Can't delete or move PDF

Good day Joe,

A few questions for you:

• Where on your hard drive are you saving the file to? 
• Does the problem occur if you save to other locations on the hard drive? 
• Has this ever worked for you?  If so, what changed?

Kind regards,

David

Check that no parts of AA are left running after you close it. If AA still has a running part, it may not have released the file back to Windows. Of course, it may be an issue with the 64-bit OS which I am not very familiar with, other than it has caused a lot of different problems for folks.

What program do you use for moving or deleting the files?

Disable Preview in Windows Explorer or use a other File Manager Program.

I recommend using this program called "Unlocker", available here:

http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/

It allows you to find out which application has a "lock" on a file and even

unlock it or kill the process.

Hi,

You can check the process which has locked the file by using a utility "handle.exe", you can download it free from : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896655

Open this exe in command prompt and give the filename as parameter e.g 

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\ handle.exe "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\xyz.pdf"

Now it will list the procees which has handle of the file. Try killing the process and then deleting or moving the file. But this is not the right solution to kill the process everytime. I am interesting in knowing that which process is locking the file. If possible, please share the file.

Thanks.

I just started having this problem now Since late December 2013 into Jan 2014.

My pdf manuals on our network server cannot be deleted or renamed.

I tried logging into the server itself so its not just my laptop.

At first I noticed I could not save a new pdf conversion from Word 2010 (using Acrobat pro XI) with the same name.

So I used a new name "xxxxlatestlatest.pdf"

Then I could not save to that either but I found I could save with the original name, so now I have a new file and cannot delete the strange one.

I ran handle.exe and it says process iD 4  system    so that does not really help does it?

It sounds like the entire windows server file system has a lock on it.

How do release the file without killing the entire system???

signed, very frustrated/Annoyed

Still cannot remove this file- Anyone know what the problem is.

Maybe I should try that de-locker tool someone mentioned.

Will that work on the server?

Hi guys, I found a way to delete it, not the best though.

1) Open the pdf file you are trying to delete

2). Ctrl-Q to exit pdf reader

3). delete

It worked for me

I had this same trouble. It's got to be something with Adobe PDF. It doesn't happen with my other PDF readers. They tell you make sure it's not running somewhere in the background. Well I downloaded the unlocker program, and when it checked it said it could not find any instance where the file was being used. It was still able to close it thankfully, but that's pretty messed up.

Having the same issue. It only happens with files of type .pdf

I was able to delete all problematic .pdf files by changing the file extension to something else, like .txt - Worked every time.

Anyone have any idea what is unique about .pdf files in Windows that would tie up the file permissions for this file type and not others?

I had this problem a while ago with Acrobat Reader X so uninstalled it and was using Foxit instead. I now have Acrobat Pro and the minute I installed the problem came back.

I'm using Windows Explorer in Windows 7 x64. Everything is fine until I run Acrobat. Only server files are affected. When I delete a file it seems to disappear, but when navigating away and back to the folder it's still there, but now cannot be opened. The file can usually be moved to another location, until a delete attempt is made and the file becomes broken. It seems to be locked but Unlocker does nothing on the file (i.e. nothing is listed as using it). I then can't delete, move or rename it. Rebooting solves the issue in that all locked/broken files are gone.

As expected, this isue is driving me absolutely nuts!

Does anyone know what can be done to solve the issue?

ChrisDanger, you seem to have a different problem from everyone else, and one I've never heard of before. Perhaps one to take up with your server admin.

This is an issue in Windows Exploror. When Reader 10, 11 or Acrobat Pro is installed it sets the defualt preview application for PDF files to Reader.  Rename or delete the AcroRd32.exe (\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 10.0\Acrobat) and it will fix the issue until the next adobe update runs and "Fixes" the missing file probluem is will see.

Mr. Bergmann: Thank you so much! I was hesitant to respond immediately but this has definitely solved the issue.

i hate you adobe!! so many people struggling with this issue and still no fix. just already die stupid corporation!!!

Renaming AcroRd32.exe did the trick!

We also had this issue, not being able to delete or move the pdf file while in Preview. I renamed the above to AcroRd32.txt and all is well with the world again.

Thanks cpbergmann!

WOULD BE NICE IF ADOBE PUT THIS LITTLE GEM OF INFO OUT THERE!  FIX THIS CRAP ISSUE ALREADY!

Thank you so much, good fix, was ready to smash computer SOOOOO Frustrating

I had this same frustrating problem of not being able to delete an Adobe PDF.

After wasting at least 30 minutes I decided to logon to my Adobe online account.

Then I went back and tried the same delete that hadn't worked before and now it deleted the file.

It's a mystery to me why this worked.

I dont' know if this will work for anyone else for I opened the file in Microsoft Office picture viewer after it wouldn't delete and I deleted it that way. Adobe seems to work fine now It's letting me delete files again.