About PDF form

Hi there

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out.

It sounds like you’re running into a limitation with LiveCycle (XFA) forms and Reader-extended rights.

A few things to keep in mind:

 1. XFA forms don’t always honor Reader Extensions reliably

Forms created in LiveCycle ES2 use the older XFA technology, and once they’re opened in newer versions of Acrobat/Reader, certain behaviors—like locking, usage rights, and data-saving permissions—may not work consistently. This can cause fields to appear locked initially but become editable again when the file is reopened.

2. “Locking” in these forms is not true document security

Most LiveCycle forms use a script-based or button-based lock.
This does not apply actual PDF security—it only changes the state of the form at runtime. When the file is saved and reopened, those script-based locks may not re-activate unless the script is specifically written to do so.

3. Reader Extensions applied by Acrobat Pro 2020 are limited

When you save a LiveCycle form as “Reader-enabled,” Acrobat only applies basic rights (saving, commenting, digital signatures).
It does not fully preserve advanced XFA locking behavior—those features are only fully supported if the form is reader-extended using Adobe AEM Forms (LiveCycle server edition).

If the form uses calculated fields, data binding, or scripts, those scripts may run again when the file is reopened. This can cause:

• Data to revert
• Fields to become editable
• Calculations to update
• Lock states to reset

This is a known behavior with older XFA forms.

Things to do:

• Check if the form has scripts that run on “document open” — they may be resetting values.
• Avoid using the “lock” buttons unless the script is designed to persist the locked state.
• Apply Reader Extensions using AEM Forms if the form must be properly locked and saved with rights.
• Consider migrating to an AcroForm (non-XFA) if long-term compatibility is needed—XFA support is deprecated in many environments.

Hope this information will help.

~Amal