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Posted By: joemikeb Adobe Acrobat and Reader Update Problem - 01/25/12 03:39 PM
Since I have found a solution to my immediate problem this is technically not a request for technical help so I am lodging it here rather than in the Mac OS X Applications forum.

There is a thread in the Applications forum reporting problems with Adobe CS5 and files erroneously reporting The disk copy was changed since you last opened it. I have been encountering what may be a related problem attempting to update both Adobe Acrobat X and Adobe Reader from version 10.1.1 to 10.1.2. The updaters continually report they were unable to complete the update because the files had been modified and suggesting they be reinstalled from the original disc. Checking Adobe's web site simply repeated the advice of reinstalling the product and I was reluctant to pay for technical support.

I was eventually able to update Adobe Reader by downloading the full Reader 10.1.2 and installing it rather than the updater, but since I could not download a full version of Acrobat 10.1.2 I was stymied. I reinstalled Acrobat X from the original copy, ran the updater and it reported it was unable to complete the update because the files had been modified. Finally I ran the Acrobat Uninstaller and totally removed all traces of Acrobat from the system, reinstalled from the original disc, and only then would the updater run.

I have no idea what was causing the 10.1.2 updater to fail, but the fact it happened on both Acrobat and Reader seems suspicious to me. I will be looking long and hard at alternative solutions the next time Acrobat comes up for an upgrade.
Posted By: jchuzi Re: Adobe Acrobat and Reader Update Problem - 01/25/12 04:14 PM
I had the same problem updating Adobe Reader awhile back (I don't remember the version number) and solved it by trashing ~/Library/Preferences/AdobeUM. UM stands for Update Manager. I don't have Acrobat so I can't speak about it.
Posted By: ryck Re: Adobe Acrobat and Reader Update Problem - 01/25/12 04:24 PM
I'm not sure if this helps, as it's not an update situation. I haven't had Reader for quite a while as I find that Preview does pretty much everything I need, however I ran across an anomaly yesterday and installed Reader 10.1.2.

The installation went without incident.
Originally Posted By: joemikeb
I have been encountering what may be a related problem attempting to update both Adobe Acrobat X and Adobe Reader from version 10.1.1 to 10.1.2. The updaters continually report they were unable to complete the update because the files had been modified and suggesting they be reinstalled from the original disc.

<snip>

I have no idea what was causing the 10.1.2 updater to fail, but the fact it happened on both Acrobat and Reader seems suspicious to me. I will be looking long and hard at alternative solutions the next time Acrobat comes up for an upgrade.

Only peripherally related, but as an owner of Photoshop Elements (original version plus 2.x and then 6.x), i can speak to the consistent FAIL of Adobe's download/update management. E.g., in the case of v.6, i kept getting failed auto-updates, seeing some 30+ lines such as this in the aum log:

2/17/09 8:11 AM: Could not find AMT folder at: = /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Contents/Resources

a basic search proved that that particular AMT folder was actually located at this path: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/AMT

IOW, the "Contents/Resources" portion of the path was bogus... and a rather silly error on their part. [again, that was just one of many AMT folders which the updater was unable to locate.]

Eventually i resigned, following their advice to 'Turn off automatic updates on Mac OS'.

The engineers there who design Photoshop's filters, data manipulation and such are undoubtedly software geniuses. But the grunts who work on basic filesystem stuff (installers, updaters, etc.)... not so much.
Posted By: grelber Re: Adobe Acrobat and Reader Update Problem - 01/31/12 08:44 PM
I just downloaded the 10.1.2 update for Acrobat X Pro, and it installed without incident.
The described problem must reside in the straight Acrobat X and Acrobat Reader 10.1.2 update.
Originally Posted By: grelber
The described problem must reside in the straight Acrobat X and Acrobat Reader 10.1.2 update.

Possibly, but I'd rather say 'may' than 'must', at least for now. These Adobe Updater problems have been too widespread to warrant anything else.
Posted By: joemikeb Re: Adobe Acrobat and Reader Update Problem - 02/01/12 01:37 PM
Originally Posted By: Hal Itosis
The engineers there who design Photoshop's filters, data manipulation and such are undoubtedly software geniuses. But the grunts who work on basic filesystem stuff (installers, updaters, etc.)... not so much.

Maybe, but I have to wonder if some of Adobe's problems on the Apple platform and their continued insistence that, "it is Apple's fault" isn't more likely...
  1. Apple's very public rejection of Flash for their iDevices which certainly contributed to Adobe's decision to stop development of Flash for all mobile devices, not just Apple's.
  2. Complaisance brought about by Adobe's almost total market domination of high end graphics oriented software
  3. A lack of committment to support of OS X products
  4. A software development process that..
    1. Is lacking in the requisite software quality control
    2. Is unable to contend with Apple's rapid development schedule and product evolution
  5. All of the above
  6. Some of the above

Whatever, for the first time in many years I find myself looking for credible alternatives to Dreamweaver, Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat Pro. Although I have not found any products that are a 100% match for the features and functionalities of these Adobe products, I am finding replacements that for me do fulfill the essential functionalities and are far more cost effective than their Adobe competition. Adobe may find itself keeping Microsoft products company in my collection of software I no longer have a need for or use.
Just the amount of cruft Adobe sees fit to install for Acrobat Reader (a reader!!!) is mind-blowing. There's no effort on their part to KISS.
Posted By: tacit Re: Adobe Acrobat and Reader Update Problem - 02/02/12 11:16 PM
Acrobat started out with some very ambitious ideas, which is part of the reason Adobe's reader is crufty and bloated.

Originally, the PDF specification called for a lot more than just a file format for reading documents. PDF files can contain all sorts of things--annotations, sound, multimedia, executable programs and applets(!), JavaScript, event triggers, all sorts of stuff.

Now, almost nobody every uses those capabilities--but they're still present in Reader nonetheless. (One of the reasons that third-party apps like Foxit PDF reader are so much smaller and tighter than Adobe Reader is that a lot of this functionality isn't supported; these third-party readers don't implement a lot of the more exotic and seldom-used parts of the PDF spec.)
Posted By: joemikeb Re: Adobe Acrobat and Reader Update Problem - 02/03/12 10:54 PM
Many of those notation features, etc are used extensively in large corporate environments. Certainly they were where I worked.
Posted By: tacit Re: Adobe Acrobat and Reader Update Problem - 02/04/12 12:46 AM
Yep. That puts Adobe in a bit of a bind; if they try to trim those features out of Adobe Reader, the few clients (relatively speaking) who rely on them would have a big problem. But by including them in Adobe Reader, they make a bloated mess that's hard to keep secure.

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to make Reader more modular, and allow people to download a "light" or "full" version, though I suspect Adobe sees third party programs like Preview and Foxit as filling the "light" niche. Since they give Reader away for free, I can understand not wanting to devote a lot of engineering resources to maintaining multiple different versions with different feature sets.
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