Outlook PDF Preview not working anymore

[David.P]

Hello Forum and Tracker Support Team,

my recent problem with the Enhanced OCR module not working has been resolved after a second reinstallation of PDF-XChange Pro.
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=32576

However, I am now not getting file previews in Outlook anymore:


The shell extensions are all enabled:


I'm on Outlook 365 32 bit:


Are there ideas what might cause the problem?

Best regards
David

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, David.P

In some cases outlook itself can decide not to use our extensions, either due to an update or other changes on the device. Usually the best way to resolve this is to re-register our extensions (set them to none, apply, and then set them back to ours).

If that does not work, it may be necessary to reinstall office, but let me know beforehand how the re-register goes, so I can consult with the Dev team on it.

Kind regards,

[David.P]

Hello Daniel,

thank you for your reply with the recommendation on how to proceed.

I have already deregistered and re-registered the PDF-XChange shell extensions several times, even removed PDF-XChange Pro completely and reinstalled it.

However, you are probably right that the problem is more with Outlook, since the Adobe Reader file preview, if activated, does not work in Outlook either.

I shall now do a repair installation of Office and report back how it went.

Thanks & best regards
David

[David.P]

So I have now run a full repair installation of Office, and then rebooted.



Unfortunately, PDF files are still not previewed in Outlook. There is still the same error message:



Of course, I'd be thankful for any further ideas on what could be the reason for this issue.

[PHK]

David, are your Default apps under Windows setting still showing PDF-XCE as default for PDF? Sometimes these associations can be messed up when you make changes.

image.png

[David.P]

Yes thanks PHK, I have already changed this several times back and forth between Adobe Reader and PDF-XChange. Still doesn't work with any of the two.

I have also tried every single method mentioned here in the article and in the comments:
https://www.technipages.com/outlook-fix-this-file-cannot-be-previewed

[David.P]

Out of sheer desperation, I just installed F0xit Reader.

And what can I say: PDF preview in Outlook works again!

Whereas PDF preview with Adobe Reader or PDF-XChange Editor still does not work...

Interestingly, the file preview with Fᴑxit also only works when "Fᴑxit PDF Preview Host" is selected, but not when "Fᴑxit PDF Preview Handler" is selected:



Maybe this information will help someone to identify the source of the problem.

I'll leave the setting on "Fᴑxit PDF Preview Host" for now, the only option that currently works.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, David.P

That is very interesting... Thank you for that David. As far as I am aware, both we and adobe use the windows Preview host with our handlers, so it could be that "prevhost.exe" needs to be restarted in windows for our handlers to start being used, but I will leave that investigation to the Dev team. For now, I am glad to hear you have a workaround, and I am just now writing up a bug report for the Dev team about this.

Kind regards,