PDF Error: "The document could not be printed."

[BrianD]

Hello all,

My users to whom I've distributed an LC-created Dynamic XML PDF can't print the PDF's, instead obtaining the error, "The document could not be printed." and then another pop-up, "There were no pages selected to print."

As I have exhausted every other Adobe forum, Google Group, the remainder of the intertubes, and Adobe customer support, in searching for a solution, I thought that finally I might try the experts here for any possible solution.

A previous version of this PDF had been working fine for a couple of months. A change request led me to implement a button containing a Javascript call to print the PDF:

xfa.host.print(false, "0", "4", false, false, true, false, false);

The print method documented here doesn't describe that settings are in anyway retained by Adobe:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/livecycle/9.0/designerHelp/index.htm?content=001383.html

Now, I can't be sure that this is the source of the printing problem, but it sure is suspicious. Where the new PDF has been tested on user's computers, they now can't print any PDF documents at all. Not only can they not print XDP PDF's, but they also can't print static PDF's. Not even PDF's created using the Adobe PDF Maker print driver in Microsoft Word. I can produce a plain Word document with nothing in it, print to PDF, and send to users, and they obtain the same error documented above.

I have seen numerous, lengthy discussion threads that span versions, and years, describing the errors, but none offer a solution, or at least not a solution that I can get to work.

I'm hoping that the Adobe engineers will soon respond with a better answer than: Upgrade user's computers to the latest version of Adobe Reader. I'd rather an explicit explanation that identifies the problem so it can be resolved definitively, and can be avoided in the future.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on here? Is there a way to restore Adobe PDF's to some sort of default print settings?

Thank you.

Kind regards,
Brian

[Duane Nickull]

Well Brian, you came to the right place.  We all earn our lunch money helping each other out there.

Logically, the document, if in fact the same, should print as the printing protocols have not changed.  There are two likely things that have happened.

1. The document has been modified by someone so start printing on a page (say #4) that does not exist.  This can be easily rectified.
2. The document has been policy protected.

If you sent me a copy of the document to my private email, I'll take a look.  This list is filled with over 1300 very knowledgable PDF form developers and not many issues go unsolved here.

Cheers!

Duane Nickull

***********************************

Technoracle Advanced Systems Inc.

LiveCYcle, Flex, Neo4J and Beer!

Converting PDF Forms to Mobile forms for free in < 5 seconds!

b. http://technoracle.blogspot.com

t.  @duanechaos

"Don't fear the Graph!  Embrace Neo4J"

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[tarekahf]

Hi,

Form what I can see, this is a configuration error on the local client PC.

Try the following steps:

- Remove the printer driver used to print the document,

- Remove Adobe Reader/Acrobat,

- Check the the Adobe Reader/Acrobat exact version number which is working on another PC,

- Reinstall the printer driver,

- Reinstall the correct version of Adobe Reader/Acrobat.

Hope this will solve your problem.

Tarek

[BrianD]

Hi Tarek,

Thank you so much for responding.

I would implement your suggestion in a flash if I were the in-house administrator over these machines, but I'm not.

That's not to say that I can't ask an administrator to do this, but ... you know ... these guys are already overtasked with a list of problems to resolve every day. I'm inclined to wait before asking for a total reinstall.

I also still would think I need to understand the original source of this problem, so that it isn't repeated.

All of which is to say that, yes, your suggestion: 1) Hasn't been considered by me yet; and 2) Sounds like a plausible solution.

And yes, I want to be clear to people who may follow this thread later, that my machine is up-to-date with the current version 10.1.4.38 of Acrobat. The client machines are at 10.0.0.149 (if I recall correctly). I also, however, have an older full version of Acrobat 8 installed. I cannot reproduce this printing problem on my machine. Quite bizarre.

I'm hoping to approach the problem from a couple of other angles before I implement your suggestion, but it's in the queue for sure. So thank you really very sincerely, Tarek. I've been working on this problem for a couple of days now.

Cheers,
Brian

[tarekahf]

Hi Brian,

I remember that similar problem reported by one of the end users to our Help Desk team. They consulted me and I just told them "This is a configuration error on the PC, it is your responsibility to solve. Try reinstall the driver and/or acrobat.".

Sometimes, it is good to let certain people take care of their responsibilities, otherwise you will waist your time try to solve problems due to mistakes by others.

Also, I found that some end-user install some crap plugins and program on their PCs, which causes all kind of strange errors. I remember one time I had to go through all installed programs one by one, and remove those which I don't know about, and the problem of Adobe PDF was resolved.

Tarek.

[D Brian Denzer]

Hmm ... You offer very good advice, Tarik.

It may be that what I seek here is reassurance to do what needs to be done, rather than a technical solution.

I am of the view that this problem is being caused by a combination of factors initiated by something that I did, but I also know that if I were the administrator over these machines, I'd long ago have reinstalled or repaired the Adobe installations and started over.

Thanks!!

