Network Manager by Day, Blogger by Night.
Adobe Reader X: There was an error opening this document. Access denied.
Found out the other day that there seems to be an an issue with opening up PDF Files within external email programs (Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010, Windows Live Mail, Eudora, Mozilla Thunderbird etc) and Adobe Reader X (10). When trying to open up a PDF using one of these external email clients or others, Adobe Reader X launches and gives the following error message:
There was an error opening this document. Access denied.

At first I tried disabling “Enable Enhanced Security” under “Preferences > Security” but that didn’t work, after further investigation I found out that it’s to do with Adobe Reader X’s new Protected Sandbox Mode, the following fix/solution seems to work (at least for me):
- Open up Adobe Reader X
- On the Toolbar Menu go to Edit > Preferences
- Go to the general tab under Categories.
- Untick “Enable Protected Mode at Startup”
- If asked if sure, click Yes and then Ok.
- Now close Adobe Reader X and try opening the PDF again.
Hope that fixes the problem for others out there with the same problem!
For more information about this new “Protected Mode” Feature, check out the following links:
- Inside Adobe Reader Protected Mode – Part 1 – Design
- Inside Adobe Reader Protected Mode – Part 2 – The Sandbox
- Inside Adobe Reader Protected Mode – Part 3 – Broker Process, Policies, and Inter-Process Communication
| Print article | This entry was posted by Darren Straight on December 16, 2010 at 7:00 am, and is filed under Technology. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |







about 2 years ago
Thanks for a great tip.
We experienced the same error on some of our PC’s after installing adobe reader x.
Following the above has resolved the problem.
about 2 years ago
Thanks for this solution. It worked for us.
about 2 years ago
This worked for us too! Thanks
about 2 years ago
Thanks.. It worked..
about 2 years ago
Excellent. Thanks for this. PDFs now open!
about 2 years ago
Excellent…worked like a charm
about 2 years ago
You nailed it. Thanks!
about 2 years ago
Perfect. Thanks so much for the fix.
about 2 years ago
Thanks, this thred saved me a bunch of time troubleshooting!!!!!
about 2 years ago
Ditto! I was going crazy searching the forums on Adobe’s website. I thought I was the only one trying to troubleshoot this problem.
about 2 years ago
This issue with Adobe X had me puzzled for a while. I can now open PDF documents from network locations again! Thank you
about 2 years ago
Thanks! This worked perfectly to resolve this issue. I had already updated all of my personal PCs running Windows 7 with Reader X and have had no issues on them. However, after updating my office PC, which is still running Win XP, I immediately had this issue. Could this be OS related? BTW, I was trying to open the documents directly (e.g. not within a mail client, etc.) when I experienced this issue.
about 2 years ago
Is Adobe Reader ‘X’ a specific version or meant to be ‘whatver version you have’? I can’t find Enable Protected Mode at Startup under Edit – Preferences -> Categories -> General. I’ve looked under all of the other categories and I can’t find this item anywhere. I am using v8.2.5 and am experiencing the same problems – some files on networked drives issue the ‘There was an error opening this document. Access denied.’ error. Any thoughts from anyone? –Thanks!
about 2 years ago
@Sherri my problem as posted in this blog was purely an Adobe Reader X (version 10) problem. So I beileve your problem would be a diffrent solution, have you had any luck solving it yet?
about 2 years ago
Thanks for the tip! I’d gone and enabled Protected Mode to be on the safe side, but it looks like Adobe is stupid and didn’t implement it properly to work like it’s supposed to
about 2 years ago
When I upgraded to Reader X, I couldn’t open pdf attachments anymore. Your tip fixed it for me. Thanks!
about 2 years ago
Thankss man.. you save my world!!
about 2 years ago
thanks for your tips from France
about 2 years ago
Thanks Darren, the pop up message I got wasn’t exactly the same as the example, though the effect was the same – no PDF attachments viewable on Outlook Express. Your fix was perfect!
about 2 years ago
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Simple fix but it was nice to find I was not alone, and you had already figured out which preference item I needed to choose. I appreciate your post.
about 2 years ago
Many thanks, problem solved
about 2 years ago
THANK YOU! I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why I couldn’t open a PDF from a program I use and this FINALLY gave me the solution. Bless you!
about 2 years ago
“Enable Protected Mode at Startup” option is not exist in adobe reader 8 general category. what would we do???????????????????????????????????????
about 2 years ago
Enable Protected Mode at Startup” option is not exist in adobe reader 8 general category. what would we do???????????????????????????????????????
about 2 years ago
Thanks – this was an easy fix, thanks to your clear instructions.
about 2 years ago
Thanks. This fixed the same problem that started after I scanned in documents to PDF.
about 2 years ago
Thank you. That error was quite annoying.
about 2 years ago
It’s only for version 10. No other version!
about 2 years ago
Didn’t work for me. I cannot open any PDF without this error, and changing this setting had no effect. I still get “access denied” followed by an error listing Acrobat Reader running from the Q: drive, which is odd since I don’t have a Q: drive.
about 2 years ago
It is incredible that no documentation has cometh forward from Adobe…. Thank you, Thank you….Thank you. It worked for me.
about 2 years ago
It didn’t work for me
about 2 years ago
Thx — NO other sites seem to provide a condense solutions . . . but yours did !!!
You Da man ~
about 2 years ago
Yes Sir……..worked for me
about 1 year ago
Many Thanks.
about 1 year ago
thanks, you are my hero – your article helped fix a rather annoying problem.
about 1 year ago
Thanks for a great tip.
Tip top what I need.
A french user
about 1 year ago
not worked for me….
about 1 year ago
Thanks for this Great Tip!!!
It worked for me…
about 1 year ago
Great!
Thanks for this. Really helpful. Trying to open PDF’s over the network wasn’t a possibility until this.
Cheers
about 1 year ago
When I try to go to edit..preferences Adobe crashes with a runtime error.
—————————
Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
—————————
Runtime Error!
Program: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the application’s support team for more information.
—————————
OK
—————————
Any Ideas? Thx
about 1 year ago
Thanks. Worked!
about 1 year ago
Thanks, this was driving us crazy!
about 1 year ago
Thanks! Great fix for a problem that just started after a PDF update,
about 1 year ago
Me too. Thanks!
about 1 year ago
Awesome!!!! That worked! It was super annoying issue
about 5 months ago
Customer has Win7, Outlook 2010, Acrobat Reader XI. Get ‘access denied’ when attempt to open email PDF attachment. Preview works OK, save PDF attachment, then open from Explorer works OK. Just can’t open directly from Outlook.
Acrobat Reader XI moved the moved the settings to Edit, Preferences, Security (Enhanced). Unchecking “Enable Protected Mode at Startup” and unchecking “Enable Enhanced Security” didn’t help. Any other ideas would be appreciated.
about 5 months ago
Didn’t work for me. What else can I try?
about 1 month ago
Howdy exceptional blog! Does running a blog like this require a
great deal of work? I’ve virtually no knowledge of coding but I was hoping to start my own blog soon. Anyways, if you have any recommendations or tips for new blog owners please share. I understand this is off subject nevertheless I just needed to ask. Appreciate it!