Has the ability to have multiple fields with the same name been removed?

This happened before, I installed an old version of indd again. But since I'm working with a global team, I updated my InDesign and the previous version was working just fine. NOW, with version 2018, they created the same problem, AGAIN.

I haven't found a true fix for this in InDesign, but what I've discovered is Acrobat is creating a record or "instance" for the oruginal field name in the field list that is not really associated with a field. And that leads to a workaround.

WORKAROUND: Using the "Prepare Form" tool, rename that "nonfield" record to something else, then locate the first actual field and rename it by deleting all the added information Acrobat put at the end. Do that for all the rest of the duplicate fields.

Acrobat still adds an ending to all those duplicates (so name might be, in my example "EHE SupervisorName", then , "EHE SupervisorName#1", etc. in the FIELD LIST), but those fields will now function as expected.

Looking at the form itself, the field goes from being blank/unnamed (at least that is what I was seeing) to the proper field name WITHOUT the extension you see in the Field List--so, again, is like normal duplicate field.

STEP-BY-STEP: (#1) It helps to sort the Field List alphabetically when you start. (#2) You can then see the "group" that has been created; open the "+" to see the "nonfield" (no "T" box by it), and (#3) do that renaming of the "nonfield" record. Once you do that, note that SOME of the other fields might MOVE to the bottom of the list and not sort alphabetically again (I had that happen). (#4) Don't panic--check the bottom of the list for the rest of them. Again, rename the first one back to what you had wanted by deleting both the change you made to the name and anything else Acrobat added ORIGINALLY (I've seen periods, generally) and don't worry if Acrobat adds an extension to the duplicates of the field. The duplicate fields will disappear from the bottom of the list and go back where they belong. (#5) You'll also notice that the "nonfield" has disappeared. (#6) You'll also see that the field name is CORRECT in the duplicate location (doesn't show any "extra" to the name; is a proper duplicate name).

There's still no reason why Acrobat should be making that "nonfield" record, and this workaround is still a bit of a pain in the butt; but if you've got duplicate fields that are in different places in a document or different sizes or type styles or colors or that you took the care to position precisely in InDesign, this workaround allows you to actually use the duplicate you intended to use.

I hope everyone reports this as a bug, and maybe it will get fixed. What a serious pain in the.... this is for anyone who creates forms out of InDesign--an Adobe product, for criminey's sakes!

Almost laughable that they've added the ability for us to spec language and doc name in InDesign finally (a very minor aggravation)--but have taken away control of the form fields (major, major problem).

Adobe Acrobat - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

Just encountered the same problem, all my old forms using multiple fields by the same name no longer can work as they should, do we have to resort to javascript now?

The error message suggests that you're trying to rename two fields of different types with the same name. That is not possible.

Are you sure the fields you're renaming are from the same type?

Also, I would recommend creating the fields only in Acrobat, not in InDesign.