Brian

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[tarekahf]

Just to add one more info which might be of help to you.

You can access the end-user Desktop PC using Google Chrome Browser, and Remote Desktop App:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desktop-bet/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp

Both PCs must install Chrome Browser, and from Chrome Web Store, must add Remote Desktop App. Then, it is only few minutes to configure.

Tarek.

[BrianD]

Tarek,

I didn't know that Chrome offers the ability to tunnel to another person's desktop. That's cool. I'll look into it.

As for anyone else following this thread, I'm still working on the print issue. It remains unresolved.

Regards,
Brian

[BrianD]

I'm closing this issue without resolution.

After numerous fruitless efforts, I have reached the conclusion that this is a complete Adobe failure in the X release. Better to stick with 9x for now, and that's the consistent suggestion that I've seen documented in other forums: Blow out the Adobe Acrobat/Reader X instance (of any release), and roll back to 9x. Printing should resume normally and without issue after that.

Most disappointing is Adobe's failure to address this issue in any forum. My recommendation would be for Adobe to have support personnel who actually read their forums and identify solutions when the community can't.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and contribution.

Kind regards,

Brian


On Friday, October 19, 2012 12:24:42 AM UTC-5, BrianD wrote:

[Hemant]

Hi Brain,

Can you share a sample XDP PDF which is showing the error as sometimes the mismatch version in XML source can cause this error.

Let us keep this issue open here. Also Acrobat XI is released so instead of going back to Acrobat 9 you can try acrobat 11.

-Hemant

[D Brian Denzer]

Hemant,

I'd be happy to share.

InterviewReportAndRAITemplate_20121008_v01 is the version in which Javascript printing functionality was being tested on various machines.

https://www.box.com/s/75dn1idclff2r7l9dmxs

Again, to be clear, I cannot replicate this printing error on my own machine, so if it is an XML source problem, it's only affecting other people's machines -- which doesn't ring true to my way of thinking. It should fail universally.

Since I was the one who advised various administrators to upgrade to Acrobat X, and since I've been disappointed in getting no help from Adobe, I won't soon be advising those same administrators to upgrade to XI. If anything, I'll be telling them to roll back to 9.x. In fact, we're going to test that tomorrow.

Thanks,
Brian

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[Hemant]

Hi Brain,

When I say XML source issue, I refer to the default render engine specified in the XML source. Sometimes when we change the default render engine then not all the properties are updated in the XML source and this can be the reason why the PDF is working for some clients and shows error at other client.

PFA the dynamic PDFs with correct render engine updated in the XML source.

Further I have also a added another Button to print the PDF using event.target and get printer parameter function of java-script instead of xfa.host to see it works at your client end.

Since I was not able to reproduce this error I have corrected the PDF files to see if this works at your clients end.

Also can you check if the client systems is having the Adobe printer installed correctly after upgrading the Acrobat/Reader...?

Hope this helps..!!

Regards,

Hemant Garg

[BrianD]

Hemant,

Excellent suggestion. 

As it happens, there is no incompatibility between an old version that worked, and this problem version. Both the old and new are PDF Version 1.7, Adobe Extension Level 3 (Acrobat 9.x).

I could send the different versions for people to print, but I don't think that is going to be the problem. 

Instead, I'll shortly be posting a problem page that we've identified. 

Thank you for the contribution. Positively something to be looking for that might be easily overlooked. 

Brian

[BrianD]

All, 

I was finally able to get one of my clients to print each of 6 PDF pages as separate documents that I supplied to them. 

The offending document seems to be page 5. All others printed, but it was page 5 that produced the errors, "The document could not be printed" and "There were no pages selected to print."

I'm linking to that page in the event that anyone knows how to test it for any problems. 

https://www.box.com/s/4oz2phc8bh1savjr4xkz

My approach might be to compare the XML to a page that does work, maybe remove Javascript code, remove controls, etc., to narrow down further where the source of the problem is.

I think instead that I will create a new page, and drop the controls onto the new document in the hope that recreating the document in this manner will eliminate any possible source-XML problems. 

Any clues or paths the people might pursue who are experiencing this problem, please share. We may be close to a solution to the particular problem I've experienced, if not necessarily an answer for why this is happening. 

Thanks,

Brian

On Friday, October 19, 2012 12:24:42 AM UTC-5, BrianD wrote:

[BrianD]

Additional information ...

This screenshot shows a control that butts right up against the right-hand margin of the document (or rather, the subform) at 8.25 inches. I suspect that this may cause a problem with print drivers:

https://www.box.com/s/logel5e0pktckoren2uh

I don't know how problems with margins can be tested. I didn't see anything in pre-flight other than a box item reporting the document dimensions, but no errors. This is the Preflight audit:

InterviewReportAndRAITemplate_v07_Debug_page05_Test_PreflightAudit.pdf

https://www.box.com/s/s6foogfpcykndipykyau

On Friday, October 19, 2012 12:24:42 AM UTC-5, BrianD wrote:

[Duane Nickull]

Brian, in behalf of this list I moderate, thank you.  Your problem, exploration and solving then sharing the solution help us all.

