For reference, I have a licensed, full version of Adobe Design CS4. My version of Acrobat is 9.0 Professional. My hardware is a recent model PC based laptop with a core 2 duo processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM. My OS is Vista Business 64.
Here is the error I was experiencing. This error plopped on top of every file I worked with upon my attempt to close the file or close Acrobat. VERY FRUSTRATING!
I spent a considerable amount of time searching various forums - finally settling on the good old' Adobe support forum found at http://forums.adobe.com/ (login required). Unfortunately, as I perused the various entries, I discovered that every thread attempting a solution had limited success: the solution either deleted key Acrobat features, or the issue returned sporadically after a variable period of time. Users' attempts were grouped into two distinctly different methods to try and neutralize the error.
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| Screenshot of Acrobat's preferences dialog box. |
THE FIRST SOLUTION PRESENTED
which did fix the error (but also disabled key features) involved modifying items in the preferences menu. Users navigated to Edit>Preferences>Documents and selected the pull-down menu labeled "Remember Titles in Organizer history for:" The default is to remember titles for 12 months. In order to solve the error problem, users instead selected "Don't remember PDF's".Although it did remove the popup dialog box, choosing this option effectively disabled a key feature of Acrobat - the Organizer function. Virtually every file opened by Acrobat is a .pdf. Disabling the recognition of .pdf files meant that there is no data that can be organized. This solution may not be a problem for many Acrobat users, but it essentially bypasses the problem instead of solving it. The program continues to have an error which may increase in severity over time.
THE SECOND SOLUTION PRESENTED enjoyed much more popularity amongst the participants. Instead of disabling features and leaving the application in a defective state, an attempt was made to navigate to the offending file and delete it. When Acrobat opened the idea was that the application would rebuild the missing file correctly, solving the error problem at the source.
In order to access the file location, forum participants accessed the run command from the start menu. They then navigated to C:\Users\[your name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\9.0. Within the 9.0 folder was a hidden file which was (presumably) the source of the corruption.
!!! CAUTION !!!
As you navigate through menus, you will see a lot of files that are unfamiliar. There is a strong tendency to delete these 'strange' files. However, it is imperative to do no such thing. Remember that these unknown files are always there but are hidden from view. Mistakenly deleting them can cause applications or even your OS to fail. ►REMEMBER: WHEN YOUR SEARCH IS COMPLETE, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO RETURN THE FOLDER OPTIONS TO THEIR DEFAULT STATE! ALSO, DO NOT FORGET TO SELECT "APPLY" BEFORE CLOSING THE FOLDER OPTIONS WINDOW.◄
Within the 9.0 folder you should be able to see the offending file, called Organizer90. Unfortunately for many users the file was not there, or was replaced by an empty folder with the same name. Users tried various methods of "deleting" the bad file, including making a 'fake' folder or file with that name and then opening and closing Acrobat, then deleting the file or folder, and then re-opening Acrobat. The hope was that somehow Acrobat would intuitively sense the file was now missing and would rebuild it from scratch. Sadly, this fix worked only for a while with most users, and did not work at all for others. In the best case scenario, this scab fix lasted only a few days or weeks before the error returned.
►►HOW I SUCCESSFULLY SOLVED THE ERROR◄◄
I decided to take a peek around in the file system. I navigated to C:\Users\[YOUR NAME HERE]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\9.0 and noticed that although there was no organizer file or folder inside, there were two files, called Usercache.bin and SharedDataevents that had been updated the moment I had exited out of Acrobat after seeing the Organizer database error.
So, in an attempt to logically discern where the problem was coming from, I decided to drag these files to my desktop. My understanding was that when Acrobat looked for and attempted to access these files, they would not be found. Additionally, by saving the files, I could (theoretically) easily return them to their proper location if some horrible error occured.
As I theorized, these two files were recreated upon opening Acrobat. Since I deleted (moved) the files and Acrobat rebuilt them I have not had any trouble.
I believe that what Acrobat does is APPEND the files if they are found in the folder, and if they are not found, it recreates them from a standard template. I believe the UserCache file probably has the acrobat preferences inside, including the various standard fonts and icc profiles used for printing preferences.
(ICC profiles are pretty neato IMHO and very useful for ensuring WYSIWYG document viewing and printing on various different monitors and printers. Very good for prepress color constantcy and for reducing the "delta E" of your printshop.)
Anyhoo, because I don't ever use the organizer feature in acrobat, I am unaware of whether the recreation of these files deletes any info with regards to the organizer. Perhaps special features are reset, but I don't know. Perhaps someone who uses this feature will report their findings.
The important thing for me is that the VERY annoying message IS gone.
I will be sure to update this link ASAP if the problem reoccurs. I usually create 40-100 pdf files per day for work from web and print sources, so if it reoccurs I imagine it will do so fairly soon.
Hopefully this will help those with Acrobat 9.0 standard as well.
I would do the same thing for Mac using the location given earlier in the thread. Just move the files or put them on a flash drive so you can restore them if things go south. If I remember from my Mac days, the OS is pretty user friendly and the fix may be easier than the one for Vista.
Good luck, all and happy Acrobatting!
