Adobe Acrobat DC 2017 Crashes Immediate on RDS Server 2016

[chrisc19589743]

Hello,

I've been trying to figure this out for a while, we're running Acrobat on a Remote Desktop Server running Windows Server 2016. If logged in as an admin it seems to always work fine, and some non-admin accounts do as well. Most users though experience the program start to launch than immediately close with no errors being displayed or showing in Event Logs.

The version of the software is Adobe Acrobat 2017 - 17.011.30078 and shows as fully update to date.

I've added the following registry key as recommended in some other forums

HKLM >> Software >> Policies >> Adobe >> Adobe Acrobat >> 2017 >> FeatureLockDown >>

Name= bProtectedMode

Type = REG_DWORD

Data = 0

I have also uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times and the server has been rebooted after each troubleshooting step.

I verified it was active on multiple users, but some are still crashing and since it's crashing immediately I have no way to checking settings to see if Protected Mode is actually off.

Right now as a work around we have just Adobe Acrobat Reader DC so people can at least open PDFs even if they can't edit and manage them.

[shaktikeshri]

Hi chrisc19589743,

Sorry to hear the inconvenience caused to you and thanks for sharing the detailed information.

Protected Mode is a feature for Adobe Reader DC only.

So, bProtectedMode will have not affect Adobe Acrobat DC.

To debug the issue for Acrobat, can you please let me know the following:

1. Does crash happen just after application launch or opening any PDF file ?
2. Does crash happens only on launching the application on RDS server or does it also crash when directly launched on server 2016.
3. If crash happens on opening any PDF file, does it crash for all the files?
4. If crash happens on opening any PDF file, how exactly are the users opening the file ?  (like double click or file->open or drag/drop)

Thanks,

Shakti

[chrisc19589743]

Hello,

That's good to know about the protected view, thank you!

As for your question, Acrobat crashes immediately upon launch, whether it's opening a PDF or just opening the application, the window blinks up for a second an immediately closed completely.

It seems to be 99% non-admin users, though a few of the non-admins aren't having the problem. All users are setup the same way.

[shaktikeshri]

Hi Chrisc19589743,

Can you please provide crash dump .

When Acrobat process crashed ..

1. Open task manager
2. Right click on Acrobat process 
3. Select Create Dump

Please forward the dump file .

Thanks,

Shakti

[chrisc19589743]

Hello, I've just sent you a dropbox link for the dump file you requested.

[chrisc19589743]

Hello, has there been any update for this? We're still unable to use Acrobat on our Remote Desktop Server.

[awd_au]

Is there any update to this, we are having the same issue on 2 RDS farms. one 2012 r2 and the other 2016, We've had to set chrome as the default app to open Adobe files, which is definately not ideal due to it not supporting some of the featurs in PDFs.

However our issue isn't as extreme. Its only affecting 30% of users using profile disks. We also tried moving the moving the adobe folder in appdata.

[awd_au]

Sorry I should add

Faulting application name: AcroRd32.exe, version: 19.8.20080.44583, time stamp: 0x5bca51c0

Faulting module name: AcroRd32.dll, version: 19.8.20080.44583, time stamp: 0x5bca51b4

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x00989f7b

Faulting process id: 0x59e4

Faulting application start time: 0x01d46adf0f4732fb

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.dll

Report Id: dc79fd20-8201-430e-8352-ec9693a70be9

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

Event ID is 1000

[Guest]

I hope Adobe finds a solutions quick, we also have exactly the same problem, we have it with Acrobat Reader DC

AcroRd32.exe, version: 19.8.20080.44583

AcroRd32.dll, version: 19.8.20080.44583

Adobe Reader opens, and closes immediatly

Regards,

Reinout

[RobbinK]

HI,

I had exact the same problem, i found a few years ago online a fix.

it worked for me with different versions of Adobe Reader, now i have used it with version:

2019.008.20080

I add by an policy the following Registery key:

Hive:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Key path: Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\Privileged

Value name: bProtectedMode

Value type: REG_DWORD

Value data: 0x0 (0)

Common Options:

Stop processing items on this extension if an error occurs on this item: Yes

Run in logged-on user's security context (user policy option): Yes

[Guest]

Hi Robbin,

Thank you for your answer. However, we have tried it, and it didn't solve the problem. Not all users on the Remote Desktop Server have that problem. We also tried to do a repair, but still Acrobat reader is opening, and immediately closes... We manually accepted the EULA, we did a repair, we entered the registry keys manually, but still it doesn't work..

Regards,

Reinout

[itd80610879]

Your reply fixed it for me!

How inept are Adobe that many versions on they still have the same bug in RDS Acrobat.

[stephenw60667956]

Having the exact same issue on a Server 2012 R2 RDS Server. 

We have two RDS Session Hosts, once a user starts getting this problem, it doesn't matter which Session Host the user logs onto they get the same error.  Which makes me think it's something profile related.  I tried restoring both VM's back to before the problem started, it seems to work for an hour or so, then starts faulting again.  I've even tried restoring the VM then disabling the Adobe Update service before attaching the virtual switch but the same thing happens.

The users are using published Web Apps, but I also see the error when logged directly onto the server via the Hyper-V console.

Is anyone from Adobe looking into this?

I would use different PDF software , but our main line of business application integrates with Adobe!

[Adorobat]

Hi stephenw,

Sorry for the delay in response.      

As per the issue description mentioned above, Acrobat DC crashes on RDS Server , is that correct?

Could you check if an update is available for Acrobat using "Check for updates" option under "Help" menu,  You may also download updates from here: Adobe software and product updates

Reboot the machine after installing update and try again.

You may also visit the following forum threads discussing the similar issue:

Adobe Reader DC crashes on Remote Desktop Server 2016

Adobe Reader DC has errors and crashes with Windows Server 2012 R2

Acrobat DC crashes on Windows 2012 R2 RDS server

Could you share the error message users are getting when Acrobat crashes?

What is the dot version of Acrobat you are using? You may refer to the steps given in this link on how to check the version in Acrobat:

Identify the product and its version for Acrobat and Reader DC

Let us know if you need any help.

Shivam

[MachineBean]

I had a very similar problem with Acrobat Reader DC in a server 2016 RDS environment, and i was able to fix it in two ways

1. I found that if i opened a PDF with Reader instead of opening the program directly, it would take several seconds to crash. after a few tries i was able to go to Edit > Preferences > Security (Enhanced) >  and uncheck Enable Protected Mode at startup before the program crashed.
2. after i knew this was a viable fix i found adding a new DWORD value named bProtectedMode with the value of 0 to the following registry keys fixed the issue by disabling Protected Mode at startup
   • for x64 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockDown
   • for x86 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockDown

here is some Adobe documentation that i found helpful when figuring out what values to add to the registry Protected Mode

hope this helps someone