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Can't open or preview .PDF attachment in Outlook

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› General › Can’t open or preview .PDF attachment in Outlook

Last reviewed on February 13, 2018     39 Comments

When you attempt to view a PDF file in the reading pane and receive the following error message

This file cannot be previewed because of an error with the following previewer
PDF Preview Handler

It means a value in your registry is missing or corrupt. You can fix it by editing the registry.

  1. Press Windows key + R to open the Run command
  2. Type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor
  3. Browse to the following registry key and add the AppID value {534A1E02-D58F-44f0-B58B-36CBED287C7C}

Note: if AppID string value does not exist, you need to create it.

Alternately, you can copy and paste the registry values below into Notepad, save the file with a .reg extension then double click to run it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}]
"AppID"="{534A1E02-D58F-44f0-B58B-36CBED287C7C}"

Do It For Me

Don't want to edit the registry yourself? Download the following registry file and double click to run it. It works with all 64-bit versions of Windows.

pdf-preview.reg

More Information

'Adobe PDF preview handler 64-bit fix'

Can't open or preview .PDF attachment in Outlook was last modified: February 13th, 2018 by Diane Poremsky
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About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

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nsk (@guest_214333)
November 20, 2019 4:58 am
#214333

hi

its working excellent now. wonderful guide! thank you

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0
Reply
F ABAZA (@guest_212635)
February 3, 2019 4:34 am
#212635

worked fin

thanks

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Gary Skipper (@guest_212521)
January 10, 2019 11:37 am
#212521

Hi Diane,

I'm perplexed. I can't pinpoint when it started but the Outlook 2010 pdf preview handler is not working. It has always worked before now.

Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
Office 2010 Pro Plus, 32-bit
Acrobat Reader DC latest version (uninstalled and reinstalled)(even switched to Edge and no success)
applied reg edit fix even though AppID hex data agreed with fix data. (Had to try it for thoroughness)
rebooted PC, restarted Outlook after regedit fix (tested pdf preview, no joy)
deleted temp files (i.e., %temp%)
Outlook File Preview Options- PDF Preview Handler-checked
Word, Excel, etc previewers are all working (just PDF preview not working)
Windows default file association .pdf set to Acrobat Reader DC

I'm lost for additional measures to fix this less re-installing Office. Any thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks,
Gary

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Gary Skipper (@guest_212795)
Reply to  Gary Skipper
February 15, 2019 2:57 pm
#212795

It works NOW! I did not work on issue since my last post. On 2/13 My computer automatically installed the latest MS Office 2010 updates and now the pdf viewer is working. This has me suspicious that the previous update may have been the offending culprit. WHO KNOWS!!! All is good again... :)

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Eric (@guest_211639)
August 3, 2018 3:47 am
#211639

Hi Diane,

Thanks so much for your solution. The pdf-preview.reg file worked like a charm!
Cheers,
Eric

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Ivica Cuk (@guest_206985)
June 6, 2017 9:06 am
#206985

Hi Diane

Windows 7 professional 32 bit,
Outlook 2013,
Acrobat reader DC ver.8

I have problem when I scan document on HP device with default name “Untitled”. Pdf and send it to mail. On this comp (spec above) it can’t open it, all other PDF with other name I can open, if I forward this mail to colleague he also can open it so it was not damaged.

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Ivica Cuk
November 16, 2017 10:09 pm
#209352

sorry i missed this... i'm wondering if there are 99 untitled in the temp cache and that is preventing outlook from opening it. (It's an old, long standing problem - each file is added to the cache in name(nn).ext format and the limit is 99.)

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Christian Muehter (@guest_206005)
April 21, 2017 3:56 pm
#206005

None of this works for me:
Windows 10 64 bit
Acrobat Std XI
Office 2016
all reg hacks etc applied...

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Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Christian Muehter
April 22, 2017 5:17 am
#206007

are you using 32- or 64-bit office?

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Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Christian Muehter
April 22, 2017 5:20 am
#206008

oh, and did you reboot?

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dmkg (@guest_196715)
February 25, 2016 6:02 am
#196715

I use Nitro pdf and the preview was working fine, even after I installed the newer version of Nitro along side the old one. But after I uninstalled the old version I can no longer see the preview.

Registry entries are exactly as you suggest, so clearly something else is preventing the preview from working.

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Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  dmkg
February 25, 2016 8:05 am
#196716

Did you reinstall or repair the nitro install? It sounds like removing the older version removed the files that are used for preview.

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Reply
dmkg (@guest_196718)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
February 25, 2016 9:15 am
#196718

I installed version 10 so had both versions 9 & 10 for a short time during which preview was ok but not after I removed version 9.

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0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  dmkg
February 27, 2016 12:11 am
#196782

Reinstall or repair the v.10 installation.

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Reply
Dinesh (@guest_196694)
February 24, 2016 12:02 pm
#196694

The registry entry on my machine is exactly as you suggest but the previewer won't work. I use Nitro pdf and it was working fine. Then I installed the newer version of Nitro along side the old version and it still worked ok. Today I removed the old version and after that preview handler won't work!

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0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Dinesh
February 27, 2016 12:10 am
#196781

Did you try repairing the nitro installation?

0
0
Reply

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