By Bhishu Acharya Bhishu Acharya Hardware Specialist ( BSc in CS & IT ) Bhishu Acharya is a technical content writer at TechNewsToday. He specializes in monitors, laptops, storage devices, and other peripherals. Apart from computer hardware, you can also find his how-to and. Full Bio
Learn about our editorial policies Updated June 19, 2022
We use PDF format often to check a document’s layout before printing. But, it’s frustrating when we can’t save a file as a PDF.
Sometimes, we might get a message “The export failed due to an unexpected error” when trying to save a doc file as a PDF. Probably, you’ve wondered what has caused this issue.
Well, the Save as PDF problems can occur on both PCs and mobile phones. Moreover, there can be tons of reasons why we can’t save a file in PDF format.
In this article, we will cover some major probabilities of PDF save issues and discuss techniques to fix them.
Saving a PDF file shouldn’t be difficult on any device. However, with the introduction of new features, most of us have to scratch our heads when trying to save a file in PDF format.
Here are some of the prime reasons why you are unable to save your document as a PDF:
Windows 11 has many services that help run installed applications. However, these features might get outdated and need frequent updates. This is probably why you are having trouble saving a file in PDF format.
Nonetheless, we have mentioned some easy techniques that should solve your issue. So, do spare a few minutes of your time to go through these fixes.
Microsoft Print to PDF is a special Windows feature that helps you save a document as a PDF. With the help of this service, we do not have to download a third-party tool to edit and save PDF formatted files.
Therefore, if this feature is disabled, we won’t be able to convert any document into PDF. Nevertheless, we can reenable it to fix the problem.
Without further delay, let’s see how we can disable Microsoft Print to PDF feature and enable it again:
If reenabling Microsoft Print to PDF doesn’t work, try making it your default printer. Here’s how you can do that:
Even if this doesn’t help, remove the device and restart your computer. Upon rebooting, Windows will reinstall it and fixes an issue if present.
If none of the two options work, try updating the Microsoft Print to PDF driver. The following guide should help you fix the issue:
Print spooler is the tool that saves your document in memory before printing them. So, if the service is not working properly, you might face issues while printing and saving in PDF format.
Go through the steps below to learn how to restart the print spooler in Windows 11:
If you’ve tried all the methods we discussed and the issue persists, there might be issues with your Microsoft Office package. Now, let’s see how we can resolve them.
Microsoft Office provides an in-built option to convert a non-embeddable font to an image while saving a file in PDF format. Here’s how you can enable it:
Reportedly, Microsoft introduced saving as a PDF option only since their 2007 version. So, the older versions do not support it. Therefore, we recommend getting the latest version of Microsoft Office.
You can use any third-party software if your problems are still not resolved. Some popular ones are Adobe Acrobat Reader, Slim PDF, and internet browsers.
Undoubtedly, most of us prefer using Adobe Acrobat for PDF purposes. But, recently, several users have reported issues while saving PDF files. Nevertheless, here are some easy methods to fix this problem.
When you’re trying to save a document as a PDF, Acrobat will upload your file to its online cloud by default. So, this might be causing trouble in saving it on local storage.
Follow the steps below to know how you can disable the online storage options in Adobe Acrobat:
Another technique is to disable the fast web view in the Browser option. This way, the internet features for PDF files get disabled, and we can easily access them on Adobe Acrobat Reader. To turn off this option, go through the guide below:
If neither of the two options works, you can troubleshoot the program to solve issues. Here’s how you can do it:
If your Windows drivers and services are working fine, there must be issues with the software that helps you save a PDF file. Therefore, we need to update them to a newer version to fix them.
Go through the step-by-step guide below to repair these programs on Windows 11:
Unfortunately, not all PDF-supporting programs and browsers can be repaired. So, you can always uninstall the application and reinstall a newer version to fix the issues. Well, you can go through our other article that guides you to uninstall any app on Windows 11.
If your PDF is opening on Google Chrome, learn how to stop it from our other article.
Windows update is the best method to solve all your bugs and issues. Therefore, you need to update Windows to its latest version as it fixes every problem on your PC.
Well, you can easily check for the latest update on Settings. But, if your OS is up to date, you need to repair corrupted files on your Windows.
Like in Windows, PDF Save As option may not work due to printer issues in Apple computers. Also, we need to allow Automator Actions if we’re using third-party PDF readers. So, this section covers both of these methods to fix PDF Save As not working on Mac.
Even though you do not have a printer, you must select an optional one to get PDF Save As option on Mac. Here’s how you can do just that:
Now, check if the PDF Save As feature is available. If not, you can try the next technique.
If you see an error message, “This workflow contains the action Save As Adobe PDF, which is provided by a third party. Third-party actions must be explicitly enabled”, it’s because you’re accessing Adobe PDF, which is third-party software.
Well, you must enable the Third Party Automator service on your macOS to resolve this issue. The following guide will assist you in doing so:
