You turn on your computer. You see the message to update and you click on Update Now or Okay – and then you wait. Surely this latest Adobe update can’t take too terribly wrong. But then you see a message. You have an error somewhere in the depths of your machine and in several cases, that conflict is numbered and explained for you in the message.

Fortunately, you can usually solve a conflict problem without too much fuss or muss despite the annoying warning.

Adobe Error 1612 and 1635

There are so many things that can go wrong when you’re trying to update or download Adobe software. The possibilities of error messages are seemingly endless. In this case, you may have seen a message like 1612 …

“The installation source for this product is not available. Verify that the source exists and that you can access it.”

There is also the possibility that you’d get what seems like a totally separate message like …

“This patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package exists and that you can access it”.

That is Error 1635, but the two errors are actually the same problem – Adobe is conflicting with another program and the solution is essentially the same for both error messages as well.

How to Fix it

Your first step to resolve either Error 1612 or 1635 is to let Microsoft handle the nuts and bolts of it. The Microsoft troubleshooting wizard, Fixit, is often able to find the solution you need without having to do much drilling on your own. To give Fixit a chance to work, start on this Microsoft Support page dedicated to this sort of error.

Why are there still so many problems with downloading updates?  You’d think that the process of updating programs, system files and drivers would be down pat by now.  Sadly, the problems are ongoing, but with a little problem-solving, we can walk you through the process of tackling Adobe update errors in the 1600 range. 

If you pay attention to the error number, you can get a pretty good idea of what is wrong with your computer. The errors ranging from 1601 to 1603 are usually errors brought about by a conflict of settings: usually those of a program that is conflicting with Adobe or perhaps a problem with a disk storage problem that is configured wrong.

Adobe Update Error 1601

The first error you might encounter in this particular series is straightforward enough. You try to update your machine and it tells you that you’re

"Out of Disk Space"

Your first step here is to figure out which drive your computer is downloading files to. Maybe you’re hard-drive really is full . . . maybe not.

When it’s not my C:\ drive

If you’ve made a change to you profile-setting so that you automatically download to a flash drive or external hard drive, you can change your settings again so that you’re downloading to your C: drive, or main hard drive. Since the primary drive will likely have more space than a removable drive, this will usually fix the problem.

INTERNET EXPLORER | Find the gear icon in the top right corner » View Downloads » Options
GOOGLE CHROME | Find the management icon in corner » Settings » (Show Advanced Settings) » Downloads
MOZILLA FIREFOX | Main Menu » Options » (Options Again) » General Tab » Downloads

To find out more about managing Internet Explorer (or any browser) so that it works the way you want it to, see our guide to Optimizing IE.

It seems like there is constantly some sort of update for software and often we don’t even notice that our computers are updating while we work on something else. We don’t notice, that is, until something goes wrong.

In the case of Adobe Reader, it seems there are plenty of things that may get hung up or go wrong. In many different cases, you may get an error from Adobe telling you that the software “could not perform the necessary action for…something.” While the actual error you see may be more specific – as it should be – there are four different errors with Adobe that are all essentially the same thing.

If you run into trouble and see error 1401, 1402, 1404 or 1406, you have a problem with your settings. More specifically, you’re seeing Adobe error 1401 (and so on) because the registry isn’t cooperating with the update. Fortunately, it’s not the end of the world and you can easily fix the problem.

Remove and Reinstall Adobe Reader

Okay, generally we’re talking about registry conflicts, but when it comes to editing the Windows Registry, it’s always good to do that as a last resort.  Let’s look at a more essential first-step.  It’s often possible to resolve errors with Adobe products by just resetting something: either installing updates or re-installing the program itself.  

Your first step to resolving this particular issue is to remove any old versions of Adobe Reader and then reinstall it from the Adobe website. To do this, go to

» Start and click on Control Panel.

» Then click on Programs and Features.

Inside the list of Programs and Features, look for Adobe Reader. To remove the program, click on the Uninstall button at the top of the screen once you’ve highlighted Reader.

Ah, Adobe. The program responsible for so many things – reading PDFs in Reader, creating websites through Dreamweaver and supplying interactivity through Adobe Flash. If only it worked smoothly all of the time! Sadly there are routine errors that users commonly face when it comes to the operation and updating of Adobe products.  Fortunately, there are some tried and true methods to fixing these errors that everyone can do.

The most common update and install problems with Adobe products are errors 1067 and 1328. You probably don’t care much about the number, but you will likely remember the messages that go along with them when they appear.

The update failed. The process was terminated unexpectedly

or that there was an

Error applying patch to [your file]

The key here is to not panic.  The best course of action is to simply revert all or some of your Adobe product to an earlier state.  This way, you can either introduce updates directly, or put all features of the program at the same place so that updates can be instigated uniformly.

What’s Up With Adobe Updates?

One of the more common errors is to have your version of Adobe Reader trying to update constantly.  It may seem obnoxious, but the updates are really useful.  They provide bug-fixes, program improvements and generally supply the capability of Adobe products to work with newer applications.   That why, when there’s but in the update process, Adobe gets pushy.