[07:21/18:01:35] name: MSFT.VSA.COM.DISABLE.9560

[07:21/18:01:35] Consider modifying policy using these policy rules: EVENTS_ALLOW_ANY

[07:21/18:01:35] OpenEvent: STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED

[07:21/18:01:35] name: MSFT.VSA.IEC.STATUS.6c736db0

[07:21/18:01:35] Consider modifying policy using these policy rules: EVENTS_ALLOW_ANY

[07:21/18:01:39] NtCreateKey: STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED

[07:21/18:01:39] real path: \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-660097146-3303344535-3666233020-188707\Softwa re\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat

....

Shakti,

The client operating system is Windows Vista SP2 32-bit. Adobe Reader is running from a standard user account and I don't have admin rights to test with. Windows security settings and permissions are more stringent than out-of-box. Installed applications include host intrusion prevention software, antivirus software, and custom security software. Understood that such an environment is bound to be full of conflicts, so it's not necessarily a problem with Adobe Reader as much as the need for a workaround in certain conditions.

My local support claimed the files in question are not archived. I don't know what methods are used to manage files on the share. There may be a correlation between grayed-out icons and file creation or last modification dates, as the dozens of files affected all seem to be at least five months old. Not so with access times, as the most recent access time for an affected file was about a month ago. Attempting to open a file with Adobe Reader and receiving the "access is denied" message did not update any file's last access time.

Unfortunately, I can't provide any more detail on the client due to customer confidentiality. Similarly, I can't provide any details on the server or network share. My customer has been advised of this thread and will hopefully work the technical details through Adobe support. Sorry that I couldn't be of more direct help in diagnosing the issue.

Thanks

-- tr00p_

SBS 2011

Regular Mapped drive to UNC as follows:

S:\public

\\newsrv\public

Permissions and Security=everyone

This was captured using process monitor: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645

It appears that adobe reader tries to read (maybe even write) to the folder ABOVE the folder where the file is located.

This would cause this issue.

1) Copy locally = good

2) Use another viewer = good.

Bug?

I just recently started having issues with only certain XP Pro SP3 PC's running Adobe Reader 9.2 opening certain PDF's on a network drive.

I got the 'there was an error opening this document. Access denied'

I resolved it by going to edit\preferences\security(enhanced) and manually adding the folder path and clicking Ok. After that, no more issues.

Hopefully it will help all those here with the same problem.

Hi,

The issue has been fixed by Adobe for Reader 10.1 and later versions for various configurations.

Please let me know your configuration and exactly for which scenario are you facing this issue. As I am not able to reproduce the issue for the configurations I use Adobe Reader for.

Also, please update to the latest Adobe Reader .

Thanks,

Shakti

Hi,

It may be possible that for some special configurations , the issue still exist. Please tell the exact scenario where the issue exist.

Like:

1) OS on which the issue is faced by your client.

2) Type of network share at which the PDF is accessed.(Is any special filesystem is in picture here like DFS,NFS etc.)

3) Any encryption software is being used/ any antivirus software?

4) The location where the PDF files are stored on the netwrok ( like any Webserver or some other client machine)

Thanks,

Shakti

Hi,

Thanks for the information.

Is it possible for your client that he/she can try to reproduce the issue with another netwrok share on any other server other than SBS2003.

I am not able to reproduce the issue with any other server edition of Windows Server 2003 at my end. If the issue is reproducible for other servers also for your cleint then we can be sure that it is not specific to any server.

Thanks,

Shakti