It can be frustrating to download a PDF you really, really want to read - only to find that you get a 'file corrupt' message, or it simply won't open. What's the problem? And what can you do about it?

What's the Problem?

Most often, the corrupt or non-opening PDF is caused by one of two things:

1. The file has become corrupt in the download process. Just to make sure this isn't the problem, try downloading it again. If it still doesn't open, then...

2. ...the problem could be that you are using an older version of Adobe Acrobat reader, and the file has been created by a program that needs the latest version of Acrobat Reader to open it.

How to Download the Latest Version of Adobe Acrobat Reader

Now Go to the Adobe Acrobat Reader Download Page.

Go to: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

You will see that the DEFAULT option is for you to download not only Acrobat Reader, but also the eBay desktop. If you frequently buy or sell on eBay, you might want this... but if you don't, it just adds unecessary megabytes to your download and increases the time to download. If you don't want the eBay desktop, make sure you UNcheck the box next to it. Then click the DOWNLOAD button.

You may see several boxes pop up on your page. The first one of these tells you that you might have to look in the yellow bar in your browser (your browser will probably be Internet Explorer or Firefox) in case that is blocking popups that will let you download.

You could also see a box that tells you that Adobe Acrobat is downloading. If so, this is just letting you know that if the download is interrupted, it will pick up where it left off.

You may also see information boxes telling you that Windows is installing Acrobat and uninstalling old versions, or asking you for permission to perform a certain action (such as allow Windows to install Acrobat). As long as you have downloaded the official version of Acrobat reader from the Adobe site as shown at the address shown in the diagrams on this page, it should be okay.

If you have any further problems opening PDF documents, it may be a problem with your own computer or the software on it. I'm afraid that in this case, if you want to be able to read PDF documents, you might have to take it in for a service.<