Awesome work!

Duane Nickull

***********************************

Technoracle Advanced Systems Inc.

LiveCycle Mobile Form Solutions

i.  Neo4J, PDF, Java, LiveCycle ES, Flex, AIR, CQ5 & Mobile

b. http://technoracle.blogspot.com

t.  @duanechaos

"Don't fear the Graph!  Embrace Neo4J"

From: BrianD <brian...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Adobe LiveCycle Developers <live...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 24 October, 2012 7:34 PM
To: Adobe LiveCycle Developers <live...@googlegroups.com>

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[BrianD]

Thanks for the encouragement, Duane. I'm not sure I'd be quite so positive about the contribution -- just slugging it out as long as options remain.

Forget everything. The same printing error is still being generated.

Here's a FRESH, brand new form, nothing in it. It produces the same printing error.

https://www.box.com/s/ccdghl0bfzjfb9ky12xs

Could there be something wrong with LiveCycle, on two different machines? Which is to say that I created a new document in LC on a remote server (which exhibits the problem), and obtained the error.Then compiled a new document on my PC (which does not exhibit the error), then sent it to the remote server, and obtained the same printing error. 

Or is this behavior indicative of the environment in which PDF's are rendered -- Adobe Acrobat X Professional Suite?

Users are reporting that documents will print inconsistently from their own server and from their laptops, using either Acrobat Standard 9 or Adobe Reader X, obtaining the print error most of the time (though I find this consistency claim somewhat dubious, one never knows):

I use Adobe Acrobat Standard 9.0.0, which I use from the Windows 7 OS. We have also tried to print the documents consistently with Adobe Reader X on computers using the Windows XP OS, with similar results. We have tried using several different printers in my building from both computers.  The notes I will include about this troubleshooting exercise will be from my computer, which again is using Adobe Acrobat Standard 9.0.0 on Windows 7, with the printer in my office, which is an HP Laserjet 4000.

I can't print any kind of PDF document on the target sandbox server that I log into -- NOT EVEN a plain static PDF produced from a Microsoft Word document. 

https://www.box.com/s/hszbhipm55gpr2n7b1ce

https://www.box.com/s/v8rdbf68c9axnosyt6uj

This brings me full circle to the original problem, and nowhere to turn. Now I'm completely confounded. 

Have these machines all become corrupted because of something I delivered in a PDF version, testing the print function documented above? 

Should I advise clients to abandon the Adobe forms strategy entirely? It's coming up on the end of week two trying to solve this problem.

On Friday, October 19, 2012 12:24:42 AM UTC-5, BrianD wrote:

[BrianD]

An administrator uninstalled Acrobat Professional 10.0 (claiming to have removed any remnant files and registry entries), and then installed the latest version of Acrobat 10.1.4.38. 

I then attempted to print the most basic form of a static PDF produced by printing from Microsoft Word. 

The same "document could not be printed" error was generated. 

What next?

I'm fresh out of ideas.

On Friday, October 19, 2012 12:24:42 AM UTC-5, BrianD wrote:

[BrianD]

I have finally solved this problem, though I don't know what was broken in the source. I confirmed again that page 5 was causing the problem. By the way, we observed that Brother and Xerox printers had no problem printing. It was HP and Ricoh printers having the problem. If I had administrative rights to those machines, I would see if I could sent print jobs with maybe a small delay to see what happens. I suspect timing to wait for jobs to be sent might be a factor.

I can now file compare the XML source between the broken page, and a new fixed page, to identify the problem (I hope). Since nothing but the width and reserve of field controls may have changed, everything else SHOULD be the same. I'll post these findings.

I must say, I am quite disappointed in Adobe's lack of attention to this longstanding error with it's XFA documents, and their inability to troubleshoot with anything more than the recommendation to upgrade (which doesn't work) -- very, very disappointed.

[Duane Nickull]

That is why we have this list ;-)

Thank you for your contributions as far as documenting a solution.  This always helps people in the future.

Duane

***********************************

Technoracle Advanced Systems Inc.

Consulting and Contracting; Proven Results!

i.  Neo4J, PDF, Java, LiveCycle ES, Flex, AIR, CQ5 & Mobile

b. http://technoracle.blogspot.com

t.  @duanechaos

"Don't fear the Graph!  Embrace Neo4J"

From: BrianD <brian...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Adobe LiveCycle Developers <live...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 31 October, 2012 7:44 AM
To: Adobe LiveCycle Developers <live...@googlegroups.com>

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[Joe Julian]

Brian,

 

We have seen this issue with newer versions of Adobe Reader in Windows 7 (mostly) but as well with earlier versions running in Windows XP.  We have resolved this issue by unchecking "Enable Protected Mode at Startup" in the Security (Enhanced) section under Preferences.

 

Best Regards,

 

Joe