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Acrobat Reader unable to access files via junction reparse points

Acrobat Reader is unable to correctly interpret some mountpoint reparse points (junctions). In practical terms: Acrobat Reader is unable to access PDF files from file systems mounted as directories and this is the root cause of the problem.

Junctions are special symbolic links that are used in many scenarios; an important one is when a file system is mounted as a directory rather than a regular drive. Junctions contain 2 paths: a “substitute” path which must be a path in the NTOS namespace (not a Win32 path) and a “print” path, which is to be used for display to the user.

A junction that is used to mount a file system on a directory might have a target like \Device\Volume{GUID}, which might be a file system device. Unfortunately targets such as \Device\Volume{GUID} appear to create problems for Acrobat Reader because it interprets them as the Win32 path C:\Device\Volume{GUID}, which is incorrect.

For more information on this problem please see this GitHub issue:
https://github.com/billziss-gh/winfsp/issues/274

I am the author of the WinFsp software, which can be used to create file systems and I am happy to answer any questions you may have about this problem.

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Bill Zissimopoulos shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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  • Andy Holder commented  ·   ·  Report

    Most likely a related problem:
    Apparently after any use of Acrobat Reader (version 2022.003.20282) on Windows 10 Professional (version 22H2, OS build 19045.2486) multiple cascading temporary directories are created and left on PC when user's temporary directory is junction to a different drive, e.g. \Users\me\Appdata\Local\Temp is a junction to d:\tmp_files.

    Example problem is shown by output of "dir /s Temp":
    29779 File(s) 28,050,501,055 bytes
    26291 Dir(s) 21,921,017,856 bytes free

    After going into Temp\acrobat_sbx and executing "rmdir /s acrobat_sbx",
    1873 File(s) 1,973,288,367 bytes
    1667 Dir(s) 21,921,034,240 bytes free

    i.e 27,906 files and 24,624 directories removed.

  • Ankit Kumar Gupta commented  ·   ·  Report

    Sorry for the problem you are facing with the Adobe Reader while opening junction reparsed paths. We are able to reproduce the same problem in-house and have logged a bug for this issue. We are working to resolve the same on priority.

    Thanks,
    Ankit
    Software Development Engineer

  • Gunther commented  ·   ·  Report

    This is a very annoying issue. I cannot open PDFs from encrypted filesystems. Please fix ASAP.

  • Alberto Alonso commented  ·   ·  Report

    This issue is blocking the ability to open any PDF files stored in virtual filesystems, which for certain audience targets is a very big deal. Would be great if Adobe would take the time to fix this, as it seems to be a low hanging fruit with a great impact on its users.

  • Kirill Gavrilov commented  ·   ·  Report

    This is a blocking issue for using Adobe Reader DC on Windows 10 and a REGRESSION after update to Adobe Reader DC 2020. The only less common thing is my drive being mounted as NTFS folder.

    I have used an older version for many years without noticing this issue and updated to 2020 when found a similar problem on attempt to save PDF document with comments. So the issue existed before, but previously occurred only on Writing files, while now it is unable to Open any file.