Adobe PDF iFilter SQL Server 2008 R2 Full Text not working

Question

Unable to get the SQL Server 2008 R2 to index PDF files for full-text searching.
Environment: Windows 7 SP1 Enterprise 64-bit, SQL Server 2008 R2 Express SP3 64-bit, Adobe Reader 11.x
Installed PDF iFilter 64 (11.0.01) from
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5542
Added its folder (C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe PDF iFilter 11 for 64-bit platforms\bin\;) to the PC system Path variable. Rebooted PC.
Confirmed SQL Server sees the Adobe PDF iFilter ..... SELECT * from sys.fulltext_document_types where document_type = '.pdf' 
Inserted PDF files to my table (see below for CREATE statement).
The SQLFT log says  ... Warning: No appropriate filter was found during full-text index population for table or indexed view '[TestDB].[dbo].[pdfifiltertable]' (table or indexed view ID '2105058535', database ID '7'), full-text key value '1'.
Some columns of the row were not indexed.
Installed other filters for Office. Added files of type DOC, XPS. Confirmed the search query works for those file types. So as such SQL Full-Text is enabled and working.
Below my T-SQL commands:
Exec sp_fulltext_service 'load_os_resources', 1
Exec sp_fulltext_service 'verify_signature', 0
Exec sp_fulltext_database 'enable'
CREATE TABLE pdfifiltertable(
PdfID INT IDENTITY NOT NULL,
PdfFileName VARCHAR(MAX),
Ext VARCHAR(10) ,
PdfText VARBINARY(MAX),
CONSTRAINT PK_PdfID PRIMARY KEY (PdfID)
GO
CREATE FULLTEXT CATALOG pdfCatalog AS DEFAULT
GO
CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX ON pdfifiltertable([PdfText] Type column [Ext]
) KEY INDEX PK_PdfID with change_tracking auto
GO
SELECT pdfFileName FROM pdfifiltertable WHERE CONTAINS(pdftext, 'payment')

Answer 1

What edition are you using? Like is it SQL-Express or SQL-Standard etc.
Adding files using C# desktop application.
Tested in another PC SQL-Server Express 2008 with Windows 7 64-bit. Same issue.
C# source code ... add a button called uploadPDF and a datagridview called datagridview to the form.
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
namespace UploadPDF
public partial class Form1 : Form
#region Properties
protected static string ConnectionString {
get {return "Integrated Security=SSPI;database=Testdb;Data Source=localhost\\SQLEXPRESS;Workstation ID=localhost;";}
protected static SqlConnection Connection {
get {return new SqlConnection(ConnectionString);}
protected DataTable pdfDataTable;
#endregion
public Form1()
InitializeComponent();
populateDataGrid();
protected void populateDataGrid()
SqlConnection con = Connection;
con.Open();
try
pdfDataTable = new DataTable();
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand( "select * from pdfifiltertable", con);
SqlDataAdapter adapter = new SqlDataAdapter(cmd);
adapter.Fill(pdfDataTable);
dataGridView.DataSource = pdfDataTable;
dataGridView.Columns[3].Visible = false;
finally {
con.Close();
private void uploadPDF_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
if (DialogResult.Cancel == fileOpenDialog.ShowDialog()) return;
try {
byte[] content = FileToByteArray(fileOpenDialog.FileName);
uploadPDFBlob2DataBase(fileOpenDialog.FileName,content);
populateDataGrid();
} catch (Exception ex) {
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "PDFiFilter11", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
public byte[] FileToByteArray(string _FileName) {
byte[] pdfBuffer = null;
try {
System.IO.FileStream _FileStream = new System.IO.FileStream(_FileName, System.IO.FileMode.Open, System.IO.FileAccess.Read);
System.IO.BinaryReader _BinaryReader = new System.IO.BinaryReader(_FileStream);
long TotalNumberOfBytes = new System.IO.FileInfo(_FileName).Length;
pdfBuffer = _BinaryReader.ReadBytes((Int32)TotalNumberOfBytes);
_FileStream.Close();
_FileStream.Dispose();
_BinaryReader.Close();
} catch (Exception _Exception) {
Console.WriteLine("Exception caught in process: {0}", _Exception.ToString());
return pdfBuffer;
public void uploadPDFBlob2DataBase(String fName, byte[] content) {
SqlConnection con = Connection;
con.Open();
String ext,filename;
ext = Path.GetExtension(fName);
filename = Path.GetFileName(fName);
try {
SqlCommand insert = new SqlCommand( "insert into pdfifiltertable ([PdfFileName],[Ext],[PdfText]) values ((@pdfFileName),(@extension),(@pdfcontent))", con);
SqlParameter pdffilenameParameter = insert.Parameters.Add("@pdfFileName", SqlDbType.NText);
pdffilenameParameter.Value = filename;
pdffilenameParameter.Size = filename.Length;
SqlParameter extParam = insert.Parameters.Add("@extension", SqlDbType.NVarChar);
extParam.Value = ext;
extParam.Size = ext.Length;
SqlParameter pdfcontentParameter = insert.Parameters.Add("@pdfcontent", SqlDbType.Binary);
pdfcontentParameter.Value = content;
pdfcontentParameter.Size = content.Length;
insert.ExecuteNonQuery();
} finally {
con.Close();
} //class
} //namespace