Unable to install PDF printer | Certificate was revoked or port is unknown

While trying to install the PDF printer manually, you see one of the following errors:

Unable to install, certificate was revoked
Unable to install printer: A certificate was explicitly revoked by its issuer.

The required certificate is not valid
Unable to install printer: A required certificate is not within its validity period when verifying against the current system clock or the timestamp in the signed file.

The specified port is unknown
Operation could not be completed: The Specified port is unknown.

Reason: The certificate of the PDF driver package has expired, hence not valid.

 

Solution

Remove PDF printer entries from your computer, download the new PDF drivers, and then download and run the Create PDF Printer utility.

Step 1: Remove all the Adobe PDF printer-related entries from your computer

  1. Open Print Management: Press Windows + R keys to open the Run command dialog box, type printmanagement.msc in the Open field, and then click OK.

  2. In the Print Management dialog's left navigation bar, click Print Servers > [User's computer name] > Printers.

    From the list of printers, remove all Adobe PDF entries: Right-click Adobe PDF and then click Delete.

    Remove Adobe printers

  3. Click Drivers in the left navigation bar. Under Driver Name, right-click Adobe PDF Converter and click Delete.

    Remove Adobe PDF Converter driver

  4. Remove all the Adobe PDF Printer Driver related files. Do the following:

    1. Open command prompt as an administrator: Press Windows + S and type cmd. Right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator.
    2. Type the following command and press Enter: dism /online /get-drivers /format:table
    3. Find all Adobe drivers still available in the list:
    Adobe PDF drivers inf entries

       d. Type the following command and press Enter:

       pnputil -d <oemXX>.inf

          Where XX is the number associated with the Published Name of the adobepdf.inf file.
          (For example, in the screenshot above, the published name of the adobepdf.inf file is oem10.inf).

    One-by-one, run the same command for all adobepdf.inf entries in the table.

  5. Close the command prompt - type Exit and press Enter.

Continue with the next step below.

Step 2: Download the Adobe PDF drivers

  1. Download the PDF drivers from below - click Get File.

    Download

  2. Unzip the downloaded AdobePDF.zip file. It creates a folder named AdobePDF that contains the drivers.

  3. Copy the AdobePDF folder and paste it in the following location, confirm to replace or overwrite all the files in the folder:

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat <version>\Acrobat\Xtras

    Where <version> represents the version the Acrobat installed on your computer, such as DC, 2017, or 2020.

Continue with the next step below.

Step 3: Download and run the Create PDF Printer utility

  1. Download the utility from below - click Get File.

    Download

  2. Unzip the downloaded CreateAdobePDFPrinter.zip file. It creates a folder named CreateAdobePDFPrinter that contains the following utilities:

    • CreatePDFPrinterUtilityx64.exe: It's for 64-bit Windows. 
    • CreatePDFPrinterUtilityx86.exe: It's for 32-bit Windows. 
    Note:

    How to check whether my computer is running a 32-bit or a 64-bit version of Windows?

    • On Windows, select the Start button and then select Settings > System > About. Under Device specifications, see System Type.
  3. Based on whether you have 32-bit or 64-bit Windows, double-click the corresponding utility. The following prompt is displayed. Click Yes.

    Create PDF printer utility prompt

    Note:

    If you can't run the utility due to permission issues, skip to the next section to manually complete the remaining steps.

  4. The utility takes a few minutes to add the PDF printer.  Once it's done, the following confirmation dialog box is displayed.

    Click OK.

    Confirmation

If you can't run the Create PDF Printer utility due to permission issues, follow the steps below

  1. Open the Print Management dialog again: Press Windows + R keys to open the Run command dialog box, type printmanagement.msc in the Open field, and then click OK.

  2. In the Print Management dialog's left navigation bar, go to Print Servers > [User's computer name] and right-click Ports and then click Add Port.

    Add port using the Print Management dialog box

  3. The Printer Ports dialog box is displayed. Click New Port Type.

    Add PDF port monitor

  4. The Installing Port Monitor dialog box is displayed.

    Click Browse and select the AdobePDF.inf file from the following folder:

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat <version>\Acrobat\Xtras\AdobePDF

    Where <version> represents the version the Acrobat installed on your computer, such as DC2017, or 2020.

    Browse and select the AdobePDF.inf file

  5. Click OK to close the dialog box. Also, close the Printer Ports and the Print Management dialog boxes.

Continue with the next step below.

Now, you can manually install the PDF printer.  Follow the steps - Adobe PDF printer is missing | Manually install PDF printer.  

 Adobe

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