Adobe PDF Printer & Adobe PDF Creation Cannot Continue Because Acrobat Is Not Activated

When creating a PDF document either directly in Acrobat or using the PDF Printer or the Convert to Adobe PDF (PDFMaker function) feature, you might get an error message stating that “Adobe PDF Printer & Adobe PDF Creation Cannot Continue Because Acrobat Is Not Activated.” This is a known issue with the Adobe applications and can be resolved by making PDF Printer the default printer, changing file locations, adjusting permissions, stopping the process, modifying the registry entries or reinstalling the application. You might need to try more than one resolution in order to fix the problem.

Default Printer

  1. You can resolve the “Adobe PDF Printer & Adobe PDF Creation Cannot Continue Because Acrobat Is Not Activated” error by making Adobe PDF Printer your default printer from the “Printers” section of the Windows Start menu or the Control Panel. Right-click the “Adobe PDF” printer in the list of printers and choose the “Set As Default” option.

Move Files

  1. You can also resolve the error by changing the location of the data file and deleting the cache file. Navigate to the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\FLEXnet directory, copy the Adobe_00080000_tsf.data file, paste it to your Windows Desktop, delete the original file from the FLEXnet directory and restart the Acrobat application. If the error remains unresolved, remove the cache files by navigating to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache. Move the files Pcd.db, Cache.db and Caps.db to a different location and restart the application. You will need to re-enter your product information.

Process

  1. If the error remains unresolved, stop the Acrotray.exe process from the Windows Task Manager. If this fails to resolve the error, disable your anti-virus applications and firewalls and repair your Acrobat application. You do this from the “Add/Remove Programs” section of the Windows Control Panel. Click on “Acrobat” in the list of installed programs and choose the “Change” option. This will launch a wizard and walk you through the repair process. Enable your anti-virus and firewall applications after you have reactivated your repaired Acrobat installation, as your computer will be vulnerable to attack while these are disabled.

Registry

  1. If the problem persists, try setting up a new user account with administrator permissions and attempt to run the Acrobat application using the new account. You can also try fully uninstalling all versions of Acrobat and reinstalling the application. Ensure that it has all permissions required to run. If all else fails, you will have to modify the registry permissions for the FLEXNet key, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\FLEXnet Licensing Service. This means making changes to your Windows registry, which could cause your computer to stop working if done incorrectly. You should create a backup of your registry before making any changes and only proceed with this change if you are sufficiently qualified. If in doubt, contact a qualified IT technician to troubleshoot the problem for you.