Bug: Acrobat Chrome Extension causes fields to be hidden

Question

I’m having a weird issue with the Acrobat Extension in the latest version of Chrome. When filling out a PDF form that has calculated fields, any multi-line text box’s contents are hidden once you lose focus. When I download the filled form and open it with the desktop version of Acrobat, the form fields with hidden content reappear after you click into each field and edit the content.

Forms that don’t have any calculated fields don’t exhibit the same issues.

If I disable the Acrobat Extension in Chrome and open the same PDF form that has calculated fields, I don’t experience the hidden content issue at all.

I’ve also tested the same PDF form in Firefox and Edge, and neither of those browsers have the same issue.

The fields that are being hidden are not the fields being calculated. They are just regular multi-line text boxes. Any single line text fields do not experience the hidden text problem.

Has anyone else experienced this issue or anything similar?

The only fix I’ve found is to just download the PDF form and fill it out of my desktop Acrobat, but that doesn’t work for other employees who use the Acrobat Extension in Chrome and are accustomed to doing things the way they know how.

Please advise.

DFWTechGuy · Accepted Answer

Since the issue only happens in Chrome with the Acrobat extension enabled, and the same form works in Firefox, Edge, and desktop Acrobat, it sounds like a compatibility issue with the extension’s handling of calculated fields.

As a workaround, you could try updating the Acrobat extension and Chrome, then test in a new Chrome profile with other extensions disabled. If it still happens, I’d report it to Adobe with a sample PDF that reproduces the issue, if the form doesn’t contain sensitive information. Since it affects other employees too, reporting it to Adobe would be worthwhile. For now, using desktop Acrobat seems like the most reliable workaround.

justlearn · Answer

​@Incredible_protector5DADI worked in a library for years, and whenever patrons had trouble with PDF forms from the government, one of the first things we'd try was switching them away from Chrome. For whatever reason, complex government PDFs with calculations and fillable fields often seemed to work better in Firefox, Edge, or the desktop version of Acrobat. It wasn't always Chrome itself, but Chrome was frequently part of the problem.

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