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jhatley
Participant
February 26, 2026
Question

Adobe Acrobat form submit button error "One of the specified recipients is not resolvable" when I test the form online and hover over the button I don;t grt the finger pointer. How can I fix this?

  • February 26, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 18 views

In Adobe Acrobat I select Prepare a Form and I add a "Submit Button" to my PDF form and set the form action for "mailto:myemail@email.com I get this dialogue box saying "One of the specified recipients is not resolvable" when I test the form online and hover over the button I don't get the finger pointer. How can I fix this?

    2 replies

    try67
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    February 26, 2026

    Regarding the  "One of the specified recipients is not resolvable" error message: Make sure that there are no spaces in your mailto string, not after the colon, not in the email address, or anywhere else.

    If it’s still happening you will need to share the actual string you’re using, or better yet, the actual file, for further help.

    Thom Parker
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    February 26, 2026

    These are two different issues, neither of which appear to be issues related to Acrobat. 

    First, Acrobat does not send emails directly, it does it by handing it off to either the local client or  a remote server.  So, if the form is open in Acrobat/Reader on the desktop, then the first thing that should happen when the button is pushed is a dialog is displayed asking the user how they want to send the email. Any messages about an email not being resolvable are displayed by the target email application. 

    Second, if the form is opened in a browser or mobile device, then it is probably not open in Acrobat. So it’s not going to behave  the same way it would in the desktop Acrobat. Unfortunate, but correct behavior is only guaranteed in the targeted application.    

     

     

    Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
    jhatley
    jhatleyAuthor
    Participant
    February 26, 2026

    Thank you… I understand so how do I get the form not to open in a web browser and open in adobe reader instead?

    Thom Parker
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    February 26, 2026

    That unfortunately is not something that can be controlled from the PDF document. Each user can have a different setup that does different things.  There are however some things you could try. For example if the document is linked on an HTML page, then add the “download” attribute to the <a> tag. Forcing a download usually opens the doc in the appropriate local app. Of course, this doesn’t work across all browsers on all platforms.

    Another approach is to block content on the PDF unless it’s opened by an app that can handle the unblocking mechanism, i.e., Adobe Acrobat/Reader.  But this strategy also has its limits.  

     

     

    Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often