Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

OS 8.6 won't open Acrobat--thinks it's PC file

M

mamlukman

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 5, 2013
41
1
Every 8-10 years I upgrade computers. God I hate this. I've been at it for almost three weeks, each day more frustrating than the next.

The current problem: I want to print about 1,000 pages with my LaserPrinter--but that only works with my beige G3, running OS 8.6. The documents are PDFs. Sounds easy, right? But there wasn't a copy of Acrobat on my G3. When I download older versions (4.0, 5.0.5) that SHOULD work, and DO work on my G4 running 10.4.11, as soon as I try to open them on my G3 it says "what program do you want to open this with?" It thinks Acrobat is a PC text file. What the hell? I can't find anything else to download. And they DO open on the G4. So I can I do this???? Help!!!!
 
You need to find a version for Classic Mac that is compressed/encoded into a hqx or sit file and decompress it with Stuffit.
 
sit file---how to open?

Yes, I found one with .sit. But I couldn't open THAT!!!! How the hell do you open it? It's like a never-ending problem--you can't do A without B, and you can't do B without C, etc. etc. forever. Ideas???
 
I've got Stuffit 9.0 on another computer, but I haven't used it in a long time.
When I try to open it, it just flashes. So I guess I'm screwed.
 
Download StuffIt to the Tiger machine and extract the sit version of Adobe Reader. Then copy it either via the network or my a HFS/HFS+ formatted device to the 8.6 machine. You'll then be able to open and install it.
 
OS9 and below and older versions of OS X rely on the resource fork to determine which apps to open files. If the resource fork is stripped out as can commonly result do to file transfers then the Mac does not know how to open the file.

One way around this is to provide the three letter extension of the file. If you add .pdf to the end of the filename then the file should identify with Acrobat.

I think you'll need Stuffit Expander 8 or less for OS 9 and below. Been a while so I may be off on the version.
 
can't find Acrobat 5.0 in .sit version

I've been at this over 8 hours now. This is ridiculous. I can find UPGRADES to Acrobat 5.0 in .sit format, but they need the original 5.0. I have searched for hours and hours, and I cannot find a .sit version of 5.0 to upload.

I did solve the Stuffit problem, after a mere hour or two I found a version I could use and downloaded it.

Since I am in the middle of changing over my computers, I don't have access to anything other than my beige G3. Unless of course I spend several hours going back to square one....why is this so hard???

Does anyone know where I can get a .sit version of Acrobat 5.0 for Mac???

----------

In case you're wondering, Adobe offers the UPGRADES to all the versions, but for some unfathomable reasons doesn't let you download the actual reader itself.
 
nope

thanks, but that's not it---the "upgrades" search for a 5.0 to upgrade. They don't find it, they quit.

----------

The latest is that I tried to upgrade a non-.sit Reader with the .sit upgrade. so what does it do? It says "A copy of Acrobat to be updated could not be found." And yet I'm looking at it. Logic???
 
OK, after 24 hours of futility, it's official. I give up.

I have to say that I have nothing but hatred for Google, bing, ask--you type in "download Adobe Acrobat 5.0 macintosh" and you gets pages and pages of stuff with that in the title, but when you open the page nothing there refers to what you searched for. There are no downloads, or if they are, it's not for 5.0, etc. etc. I went through 15 pages of search results opening each entry....nothing. Unbelievable. Some sites say "download...macintosh.." and then you hit hit "download" a sign comes up and says "windows only". This is just beyond cruel.

I'll repeat an earlier question, why is this so hard???

Thanks to those who tried to help.
 
mamlukman said:
OK, after 24 hours of futility, it's official. I give up.

I have to say that I have nothing but hatred for Google, bing, ask--you type in "download Adobe Acrobat 5.0 macintosh" and you gets pages and pages of stuff with that in the title, but when you open the page nothing there refers to what you searched for. There are no downloads, or if they are, it's not for 5.0, etc. etc. I went through 15 pages of search results opening each entry....nothing. Unbelievable. Some sites say "download...macintosh.." and then you hit hit "download" a sign comes up and says "windows only". This is just beyond cruel.

I'll repeat an earlier question, why is this so hard???

Thanks to those who tried to help.
Click to expand...

http://download1114.mediafire.com/20cqhm1ktoig/yak8z6cch4ryg68/ar505enu.bin

If that doesn't work, maybe try this:
http://www.rhapsodyos.org/software/pdf_solutions/acrobat_reader_5.smi.sit

At some point, OS 9.1 became the minimum required, but I forget where. Maybe with 5.1?
 
Last edited:
mamlukman said:
OK, after 24 hours of futility, it's official. I give up.

I have to say that I have nothing but hatred for Google, bing, ask--you type in "download Adobe Acrobat 5.0 macintosh" and you gets pages and pages of stuff with that in the title, but when you open the page nothing there refers to what you searched for. There are no downloads, or if they are, it's not for 5.0, etc. etc. I went through 15 pages of search results opening each entry....nothing. Unbelievable. Some sites say "download...macintosh.." and then you hit hit "download" a sign comes up and says "windows only". This is just beyond cruel.

I'll repeat an earlier question, why is this so hard???

Thanks to those who tried to help.
Click to expand...
Check your PMs. I sent you a PM.

For Google searches of this nature you need to change your thinking. Copyright products that are sold commercially tend to be hard to find because the companies that make them tend to issue legal take down notices or notices of intent to sue to websites providing copyrighted software. Acrobat 5.0 is one of those products.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back