Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro refuses to install on El Capitan (new laptop)

You are a genius! My old mid 2011 iMac 27" died of hard drive failure last week but luckily my son in law is an it manager and put a double capacity 2tb new one in so all was good. I had been on Sierra before but crucially had not had to install from disks so this time I installed my cs5 from disk and downloaded the runtime and all was sweet until I noticed that like Roxpat I had a one word Acrobat and nothing else...

I have been hunting ever since and despite many complicated manoeuvres none seemed to work. You can't apply updates a non running program?? Anyway, just by unticking that box as you suggested it is now working a treat and so fast. It has just asked me if I'd like to update to 9.55 so if there is a problem I will report back..

Thanks again!

This is an update as I was going to try and update (sic) to Acrobat 9.55 on my Sierra.

I was able to download the patch and the installation process began ok. However, at some point in the process the Repair Setup box appeared except that I could neither uncheck or cancel - in fact the box was always frozen and I tried several times.

Eventually, I went back to not installing the extras and therefore now have Acrobat pdf 9.0 with no updates but it is so quick on my revived iMac and am not (yet) experiencing any problems...

I had the same behaviour.

When you open Acrobat for the first time, you are asked to install Extras (plugins).

Just disable "Adobe PDF Viewer Safari Plugin".

If you are already copied "Acrobat 9 Pro" folder on your HD and you tried to open the Acrobat, "Install Extras" window is not popup again, it ends with just name "Acrobat" in header as you wrote.

I was able to get this window again by two ways:

A - Run "Acrobat Uninstaller" and than copy Acrobat folder from DMG again or

B - Run Acrobat by right click (or ctrl + left click) on app icon and select "Open"

(Don't use double click as usual.)

Now you should see "Install Extras" window.

Uncheck "Adobe PDF Viewer Safari Plugin" and press "Continue".

Serial number window should popup in a few seconds.

Finish process.

Issue is related to a new OS X, not to your new laptop. I was able to successfully install Acrobat on iMac.

Acrobat 9 (and other old versions) do have problems installing on El Cap. You could try to copy the apps from your old Mac or backup, and get them to Repair themselves.

But really, you need to consider using newer software. (Not necessarily by Adobe, if you don't want to pay them monthly forever.)

It's worth noting that the next version of OS X (10.12), which will be released later this year, will not run the Java SE 6 that you need for old Adobe CS installers.

Mucho Kuddos, this helped me. You have no idea how much I would love to give you one BIG HUG right now. Thank you EVER so much for your help, I was at my wits end!

I had this same problem and this worked for me. THANK YOU!, filip.mond

I had to replace the hard drive in my iMac and reinstall CS5. I was freaking out that I couldn't install Acrobat and did the same thing as Roxpat, downloading Acrobat from the Internet thinking the files on the CD were damaged. I read other forums where they said Acrobat 9 wasn't compatible with El Capitan (I have 10.11.3). I didn't want to spend more money for Acrobat Pro X because I just shelled out for a new hard drive and now I need to buy a new scanner because HP doesn't make the needed software that is compatible with this OS (sigh!). I wasn't even sure Acrobat XI (which would be compatible with my new OS) was compatible with CS5, so you can see why my head was spinning.

I am so thankful for forums like this.

While researching all of the compatibility issues with El Capitan and older Adobe software, there was quite a fuss about the "cloud" versions of the software. My two cents re: cloud software... for part-time freelancers who don't rake in tons of bucks, paying monthly for a subscription to use Cloud software when there may not be any jobs in a given month gives new meaning to the term "starving artists"

Thank you SO much ! worked for me

Thank you filip.mond

Just installed new hard drive and El Capitan (from Mavericks). Could not get Adobe Acrobat 8 to load. Unchecked all the offered plug ins. Bam! back in business.

I use PDFpen Pro (8.0.2) for most pdf tasks. This old version comes in handy for testing operability of pdf's, as well as reducing the file size. Adobe just seems to do this better for me than other software.

Hey Guys, I have this same problem, except I tried the fix a few months ago, and it worked perfectly.
Today I was working on Photoshop and had to get the extended version, which to do so, I had to ask photoshop to forget my serial [delete it fro my HD]. When I did, it did it for my whole Design Suit programs [Obviously]... which I din't think much of it, because I thought I could run it again. However, when I tried to do all the same steps, using my normal serial number, and unchecking all the boxes [I get one for printing and one for Safari], it still would not open. It just shows ACROBAT at the very top of my screen, to the left, but no File, Edit, etc... And nothing runs on it. Nothing opens still. Please help! I am running Mac OS 10.11.6

I also had this same issue with Acrobat 9 Pro, and my OS 10.11.6 [El Capitan]
However, after doing a Reset to Factory Settings in my machine and I tried flip.mond's awesome suggestion, [which I had tried back in July when I first installed my CS4 in my new iMac], I would only have Acrobat showing on the top menu bar as well, with nothing else running, and having to Force Quit it.

