You have Selected a PDF File that Cannot be Exported from Adobe Acrobat

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Written By Ashwani Tiwari
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh
Published On August 20th, 2022
Reading Time 4 Minutes Reading

Have you ever encountered this error message You have selected a PDF file that cannot be exported from Adobe Acrobat while saving attachments from PDF files in Adobe Acrobat? If Yes? Then, go through this write-up and know the alternative way to save files easily.

PDF file attachments represent a potential security risk because it may contain malicious content, open dangerous files, or launch applications. Although Adobe Acrobat allows you to open and save PDF attachments but, it recognizes some attachments as threats. Attachments which are having extension .exe, .bin, .bat can’t be embedded as attachments to PDF documents.

However, there are some other file formats (like .zip, .rar, .tar, etc.) that can be attached to PDF files but they cannot be saved & opened from Adobe Acrobat. However, when the user is trying to save these types of attachments by using Adobe Reader or by Acrobat Pro they encountered with the error message as given in the screenshot below:

you have selected a file that cannot be exported

User Query

I can easily open a PDF document in Adobe Acrobat Reader XI but when I tried to save.zip file attachments from it, I got the error message “You have Selected a PDF File that Cannot be Exported”. Can anyone tell me how can I save .zip file attachment from PDF? Please help!

Best Way to Save Files Without Any Error Message

Whenever the user is trying to open or save .zip, .tar, .rar files by using Adobe Acrobat / Reader they found the error message “You have Selected a PDF File that Cannot be Exported”. Now, for extracting these kinds of PDF attachments without any error, it is recommended to use the professional tool.
SysTools provides PDF Extraction Software that allows users to extract any kind of attachments from PDF files. Any .png, .zip, .rar, .tar, .doc., etc., files can be extracted. At the desired destination location all extracted attachments will be saved. Users can also perform selective file extraction by using the filter options provided by the tool.

Download purchase

Other Advantageous Features of the Tool

1- Support to extract all pictures present in the PDF files
2- Provides “ File Type” filter to include/exclude particular file type
3- Support to extract attachments of particular file size (in MB)
4- Allows saving inline images in a PDF file format
5- Save each inline image of each PDF document in an individual PDF
6- Allows saving all images in a single PDF document
7- Available for both Windows as well as for Mac OS users
8- Support to extract files from known password protected or restricted

Working Steps of the Software

To save attachments without error message, You have Selected a PDF File that Cannot be Exported from Adobe Acrobat it is suggested to use the alternative application provided by SysTools. This utility efficiently extracts all kinds of attachments that Adobe Reader or Acrobat pro does not.

Now, follow these steps & extract the files:

1- Launch and run the tool on Windows Operating system
2- Click on Add Files / Add Folder option to insert PDF files

add files
If the file is password protected then enter the password
3- Click on the Change button to select the destination location

click change
4- Select the Item type as “Attachments” from the given options

5- From the Attachment filter choose the desired filter “Size” or “File Type”


6- Click the “Extract” button to begin the process

extract
7- The Files are Extracted Successfully message gets displayed

Conclusion

Whenever the user is trying to open /save some kind of PDF attachments that cannot be opened or saved by using Adobe Reader or Acrobat they encountered the error message You have Selected a PDF File that Cannot be Exported from Adobe Acrobat. Hence, they look for some alternative solution which can help them to extract those files. Therefore, in this write-up, we have illustrated the best alternative solution that can easily extract those attachments. Use can try the solution and overcome the error message.

  author

By Ashwani Tiwari

Being a Chief Technical Analyst, I am aware of the technicalities faced by the user while working with multiple technologies. So, through my blogs and articles, I love to help all the users who face various challenges while dealing with technology.