How can I fix this problem? Acrobat duplicates my pages when I flatten images.

[Warm_Hearts_Publishing]

I am using the 2017 Acrobat Pro DC version on a Mac (Sierra OS). When I flatten images using the following steps, Acrobat duplicates most of the pages in my document so that it is almost twice as long.

Print Production > Flattener Preview > All pages in document > Apply

How do I make it stop duplicating? I already uninstalled and reinstalled Acrobat.

Susan

[Test Screen Name]

Unusual. Do the pages contain form fields or similar?

[Warm_Hearts_Publishing]

These pages are created without form fields. They are just printable PDFs. The first two pages are not duplicated but all of the rest are.

[Test Screen Name]

Not seen that happen before. Let's step back and make sure you really need to flatten transparency, because sometimes there's bad advice out there. What do you need to achieve?

[Warm_Hearts_Publishing]

Some of the graphic designers I purchase clipart from require that the images be flattened.

[Test Screen Name]

Flattening transparency doesn't "flatten images" except in certain very special cases. Images are already flattened. Do they actually say that you must flatten TRANSPARENCY? If not sure, can you post a link to one of these sites, with the instructions to purchasers? Unfortunately, some have included nonsense/impossible instructions in the past.

[Warm_Hearts_Publishing]

Some of the terms by various artists are phrased as follows:

Securing and locking down images is required for all products.

Clipart should be merged into your product so your customers are not able to extract and reuse the clipart.

File must be personalized for your customer and sold as a flattened JPEG or PDF files.

They (clipart) must be sold in a flattened format such as a locked PDF in order to prevent the graphics from being lifted.

And here's a link to one site:

Terms of Use

[lilleepup]

I'm having the same problem. Has there been a solution?

[Test Screen Name]

Not considered a problem by Adobe. Since flattening is not for that purpose, in their eyes.

[lilleepup]

I'm trying to flatten transparency for print though.

[Test Screen Name]

We expect the file to get bigger, sometimes much bigger. If your print provider needs you to flatten they should expect this.

[Test Screen Name]

Ah wait, is the problem that the file is bigger, or that some pages are duplicated?

[lilleepup]

pages are duplicated

[ClaireTur]

I have just noticed this problem too. My 64pp A4 PDF needs flattening for print, but I end up with 76 pages, the duplicates start appearing randonly at page 53. Acrobat Pro DC continuous release  2018.009.20050 on Windows 10 64bit

[lilleepup]

I still haven't found a fix for this. One thing that I found to work sometimes was to just flatten the pages that are giving you trouble separately, individually, but even then it sometimes duplicated some of the pages. After trying to fix it for way more time than it was worth, I ended up just sending it to the printer with a note about it.
Hoping we see some solutions for this soon. Good Luck!

[Belle5]

Has anyone found a solution to this yet? I have had the same issue with a PDF supplied from a client? Duplicates the pages when I try to flatten them.

[aggiek4515279 · Accepted solution]

in my case removing tags and flattening specific pages (from 1-40) did the trick

[janicea51692288]

I am having this issue too. How do you remove tags?

[sittingprettygraphics]

this fix didn't work for me

[sittingprettygraphics]

I have this issue too. I created the file in Indesign, exported to print-ready pdf, selected flatten all pages - turned my 16-page pdf into a 17-page pdf. Just randomly duplicated page 7. I then tried aggiek4515279 answer of selecting flatten pages 1-16 and still have the same problem. Of course I can just go and delete the duplicate page, but I want to understand why this is happening. I flatten files for printing all the time and this hasn't happened before. The page that's getting duplicated simply has text and one tiff file image.

[magicNYC]

February 2022: I'm having this problem on a 176-page book. Acrobat is turning it into 329 pages!! Why the h@#($*#)$*^ hasn't Adobe fixed this?  IT'S BEEN 5 YEARS!!!!!!!!

Has anyone come up with a solution recently?  I'm at wits end -- have been trying to fix this for over a week!

[magicNYC]

A file that is flattened gets SMALLER, not bigger.

I realized that if the only solution to this [RIDICULOUS!] problem was to flatten the pages in small batches and then remove the duplicate pages, I had to know which pages were the flattened ones. Is Acrobat placing the flattened pages BEFORE or AFTER the original pages? The answer: the new, flattened pages are the SECOND set of pages -- Acrobat is inserting the new, flattened pages AFTER the original pages.  Here is how I figured that out:

1. I flattened my document in groups of 10 pages, working beginning to end.

2. I checked the page count after each batch to find out when Acrobat duplicated a set of pages. Saved the file.

3. I saved a copy of the entire file as a new document [name of doc] COPY.

4. I used the Organize Pages tool to remove all of the pages EXCEPT the FIRST set of 10 duplicate pages.  I saved this as a new document: [name of doc] FRONT.

5. I went back to the COPY document and opened it again.

6. I used the Organize Pages tool to remove all of the pages EXCEPT the SECOND set of 10 duplicate pages.  I saved this as [name of doc] BACK.

7. I looked in the file directory to see which test document -- FRONT or BACK -- was smaller. It was the SECOND test document.

8. I went back to the original document that contained duplicated pages and deleted the FRONT set of 10 pages, leaving the smaller, presumably flattened BACK set of pages in the document.

I hope to h!@#)(*&% that the pages are ACTUALLY flattened, because I can't upload the book to KDP for printing until I have a truly flattened document. Wish me luck!

[christinah65800558]

And here it is May of 2023 and THE ONLY reason I bought into acrobat was to be able to flatten images.    This problem is still not fixed!