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bad encrypt dictionary


h1 December 17th, 2005

For a few days I’ve been trying to figure out why an Adobe Acrobat document I created on one computer wouldn’t open on another computer. When I tried to open it, I’d receive an error message that said simply “bad encrypt dictionary”. That’s it.

I created the document in Acrobat 7.0, and encrypted it with 7.0 encryption (the program offers options for different levels or versions of encryption). I tried searching with Google for the error message, but there were so many posts about DRM (digital rights management) that I couldn’t see the fix quickly or easily. (With so many students applying to the UCs and Stanford, it’s been a very busy week, so I couldn’t spend more than a few minutes searching.) It turned out to be a really simple thing–the 6.0 Reader I was using couldn’t read 7.0 encryption, so updating this version of Adobe Acrobat Reader solved the problem.

When will software companies realize that creating user-friendly error messages will certainly result in greater usage, sales, and satisfaction for their products? For example, why couldn’t this error message read something like this:

The version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (”the Reader”) that you are using cannot open your document because the Reader does not understand the encryption method used in your document. It is possible that your document uses a more current method of encryption than your Reader can understand, so you should try updating your Reader by opening the Reader, clicking Help, and then clicking Check for updates now… If that doesn’t work, you could try visiting the Adobe User-to-User Forums for free, non-guaranteed support.

Yeah, I know why–too much work and too difficult.



15 comments to “bad encrypt dictionary”

  1. Gets better if you use acrobat 6.0 it can’t read the encryption. If they have 6.01 (the bug fix) they can. Problem is there are a lot of 6.0 installations out there

         by Tuna November 1st, 2006 at 12:22 pm

  2. Thank you for your post. This helped immensely with the same problem you experienced.

    thank you thank you!

         by Jules January 20th, 2007 at 6:20 am

  3. i’ve got the same problem.thanks for ur post

         by Sara June 22nd, 2007 at 6:45 am

  4. thanks for the help!!

         by Christos January 3rd, 2008 at 4:27 am

  5. Thanks. I had an idea this was the problem BUT didn’t want to spend the time d/ling the new version on a slow internet connection. Now I guess it appears I must.

    Thanks for the info/confirmation.

    The answer to your question is quite simply that software programmers make software — not users. I think software will become more user-friendly in the next decade or so, as the emphasis shifts away from hardware performance to usability (as hardware advances slow).

    Jordan

         by jordan January 13th, 2008 at 10:50 am

  6. I believe the best answer is to just stop using Adobe’s crappy software. It’s slow, it’s annoying, and a pain in the but. I’ve found that FoxIt Reader does a fantastic job as a PDF reader. I’ve never used the creator.

         by Chris September 8th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

  7. This makes alot of sense. What happens if you are running a Windows 98se operating system. The upgrades are only for newer operating systems. Is there a bug fix for this? Thanks.

         by Darren March 27th, 2009 at 7:12 am

  8. It’s probably going to be hard to find updates for something like Windows 98 (since it’s so old). You could use an online viewer, something like Google Apps, to view the PDF.

         by Erin March 27th, 2009 at 11:02 pm

  9. Thakns for the quick solution !

         by Guest July 7th, 2009 at 1:41 am

  10. That’s it! Thanks for taking the time to comment on it.

         by Paul August 22nd, 2009 at 11:31 am

  11. No one else was able to help. Thank you!

         by Jeanne September 22nd, 2009 at 10:53 am

  12. it helped me a lot!! thank you

         by Pt January 28th, 2010 at 9:11 am

  13. Thanks for this post! I had a similar problem and I updated to adobe 7. Man what a relief to open a document that I paid good money for!

         by Bill January 31st, 2010 at 9:51 pm

  14. The solution to the “bad encrypt dictionary” issue in Adobe Acrobat 6.0 is quite simple: Go to HELP, then go to UPDATES. Then SELECT and ADD all of them. Press OK.
    Next, close the program. When you open it again, open the document causing Acrobat 6.0 to give you the “bad encrypt dictionary” message. It will tell you that “this PDF form requires a new version of of Adobe Acrobat.” Follow the instructions, and update again. Then close the program and reopen it.

    Again, open the program and the document. The least that could happen is that you will see the actual data. In any case, you would be able to work on the document or form within the constraints of Acrobat 6.0 itself.

         by E. Delgado February 4th, 2010 at 8:11 am

  15. I have 6.0 standard, have added all the updates and still cant read the new accrobat. I also went to 9,0 reader but I need to use the standard as the document I am trying to read I need to cut some refs out.

    Any ideas other than buying a later version?

         by yergeha February 23rd, 2010 at 11:09 am


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