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Mark Nichoson
Mark Nichoson
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CS6:  Adobe Help Manager - PDF download/extraction error

Jul 25, 2012 8:43 AM

Hi - we have received several reports through this forum that some users are encountering an issue when downloading Help reference PDFs through the Adobe Help Manager in CS6. 

 

Problem: Although the application appears to be downloading the Help content, the application hangs during the 'extraction' phase of the process. Further, when users check in their shared documents folder, the PDF files are actually present and unzipped as expected.

 

Solution:  the application database files and/or corrupt configuration files are likely at fault. To resolve the issue, please delete the following two directories.

 

  • Delete the following directory:

    Windows: %appdata%/chc.4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE.1 

    Tip:      To find this directory in Windows, copy the preceding phrase into the Windows Explorer file manager.

    Mac OS:     /[user name]/Library/Preferences/chc.4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE.1

 

           Tip:   To find this directory on Mac OSX 10.7, open the Terminal application and enter the following: "chflags nohidden ~/Library/” and execute.

 

  • And delete this directory too:
    • Windows : C:\Users\Public\Documents\Adobe\ (Help and PDF directories within)
    • Mac : \Users\Shared\Documents\Adobe (Help and PDF directories within)

 

Then simply restart the Help Manager and restart the download process.

 

The engineering team is continuing to investigate the root cause but the steps above should resovle the issue for the majority of users.  Thanks for your patience while we continue to investigate.

7085 Views   13 Replies   Latest reply: Sandeep Gupta, Apr 22, 2013 9:58 PM
 
Replies
  • Reactor10k
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    1. Reactor10k,
    Jul 26, 2012 6:29 AM   in reply to Mark Nichoson
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    Nice work guys, this worked a treat! One thing not mentioned is the cached version of the chc preference file. That might be something to add to the notes, if it needs to be removed.

     
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  • d.nicolas
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    2. d.nicolas,
    Aug 6, 2012 1:11 AM   in reply to Mark Nichoson
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    Hi Mark

     

    This trick did not worked for me : I'm still in "Download Pending" with all Help PDF of all CS6 applications I have installed.

     

    Any news from your engineering team ?

     

    May be they can make a special debug release and send it to some customers having the issue to track the problem ...

     
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  • RAYZONE101
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    3. RAYZONE101,
    Aug 6, 2012 8:53 PM   in reply to Mark Nichoson
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    reply from windows cannot be founr ty anyway

     
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  • d.nicolas
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    4. d.nicolas,
    Aug 8, 2012 3:51 AM   in reply to Mark Nichoson
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    Hi Mark

     

    I was almost sure that this issue was related to our proxy, so I decided to trace the dialog between HelpManager and our proxy.

     

    I used a HTTP sniffer called Charles  ( demo downloadable here:  http://www.charlesproxy.com/ ) to trace everything.

     

     

    Bingo !

     

    HelpManager has some problems talking with the proxy ( authentication issues ).

     

     

    If you are interessed, I can mail you the log created by my sniffer to allow your engineering team to investigate.

     

     

     

    Hereafter are some screen shots of the trace :

     

     

    Session-HelpManager-dialog.JPG

     

     

    As you can see, it's very short :

     

     

    1) the first HEAD failed (normal) : the proxy request an NTLM authentication

     

     

    HEAD #1 request :

     

    HEAD1_Req.JPG

     

    HEAD #2 answer :

     

    HEAD1_Ans.JPG

     

    2) the 2nd HEAD failed :

     

     

    HelpManager did not respected the NTLM authentication method requested by our proxy !

     

    HEAD #2 request :

     

    HEAD2_Req.JPG

     

    HEAD #2 answer : error 403 !

     

    HEAD2_Ans.JPG

     

     

    3) then a POST is made :

     

    Failed because the authentication is bad  (not NTLM, as expected by our proxy)

     

    POST request :

     

    POST_Req.JPG

     

    POST answer : error 403

     

    POST_Ans.JPG

     

     

    4) then a GET is made on the URL :

     

    http://www.adobe.com/support/chc/update/400/fr_FR/update.xml

     

    This time, the authentication negotiation between HelpManager and the proxy is OK, but the last GET failed : error 404, the requested xml file is not found on your site !