After ton's of trials, uninstalls and reinstalls, system clean ups and a bunch or head scratching I realized that the window that was popping up about the missing plugins looks a bit different than flip.mond's.

Here is what I had showing:

I decided to try my luck and see what would happen if I clicked Cancel instead of unchecking the Safari Plugin box and clicking Continue [Since I tried that and it didn't work].

The same window appeared a second time, and I clicked Cancel again [a second time]... and Voila!
I was on the road to a proper set up! Now it is back up and running beautifully!

I thought I'd share here in case anyone else is having the same issues as me due to new updates on El Capitan.

Thanks TrinityGal3 ! 🙂 It also works on Sierra !!!!! 😎

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro works with El Capitan--in fact, I'm running v9.5.5 on 10.11.6 El Capitan.

Hardware: Late 2011 17" MacBook Pro, 2.5GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB ram, 1TB HD (half empty).

2 days ago I erased the HD and did a clean install straight to 10.11.6 El Capitan (10.10.5 Yosemite was previous). I migrated everything except Applications from a bootable clone. I installed CS5 Design Standard and updated each component: 


Photoshop 12.0.4

Illustrator 15.0.2

InDesign 7.0.4

Bridge 4.0.5

Extension Manager CS5 5.0.3

Camera Raw CS5 6.7

Media Encoder CS5 5.0.1

I temporarily disabled Security & Privacy settings in System Preference (open from "Anywhere").

After installing CS5 I ran the various updates which were downloaded 2 years ago from Adobe’s servers (the version numbers listed above). The updates ran without a hitch.

After launching Photoshop I ran the updates via the Help menu, but if I remember correctly only 1 or two of the many listed updates passed, the rest failed.

After installing Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro (at some point there’s an option to install Adobe PDFViewer Safari Plugin, DECLINE!), I updated via Help > Check for Updates. It worked! Running v9.5.5.

So far Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat and Bridge launch and Quit without incident. I created test files, saved them, close them, reopened them, so far so good. Illustrator however did crash when I Quit the program. But it opened a large layered AI file, it saved as, closed it and reopened it. Admittedly I hardly did anything in only 5 min of testing, but It seems to work--except for Quitting, which crashes.

Also, Suitcase Fusion 5 (v16.2.6) seems to work with 10.11.6 El Capitan. The error message "An incompatible version of the plug-in framework" might be benign. Only 5 min of use, but so far Fusion 5 and CS5 launches on 10.11.6 El Capitan.

One more thing: If you launch Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro by itself (meaning, not opening a file) the only visible thing is "Acrobat" and its various menu items. It's only after you open a PDF file will you see the UI and tools. Hope this helps.

Subject: Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro refuses to install on Sierra (new laptop)

I had the same problem with my new 2016 Macbook Pro running Sierra 10.12.1. Symptoms were exactly as Roxpat except running on Mac OS Sierra. How I got around the problem:

On the "Install Extra" window, I had to UNCHECK 2 boxes (bulleted below) and press "Continue"

• Adobe PDF Printer Plug-in
• Adobe PDF Viewer Safari Plug-in

Then the serial number pop-up showed up and I was able to successfully finish the installation.

NOTE:

When I unchecked only the Adobe PDF Viewer plug-in, the Serial number window did not pop-up and I couldn't finish the install process. Only thing I saw was the "Acrobat" name in the upper left - no other menu items, no dropdown from "Acrobat" either. The only way to leave the program was to do a "Force Quit".

OMG FINALLY THE ANSWER!!!! I LOVE YOU FOR POSTING THIS!! I've spent countless HOURS on Adobe's online ignorant uneducated useless Chat Service... install, uninstall, re-serialize my suite serial number, deactivate, after all this they could do NOTHING to help... every rep ended up referring me to the online self-help forum. Literally pulling my hair out!!

All I did was unchecked both PDF Printer box and Safari Plugin and hit CANCEL. The same screen will pop up again and again I unchecked both PDF Printer box and Safari Plugin and hit CANCEL. Then the License agreement popped up and I [reluctantly] agreed to Adobe terms and PRESTO!! BACK IN BUSINESS!!

THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH TRINITYGAL3!! You are a lifesaver!!!

Thank you for providing this work-around.