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terra_0077
Participant
August 10, 2026
Answered

Form Field Data Disappearing When Completed and Saved

  • August 10, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 51 views

I created a form using Excel and Adobe Acrobat Pro. There are two form fields that, when the form is saved (whether it is signed or not), clear of any data. I am attaching the form. The fields that won’t keep responses in them are BIA Region and State. I have looked through the other fields and can’t find a difference between these two fields and other dropdown fields. The only difference I am wondering about is that these two fields have a lot of options in the dropdown, but it doesn’t seem like that should make them not work. 

This was flagged by a user, and I’m not sure what program they use to complete the form, but I had the same issue in my own Adobe Acrobat Pro, which is the program I created the form in.

Based on other comments I’ve seen online, I looked at the Page Properties for any actions that might be causing this, but don’t see any. I’ve also seen some comments saying there may still be data in the fields even if they look blank, but I exported the data from multiple test versions of the form and those two fields were blank.

Is there anything I am missing regarding these two fields that is causing them to not retain data entered in them? Is there a way to fix this issue?

    Correct answer Amal Jaiswal

    ​Hi @terra_0077 ,

    Hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out. We are sorry for the trouble you are experiencing.

    A couple of quick questions to help narrow this down:

    • In the Item List for the BIA Region and State fields (Prepare Form > right-click field > Properties > Options tab), do any of the export values repeat or get left blank?

    • Are these two fields set up as a combo box or a list box, and is "Commit selected value immediately" checked on either one?

    The most common cause of a dropdown losing its selected value on save, especially in a long list built from an Excel import, is duplicate or missing export values in the Item List. If two items share the same export value (or one was left blank when the list was pasted in), Acrobat can't reliably tell which one was picked, and the value doesn't stick. Since BIA Region and State both likely have long option lists pulled from your Excel source, this is worth checking first:

    • Open Prepare Form, right-click each field, choose Properties, then go to the Options tab.

    • Click through the Item List and check the "Export Value" for each entry (there's a checkbox near the bottom to show export values separately from display names). Look for duplicates or blanks.

    • If you find any, give each item a unique export value and re-test.

    Let us know how it goes.

    ~Amal

    5 replies

    terra_0077Author
    Participant
    August 14, 2026

    Hi Amal, 

    Thank you - the Export Values were blank, so I added values for them and it works! This reminded me that for those two, since the lists were long, I had used a java script to “write” the list, so maybe that had something to do with it.

    Out of curiosity, I looked at the other selection lists in the file that weren’t having this problem and they also don’t have “export values” but the form kept those values and they exported when I did a data export. Is that jut because there are fewer options that are more easily distinguished? Is it best practice to assign all entries an export value, even if it is the same as the selection?

    Amal Jaiswal
    Community Manager
    Amal JaiswalCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    August 14, 2026

    ​Hi @terra_0077 ,

     

    So glad that fixed it, and thanks for coming back to confirm!

     

    One quick check before I answer your question fully: were the other selection lists that kept their values built by typing entries directly into the Options tab in Prepare Form, or were any of those scripted too?

     

    Here's the likely explanation either way. In Acrobat, for combo boxes and list boxes the display text and the export value are actually two separate things (this is different from text fields, where they're always the same). When you add items by hand in Prepare Form's Options tab, Acrobat sets the export value to match the display text automatically, even if you never touch the export value field yourself. That's why your other dropdowns worked fine without you ever having set export values on purpose; they had them, just invisibly matching the item text.

     

    The problem shows up specifically with scripted lists because most of the JavaScript methods used to build a list (like insertItemAt) let you pass the export value as a separate argument from the display name. If your script only passed the display text and left the export value argument out, Acrobat doesn't always fall back to copying the display text the way the UI does, so you can end up with a blank export value even though the item looks fine on screen. With a long list built that way, it's easy for that to slip through, which matches what you saw.

     

    To your last question: yes, it's worth making it a habit to give every entry an explicit export value, even when it's identical to the display text, especially for anything built or edited by script. It removes the ambiguity entirely and avoids running into this again if you ever regenerate the list.

     

    Thanks again for closing the loop; it'll help anyone else who runs into the same thing.

    ~Amal

     

    terra_0077Author
    Participant
    August 14, 2026

    Hi Amal,

    Thank you for the explanation. Yes, the other fields were created through the Prepare Form option, so your explanation makes sense. Appreciate the guidance on best practices!

    Amal Jaiswal
    Community Manager
    Amal JaiswalCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    August 10, 2026

    ​Hi @terra_0077 ,

    Hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out. We are sorry for the trouble you are experiencing.

    A couple of quick questions to help narrow this down:

    • In the Item List for the BIA Region and State fields (Prepare Form > right-click field > Properties > Options tab), do any of the export values repeat or get left blank?

    • Are these two fields set up as a combo box or a list box, and is "Commit selected value immediately" checked on either one?

    The most common cause of a dropdown losing its selected value on save, especially in a long list built from an Excel import, is duplicate or missing export values in the Item List. If two items share the same export value (or one was left blank when the list was pasted in), Acrobat can't reliably tell which one was picked, and the value doesn't stick. Since BIA Region and State both likely have long option lists pulled from your Excel source, this is worth checking first:

    • Open Prepare Form, right-click each field, choose Properties, then go to the Options tab.

    • Click through the Item List and check the "Export Value" for each entry (there's a checkbox near the bottom to show export values separately from display names). Look for duplicates or blanks.

    • If you find any, give each item a unique export value and re-test.

    Let us know how it goes.

    ~Amal

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