Adobe’s September Reader update has left a wake of frustrated users and busy IT desks: the Continuous-track build 25.001.20744 (published late September) introduced a printing regression on Windows that causes PDF output to be truncated, squeezed into the top-left of the sheet, or printed as blank pages — symptoms that affect multiple printer brands and Windows versions and that, for many environments, are only temporarily avoidable by printing as an image or rolling back to an earlier Reader build.
Adobe ships Acrobat and Reader in two tracks — Classic and Continuous — and the Continuous track receives frequent updates intended for general users. On September 24, 2025, Adobe rolled the Continuous update 25.001.20744. Within days users reported wide-ranging printing problems from that build: partial pages, images or entire pages missing, and print jobs that eject with only the top portion of the content present. These reports appeared on community forums, social sites and in direct correspondence to independent German reporting.
Adobe’s engineering response followed with a planned update labelled 25.001.20756 (published Oct 1, 2025) whose release notes explicitly list a printing bugfix described as “Data loss in printing PDF on Reader and Acrobat” (bug/issue 4529876). That changelog entry indicates Adobe identified the problem as significant enough to include a targeted fix in the next Continuous update.
Expect Adobe to continue iterative updates if additional printing edge cases remain; keep an eye on the official release notes and the Adobe Known Issues pages for follow-up patches or hotfix guidance. Validate the fix on your hardware before rolling 25.001.20756 broadly.
Conclusion: This incident is a reminder that even non-security updates can materially affect business operations; control your Continuous-track deployments, validate patches against real-world hardware, and keep rollback and mitigation playbooks current so printing — one of the most basic but critical workflows — keeps working when vendor regressions occur.
Source: BornCity Adobe Reader version 25.001.20744 with PDF printing problem on Windows | Born's Tech and Windows World
Adobe ships Acrobat and Reader in two tracks — Classic and Continuous — and the Continuous track receives frequent updates intended for general users. On September 24, 2025, Adobe rolled the Continuous update 25.001.20744. Within days users reported wide-ranging printing problems from that build: partial pages, images or entire pages missing, and print jobs that eject with only the top portion of the content present. These reports appeared on community forums, social sites and in direct correspondence to independent German reporting. Adobe’s engineering response followed with a planned update labelled 25.001.20756 (published Oct 1, 2025) whose release notes explicitly list a printing bugfix described as “Data loss in printing PDF on Reader and Acrobat” (bug/issue 4529876). That changelog entry indicates Adobe identified the problem as significant enough to include a targeted fix in the next Continuous update.
What users are seeing: symptoms and scope
Typical symptoms reported
- Printed pages contain only the top portion (a few centimeters or inches) of the PDF; the remainder of the page is white or missing.
- Images within PDFs are partially printed or appear truncated.
- Some users observe completely blank pages for every page in the document.
- Printing the same PDFs from Microsoft Edge or Chrome produces correct printouts; the problem is isolated to Adobe Reader/Acrobat in many reports.
Affected systems and printers
Reports come from mixed environments: Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems have both been implicated in different threads, and a range of printers (HP LaserJets, Ricoh devices and others using PCL6 drivers) are mentioned. Some administrators reported the issue on Windows 11 24H2 builds, others also on Windows 10. The problem does not appear to be unique to a single printer vendor or driver family, although certain drivers (for example, some Ricoh and HP PCL6 drivers) are repeatedly mentioned in affected cases.Workarounds that users found
- Choosing the printer dialog’s Advanced option “Print as Image” often produces a correct printout; this forces rasterization and bypasses troublesome PDF rendering-to-printer conversions. Many users report this as the most reliable workaround.
- Rolling back Reader/Acrobat to the prior Continuous build (25.001.20693) restores normal printing in reported tests; administrators who reverted machines saw printing return to expected behavior.
- Printing the PDF from the browser (Edge or Chrome) instead of Reader is a practical short-term fix for many users, though it may not support fillable forms or advanced features.
Timeline and verification
- Adobe released 25.001.20693 on September 9, 2025 (a stable Continuous build prior to the issue).
