Adobe Add-in Has Vanished
Checklist for an Adobe add-in or plugin that’s gone missing or stopped working, in Outlook or in Acrobat. Three cases in about two weeks, with different mechanisms but the same “it’s gone” symptom.
Related: Adobe Acrobat Clean Reinstall, LEAP Adobe Add-in Script, Acrobat 26.001 PDF Not Opening, Print to PDF
1. Outlook: “Save as Adobe PDF” missing (PDFMaker)
- Cause: the Adobe PDFMaker COM add-in crashed and Outlook disabled it.
- Ticking it back on in Options > Add-ins won’t stick.
- Fix: File > Manage COM Add-ins (the “slow and disabled add-ins” button) > Disabled Items > re-enable it.
- If it keeps disabling itself, Outlook is killing it for slow loading. Set “Always enable this add-in”, or repair Acrobat.
- Note: Print to PDF isn’t the same thing. Users notice the difference.
2. Acrobat: third-party plugin (e.g. LEAP) not working, PDFs won’t open from the app
- Acrobat > Edit > Preferences > Plugins.
- The list is inverted: ticked = disabled. The menu says “Uncheck a plugin to enable it”.
- A plugin that looks ticked/on is actually off. Untick it and restart Acrobat.
- Check this before running the add-in reset script or reinstalling.
3. Outlook add-in turned off by someone else
- An earlier “fix” can be someone switching the add-in off. It comes back, or it leaves the real problem in place.
- If an add-in needs removing properly, run Outlook as admin and remove it there.
- If Acrobat itself is the problem, do a full clean reinstall (Adobe Acrobat Clean Reinstall).
- In the case seen, Adobe turned out to be a red herring. The Outlook slowness was the LEAP add-in syncing ~22k contacts.
Quick order of checks
- Outlook > File > Manage COM Add-ins > Disabled Items
- Acrobat > Preferences > Plugins (remember the list is inverted)
- Restart the app. After a LEAP update, a restart alone brought the LEAP button back.
- Run the add-in reset script
- Clean reinstall