Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Workaround to Acrobat 9 updates not working

Has it really been 6 months since my last post??  Here's a new Quick Note, as always.

My company still uses Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard but for the past month I've been unable to auto-update my new installs.  Whenever I've tried the built-in Help > Check For Updates it reports "No updates available."  I think I've now found the reason, as well as a workaround.

ROOT CAUSE?
The base install of Acrobat 9.0.0 includes their older updater which is located in C:\Program Files x86\Common\Adobe\Updater6.  Inside that folder there are two digital certs, e.g. AdobeUpdate.cer, which are dated 4/16/2008.  I suspect those certs just expired last month?

WORKAROUND
The workaround is to manually update Acrobat 9 until you get the newer AdobeARM updater which was included in Acrobat 9.2.0.  Worst case you'll need to manually download and install all the following updates:
9.1.0 > 9.1.1 > 9.1.2 > 9.1.3 > 9.2.0

The downloads are located on this Adobe page:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=1&platform=Windows

There might be some shortcuts?  For instance, some online discussions say you can skip directly from 9.1.0 to 9.2.0.  Also, you might try copying the C:\Program Files x86\Common\Adobe\ARM folder from an updated PC to an un-updated, then run the AdobeARM.exe ?

4 comments:

PP said...

Thanks for the post including the link. I tried but it looks like they have finally done away with Acrobat 9 updates. The updates on the linked page only go back as far as Acrobat 10. Any ideas on another workaround?
Thanks!

Technical Tony said...

Alas, Adobe seems to have fully dropped support for Acrobat 9. I confirmed your observation that there are no more downloads available. I also re-checked from the homepage just in case it was a site re-org; it wasn't.

I still have the downloaded updaters to take 9.0.0 to 9.2.0 but I doubt that'll help with the online 9.2.0 to 9.5.5 anymore. My office has been slowly transitioning to Acrobat X so this is just going to force the issue for us.

Unknown said...

Hi Tony - I've got exactly the same issue here. Just got a new laptop and installed my (old) copy of Acrobat 9.0.0 from disk and now can't update the darn thing.
Is there any chance I could get some of the old updates from yourself?
Not sure how comfortable you are legally on that (I'm presuming the updates will only update an already licensed copy). I can send you a copy of my licence screen on adobe or a pic of the disk with hello tony next to it!?
This is crazy that legit users like us can't get updates but I COULD go and torrent a cracked version of Acrobat XI if I was so minded!!

Kind Regards,
Dave

p.s. couldnt see any way to PM you on the site.

Unknown said...

Hey guys - i've got a solution to this (after much searching).

The updates are still available, but only on the adobe ftp site(!).
You can get the updates here:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/acrobat/win/9.x/
(that'll work in most modern browsers)
The following page tells you which updates to apply - you only need the regular quarterly one's, not the out-of-cycle patches as these are rolled into the next quarterly update.
http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/update-patch-acrobat-reader-7.html

This page then tells you how to install each patch in turn using a batch file:
http://www.serveradventures.com/the-adventures/installing-adobe-acrobat-9-v955-pro-fully-updated-deploying-with-gpo-or-mdt-2012

Good luck ;-)