     

     

    GET #3 request :

     

    GET3_Req.JPG

     

     

    GET #3 answer : error 404

     

    GET3_Ans.JPG

     

     

     

    Mark, I hope these informations will help your engineering team to correct this issue !

     

    Feel free to request complementary information if needed.

     

     

    Best regards,

    Didier Nicolas

     
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  • Kirsti Aho
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    5. Kirsti Aho,
    Aug 8, 2012 2:52 PM   in reply to d.nicolas
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    Thanks so much for the extra information, Didier.   Mark has passed this on to the engineering team.

     
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  • d.nicolas
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    6. d.nicolas,
    Sep 3, 2012 12:30 AM   in reply to Kirsti Aho
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    Hi Kirsti!

     

    Any news from the engineering team about a fix concerning Help Manager ?

     

    Regards,

    Didier Nicolas

     
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  • Kirsti Aho
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    7. Kirsti Aho,
    Sep 4, 2012 12:39 AM   in reply to d.nicolas
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    Hi, Didier,

    I don't have an answer right now (it is a holiday weekend in the US).  But I've pinged Mark to find out.

    --Kirsti

     
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  • jpost-design
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    8. jpost-design,
    Sep 12, 2012 9:28 PM   in reply to Mark Nichoson
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    These directions are misleading on how to find the Library folder in 10.7.

     

    "Tip:   To find this directory on Mac OSX 10.7, open the Terminal application and enter the following: "chflags nohidden ~/Library/” and execute."

     

    That command merely un-hides it, and you still need to navigate to it. I was trying, to no avail, to enter "chflags nohidden ~/Library/” into Terminal, and run as a command, only to seemingly have nothing happen.

     

    A more direct method to actually open the Library folder is to

    1. In the Finder, choose Go > Go To Folder
    2. In the Go To Folder dialog, type ~/Library
    3. Click "Go"

     

    Other techniques I found were on this page -
    http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/access-hidden-user-library-f iles.html

     
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  • billkalpak
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    9. billkalpak,
    Oct 31, 2012 7:27 AM   in reply to jpost-design
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    You can also just hold the Option key while navigating to "Go" then Library appears as an option.

     
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  • crych
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    10. crych,
    Mar 1, 2013 11:45 AM   in reply to Mark Nichoson
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    It is March 1, 2013 and this problem continues (on a new MBP with a fresh install of all software). Adobe's help system began to deteriorate with the release of CS5 and has only become worse in all respects over the past two-and-one-half years.

     
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  • dixiehaynes@gmail.com
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    11. dixiehaynes@gmail.com,
    Mar 31, 2013 9:11 PM   in reply to Mark Nichoson
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    It is now March 31, 2013 and I also am having this same problem. When I search for %appdata%/chc.4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE.1  in Windows 7, it doesn't exist. I am on the Cloud. If I search for the numbers only 4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE then it finds the application.xml file. Should I delete the xml file?

     
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  • Sandeep Gupta
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    12. Sandeep Gupta,
    Apr 22, 2013 9:57 PM   in reply to dixiehaynes@gmail.com
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    If the folder does not exists, it usually indicates that 'Adobe Help Manager' was never launched on the machine successfully, or that the user had no write permissions to the folder %appdata%, or that the folder was modified.

     

    Look for a folder called, C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Adobe\ and delete the 'Help' and 'PDF' folder therein. Restart 'Adobe Help Manager' and start your download process.

     

    If you are behind a proxy, allow the program 'Adobe Help' to pass through and access the internet.

     

    Regards,

    Sandeep

     
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  • Sandeep Gupta
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    13. Sandeep Gupta,
    Apr 22, 2013 9:58 PM   in reply to crych
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    Hi,

     

    If you are behind a proxy, allow the program 'Adobe Help' to pass through and access the internet. Also, have you been able to locate the folders above and delete the contents there-in?

     

    Regards,

    Sandeep

     
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