Participant

Answered

Clicking the Sign button does not do anything

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
March 31, 2017
14 replies
97250 views

I'm not sure what happened. I had a pdf with a user signature field and I used to be able to add my digital signature into it. Today, I received a prompt in Adobe Reader and I don't recall what it was, but it seemed to have changed something. Now, I am unable to add my digital signatures. When I click on the signature field, I am able to select my Digital ID in the "Sign with a Digital ID" window, hit "Continue", but when I hit "Sign", nothing happens. How can I fix this? I've already reinstalled Adobe Reader but my problem still remains.

Thank you for any guidance.

Correct answer Dan1T

I've ran into this issue. This workaround helped restore the ability to use a smartcard signature in my case (Windows 10, Acrobat Pro DC):

Close all instances of Adobe Acrobat, then delete the three "Acrobat" folders in the Windows user's appdata folder (C:\users\<username>\appdata):

C:\%userprofile%\appdata\Local\Adobe\Acrobat

C:\%userprofile%\appdata\LocalLow\Adobe\Acrobat

C:\%userprofile%\appdata\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat

After deleting these folders, they will be recreated after Acrobat is launched again. After that, digitally signing should work again. I still don't know what causes this issue, but this seems to fix it.

S

Scott334287962oy6

Participant

Anyone ever find an actual working solution to this?

I've tried every possible solution that exists on the internet and have been denied support due to Reader being a free product. Issue has plagued our organization for four years.

simon@idea

Participant

This is still happening in 2024, along with many other bugs/unresponsiveness.

Dan1T's solution didn't work for me, but uninstalling/reinstalling Acrobat for the second time in 12 months fixed it.

I expect more reliability from software I pay a premium for, and if I ever find a decent alternative to Reader/Acrobat I trust I'll move my entire company away from Adobe.

A

Antonel35456862a1w5

Participant

On my PC ...I changed from 64 bit( adobe) to 32 bit version and ... work

M

Mathieu290463377a57

Participant

2023 and this issue is still not fixed?
This is embarassing.

A

Asif29116784ow4z

Participant

I am having the same problem after having to re-mount laptop (other reasons) and revert to Windows 10. I can use the sign feature even though I deleted the files mentioned C:\%userprofile%\appdata\Local\Adobe\Acrobat

Any suggestions on how to get the signature back?

Note that I can sign from Adobe Cloud (OneDrive synced to access those PDFs). Why can't I use the sign feature from the desktop Adobe Reader?

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Hi @Asif29116784ow4z ,

The C:\%userprofile%\appdata\Local\Adobe\Acrobat folder is a local hidden folder that downloads cached data from other programs.

As such, it is possible that when you downgraded back to Windows 10, if you didn't backed up this hidden folder, any cached data that was previously used to sign documents with Acrobat was lost.

Additionally, the users' local profile accounts specifically belong to the computer that the account was created in locally.

Such account profiles are not shared with other computers, nor it is synchronized with other computers accross domains in a networked environment (unless a roaming user profile is explicitely created for a virtual network environment).

This may explain why you are able to sign via cloud service but not from an full desktop app like Adobe Acrobat which is hosted locally by the Microsoft Windows operating system.

In which case, and if I am not mistaken, a user's certificate signing credentials for cloud-based services are handled in MS Windows through the Credential Manager, and not exclusively through Microsoft Windows Certificate Stores (which are created in local folders under the user's account).

That said, signing certificates are not always managed directly by the programs that were used to create a certificate; they are managed at the operating system level.

You may, however, be able to retrieve the certificate from the Windows certificate store where it was originally saved into.

You should refer to the Microsoft support guidance on how to import/export certificates your signing certificates (not to be confused with a signature creation and appearance).

J

Joseph24796468xr7q

Participant

I am having the same problem on Windows 11.

I am not able to implement the suggested solutions based on deleting folders as they don't exist for me.

R

Richard24976335epxb

Participant

It looks the same for me on my Windows 11 computer. However, the "AppData" folder is a hidden folder. You'll nee to enable viewing through the file options tab either at the top of the C: directory or in your user folder.

Sorry if you've already taken this step.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Thanks for catching that.

B

b5c51

Participant

I know there have been lots of recommendations posted to this already but none of them have been able to help me resolve this issue for me.
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (latest version)

Windows 10 64bit Version: 21H1

I have tried uninstalling, restarting the computer, then reinstalling from the Creative Cloud launcher.
Our enviroments do not require connection to the VPN in order for a digital siganture to be applied, but I have tried both off the VPN and on the VPN.

I deleted the smart card credentials from the Windows Certificate store, then re-cached them.

Recap:
1. Press "Digitally Sign"
2. Select area on document
3. "Sign With Digital ID" window appears
4. Valid company-issued ActivClient Smart Card Digital certificate with the intended usage as "Digital Siganture, Non-Repudiation" is the only certficate present and radio button is selected.
5. Press "Continue"
6. ID Preview displays correct signature/date
7. "Sign" button is blue, and reacts to "onlick" (color changes slightly when clicked).
8. "Sign as ______" window remains opened, despite multiple clicks. Other buttons (i.e. "Back", "Review", "Create") function nominally.

No error message is shown, and no log file can be found that details what could be happening making this incredibly difficult to troubleshoot.

D

Dan1TCorrect answer

Participant

I've ran into this issue. This workaround helped restore the ability to use a smartcard signature in my case (Windows 10, Acrobat Pro DC):

Close all instances of Adobe Acrobat, then delete the three "Acrobat" folders in the Windows user's appdata folder (C:\users\<username>\appdata):

C:\%userprofile%\appdata\Local\Adobe\Acrobat

C:\%userprofile%\appdata\LocalLow\Adobe\Acrobat

C:\%userprofile%\appdata\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat

After deleting these folders, they will be recreated after Acrobat is launched again. After that, digitally signing should work again. I still don't know what causes this issue, but this seems to fix it.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Thank you for this solution!

D

Dima5C19

Participant

Just wanted to share a tip for those that stuck on "Sign" button being unclickable;

I've fixed it by connecting to our corporate VPN, my assumption is that it validates the digital certificate that was released by our corp via intranet.

The Identity tip also makes sense.

Best of luck to everyone and stay calm,

-D

ls_rbls

Community Expert

++Adding to the discussion,

Dima's observation is absolutely correct, but to be more specific, you won't be able to apply a certificate-based digital signature if the issuer of the Root Certificate Authority requires a time-stamp server to validate encryption at signing time.

Such is the case when an signer is required to use a smart card to sign and validate the authenticity of such credentials that are embedded in the issued certificate, for example.

If this is your case, you must be online to in order to execute and finalize the signing action, or else , as Dima indicated, check if there is anything in your home/work network that is preventing access to a required time-stamp service (or similar authentication mechanism).

That said, if you use a self-signed digital certificate, you don't need to be online to sign a PDF.

T

timh30308772

Participant

It's just so frustrating as this was working fine a few months ago and it suddenly doesn't do anything when it is necessary. When clicking the sign button, it briefly disappeared & reappeared without any message. Rebooting or reinstalling didn't do anything either. Any tip to resolve this stupid problem?

C

Celina5DC5

Participant

Hello, I had the same problem for weeks but recently I think I found what was wrong (at least in my case). My certificate was made for a different e-mail-address as the one listed under my digital identity.

I went to the options under edit (or something similar, I use it in another language) and there was a category "Identity". Under that category I could change the e-mail-address to the one that was specified in the certificate.

After I made this change, I could use the button sign again and sign documents again.