- Adobe rolled 25.001.20744 on September 24, 2025; reports of printing problems began surfacing to support forums and social media by late September.
- Adobe pushed 25.001.20756 (planned update) on October 1, 2025; the release notes include a printing fix entry (4529876). Several community posters confirmed the issue as “solved” after that update started appearing for users, though the rollout timing and individual environments mean not every affected machine will see the fix immediately.
Root-cause clues and what is known
Adobe’s release notes and community posts do not publish a line-by-line root-cause postmortem. However, the pattern and community troubleshooting suggest a rendering/print-subsystem regression that affects how Reader/Acrobat translates PDF content (vector text, embedded fonts, images and page-fitting options) into the printer driver’s language (PCL/PS). Several observations point to this:- Printing as raster (Print as Image) bypasses the PDF-to-printer conversion logic and typically succeeds, which strongly implicates the rendering or driver-communication layer.
- Symptoms vary by printer driver and by print scaling options (“Fit”, “Shrink oversized pages”, etc.), suggesting the bug is sensitive to how document coordinates and scaling are handed off to the driver. Some users reported change in behavior if they switch from “fit” to “actual size” or “multiple” modes.
- The release notes’ text “Data loss in printing PDF” (ID 4529876) fits the observed symptom set and indicates Adobe recognized that content was being omitted during printing. The October 1 build explicitly lists that bug as fixed.
Practical guidance for IT administrators and power users
The following steps are written for IT teams managing small to large Windows environments, and for technically proficient readers who need a reliable remediation plan.Immediate short-term mitigations (user-facing)
- Ask users to print PDFs from a browser (Microsoft Edge or Chrome) until a Reader patch is confirmed; this preserves most printing needs except advanced form workflows.
- Instruct users to use the Advanced → Print as Image option in Reader’s Print dialog when urgent printing is required; this will usually succeed. Note: printing as an image may degrade resolution and inflate print sizes.
- If a user cannot access the “Print as Image” option (a minority of reports indicate it may be missing in some environments), instruct them to open the PDF in the browser or use a screenshot workaround until the Reader roll-back or patch is available. This particular “missing option” claim stems from a small number of reports and cannot be generalized without confirmation in your environment — treat it cautiously.
Admin actions and deployment strategy
- Pause automatic deployment of Reader 25.001.20744 across managed clients until you can test. If your update tool pushed the 20744 build, block or roll it back where feasible. Adobe provides MSI/MSP installers for each Continuous update; maintaining a local repository of approved versions simplifies rollbacks.
- Test 25.001.20756 in a representative lab: include the printer models and driver versions used in production, test scaling modes (fit/multiple/actual size), and include PDFs with embedded fonts, images, and interactive forms. Don’t rely on a single test PDF.
- If you must revert affected clients immediately, uninstall Reader from a test machine and reinstall the previous stable MSP/MSI (25.001.20693) available from Adobe’s enterprise installers or your software catalog. For mass rollbacks, use your usual software distribution method (SCCM/AIP/Group Policy or vendor patch tooling) to push the earlier build.
- After validating 25.001.20756 in a test lab, schedule a controlled rollout: pilot → staged rollout → full deployment. Monitor print queues and user tickets closely for at least one business week after rollout.
Recommended configuration changes for resilience
- Where printing is critical, consider setting the default PDF handler to the browser for users who only read and print PDFs (this preserves printing while still allowing Reader for advanced tasks). Document the trade-offs for fillable forms and other Reader-only features.
- Add a print-preflight policy in your support documentation: when a print fails from Reader, try Print-as-Image, attempt browser printing, then escalate to rollback if needed.
- Maintain a package repository (internal share or WSUS-like tool for third-party apps) with the previous known-good Reader build(s) so you can push them without requiring external downloads. Patch- and software-catalog services began listing 25.001.20756 quickly after the Oct 1 release, making staged updates simpler for sysadmins who operate third-party catalogs.
