Latest server update has broken embedded Adobe PDFs within Excel 365 [April 2024]

Question

Hi Support,

Issue with Server 2022 and the latest updates.

Office 365 and Adobe reader installed

Some embedded .pdf files do not open correctly.

Issue only seems to occur on Windows Server - in this case Server 2022 standard.

Have been able to recreate this issue on a new virtual machine with Windows Server 2022 standard, Office 365 and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Without the Microsoft OS updates installed, the embedded PDF file works without issue.

With all Microsoft OS updates installed, the embedded PDF file does not open correctly - pops up with the following error message:

"An error exists on this page. Acrobat may not display the page correctly. Please contact the person who created the PDF document to correct the problem".

Removing updates does not resolve the fault. It seems once the update has been applied, the issue remains permanent.

Issue does not occur on Windows 11 client devices.

This issue occurs on at least 3 Windows 2022 Servers in production, plus another 2 that I have created from scratch for testing purposes.

I have been unable to contact server support to discuss [Office support told me this was a server issue].

Answer 1

Hi Severn Dickinson (Severn),

according to the official article April 9, 2024—KB5036909 (OS Build 20348.2402) - Microsoft Support, this patch seems doesn't have a known issue about pdf. It is recommended that uninstall this patch to see if the issue resolves.

Regards,

Lei

Answer 2

Hi, thank you for the response.

I've found that when opening the embedded PDF file from Excel, Adobe Reader file established an internet connection to "a122.dscd.akamai.net".

After this, the embedded pdf's broke!

Reinstalling Adobe Reader fixed the issue for a few minutes, until that connection reestablished itself [it wasn't instant, might be fine for 10mins or so].

The "fix" for this was to use Windows Firewall and block outbound traffic from this program:

c:\program files\adobe\acrobat dc\acrobat\acrocef_1\acrocef.exe

I do not yet know how this will work in a multiuser [remote desktop] environment, nor its long-term consequences. However, at the moment, the fix seems to be holding up [it's been maybe an hour now].

Answer 3

Hi,

according to your description, it seems has been out of my scope.

In order to be able to deal with your questions quickly and efficiently, I recommend that you repost your questions in the Q&A forum, where there will be a dedicated engineer to provide you with a professional and effective response.

Here is a link to the Q&A forum: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/

Answer 4

Hi. I am having this same issue. It all seemed to start after an adobe acrobe reader update because I noticed the AI Assistant button in the top right corner was new. If you go into Adobe Acrobat, under file, you can disable the new acrobat reader which will then restart and revert versions. This might fix the problem. I am doing some testing now. My initial test seemed to work. I had to delete the embedded acrobat file in excel and insert the object again, after which it seems to open up correctly. When you open the reader again, a blue box pops up and wants you to enable new Adobe Reader, if you avoid clicking ok on this box, hopefully the problem is solved. I just wonder if future updates will still give this option to disable it.