DocumentationExperience Cloud KCS

AEM Forms 6.5 LTS: PDF Generation Fails After SP24 Upgrade Due to Missing Boot Delegation Entries

Last update: August 19, 2026

This article explains how to resolve PDF generation failures in AEM Forms 6.5 LTS after upgrading to Service Pack 24, caused by missing boot delegation entries in the sling.properties file.

Description description

Environment


Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Forms 6.5 LTS (On-Premise, OSGi, Standalone, DEV environment)

Issue/Symptoms


After upgrading to Service Pack 24, attempts to invoke the PDF generation service in AEM Forms fail with a server error. The same functionality works as expected in the previous environment prior to the upgrade. The affected bundle doesn’t become active, and PDF generation requests are unsuccessful.

Error symptoms include:

  • PDF generation service requests fail with a server error.
  • The relevant AEM Forms bundle remains inactive after upgrade.

Example configuration gap:

  • Required boot delegation entries are missing from the sling.properties file.

No specific error code is provided, but server logs may indicate bundle activation failures related to cryptography providers.

Resolution resolution

  1. Identify the Configuration Gap

    • Review the sling.properties file in the upgraded AEM environment and compare it with the previous working environment.
    • Look for missing boot delegation entries related to cryptography providers (e.g., RSA, BouncyCastle).

  2. Add Required Boot Delegation Entries

    • Open the sling.properties file on the author instance.

    • Add the following lines if they are missing:

      code language-none 
      sling.bootdelegation.class.com.rsa.jsafe.provider.JsafeJCE=com.rsa.*
sling.bootdelegation.class.org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider=org.bouncycastle.*

  3. Restart the AEM Instance

    • After saving the changes, restart the AEM instance to apply the updated configuration.

  4. Verify Bundle Activation and PDF Generation

    • Confirm that the previously inactive AEM Forms bundle is now active.
    • Test the PDF generation service to ensure requests are processed successfully.

  5. Monitor for Large Payload Issues

    • For large payloads, monitor for any additional processing or performance issues. Collect relevant logs and input XML for further analysis if needed.

Cause

The issue occurs because required boot delegation entries for cryptography providers were missing from the sling.properties file after the SP24 upgrade, preventing the associated AEM Forms bundle from becoming active and causing PDF generation failures.

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