Risk assessment and operational impact
Short-term business risk
- Printing interruptions are highly disruptive for organizations that produce signed contracts, legal forms, invoices, or any documentation that must be physically delivered. The effect is especially acute in sectors that rely on fleet printing (finance, legal, manufacturing).
- The workaround “Print as Image” is usable but may produce lower fidelity output, larger print files, and can break OCR/searchability or signature verification workflows that depend on native PDF content.
Security and compliance concerns
- The bug itself is not a security vulnerability, but forcing users to adopt workarounds (screenshots, printing via browsers, or rasterized output) can conflict with audit trails or document integrity expectations if your compliance regime requires exact PDF content or embedded forensic metadata.
- Rolling back to an earlier build could, in theory, postpone mandatory security fixes present in later releases. Verify whether the rollback candidate includes necessary CVE mitigations (Adobe’s release notes and security bulletins enumerate CVEs addressed by each build). In short: balance printing reliability with security obligations.
Operational risk
- Automated update deployments (if untested) can propagate the regression quickly across many endpoints. This incident is a classic example of why staged updates and canary groups are essential for third-party application management in enterprise environments.
What Adobe has done and what to expect next
Adobe added a focused bugfix entry to the 25.001.20756 release (Oct 1) listing the printing data-loss item (4529876), which aligns with numerous user confirmations saying the update fixed the issue for them. However, because printing behavior depends on OS version, printer driver, network print spoolers, and PDF content, not every environment will see identical results immediately. Adobe’s release notes and the active forum threads demonstrate that the company acknowledged the bug and pushed a targeted remediation within a week of community reporting.Expect Adobe to continue iterative updates if additional printing edge cases remain; keep an eye on the official release notes and the Adobe Known Issues pages for follow-up patches or hotfix guidance. Validate the fix on your hardware before rolling 25.001.20756 broadly.
Practical checklist for support teams (quick)
- [ ] Pause auto-updates for Reader in group policies or endpoint management until a test pass.
- [ ] If 25.001.20744 is already installed, instruct staff to use Print As Image or print from Edge/Chrome for urgent jobs.
- [ ] Test 25.001.20756 on representative clients and printers; verify scaling, multi-page documents, forms and images.
- [ ] Maintain previous Reader installers (25.001.20693) in your software repository for controlled rollback if needed.
- [ ] After rollout, monitor support tickets and print queue errors for recurrence.
Strengths and weaknesses in Adobe’s handling
Notable strengths
- Adobe’s rapid follow-up patching cadence and inclusion of a targeted “Data loss in printing” fix in 25.001.20756 shows responsiveness to a high-impact bug reported by multiple users and administrators. The Continuous-track release notes make the remediation public and provide installers for enterprise deployment.
Weaknesses and risks
- A regression in a ubiquitous tool like Reader that affects printing exposes a risk in the Continuous delivery model: frequent updates accelerate exposure to regressions if organizations do not stage updates carefully.
- Adobe’s community support messages (and, in at least one report, a lack of direct remediation advice beyond troubleshooting links) led some customers to feel under-supported during the initial days of the problem. That gap can damage trust with enterprise customers who expect clear escalation and hotfix channels.
Bottom line
The Reader 25.001.20744 Continuous update introduced a printing regression that caused partial and blank printouts on multiple Windows systems and printer drivers. Practical workarounds — Print as Image, printing from Edge, or rolling back to 25.001.20693 — provide immediate relief until Adobe’s 25.001.20756 patch (Oct 1, 2025) is validated in your environment. Adobe’s release notes explicitly list a printing bugfix for that October update, but the diversity of printer drivers and print workflows means each organization must test the patched build before wide deployment. Prioritize staged rollouts, maintain a repository of known-good installs, and update support procedures to include the short-term workarounds outlined here.Conclusion: This incident is a reminder that even non-security updates can materially affect business operations; control your Continuous-track deployments, validate patches against real-world hardware, and keep rollback and mitigation playbooks current so printing — one of the most basic but critical workflows — keeps working when vendor regressions occur.
Source: BornCity Adobe Reader version 25.001.20744 with PDF printing problem on Windows | Born's Tech and Windows World