Comment checkmarks still keep disappearing in Acrobat Pro

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
February 17, 2026
2 replies
89 views

Acrobat is yet again not retaining checkmarks as I check off comments.

I work on gazillion-page government documents, so filtering out checked comments is absolutely vital.

Why does this keep happening, and is there any way to make my comment checkmarks stay put?

(Interestingly, I see similar posts going back 9 years…)

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mimi_runswithscissorsAuthor

Participant

@creative explorer thank you for replying, and I see I must clarify (posting as first-level reply for visibility because I cannot also edit my OP…):

The checkmarks are not for a form — I’m referring to the checkmarks in Acrobat’s Comments pane:

I am unable to get both boxes to retain their checkmarks, and it’s rather odd (please view screen recording attached; PNGs added in case you can’t view it):

When I check off an initial comment, it places the checkmark not in the initial comment’s checkbox but in the reply’s comment’s checkbox.
Likewise, when I check off a reply, it places the checkmark not in the reply’s checkbox but in the initial comment’s checkbox.
Then clicking on the empty checkbox removes the checkmark from the checked-off box.
It does not matter which box I click first.
Sometimes when I click away and then try again, it will work. But most of the time it doesn’t.

This never used to happen. It’s driving me crazy because it makes it extremely difficult to track where I am when working on projects with many edits.

I hope somebody has an answer because my only option would be to uninstall the current version of Acrobat and replace it with the previous version — I’m always wary of changing software installs during a large project.

Screen Recording 2026-02-23 at 11.36.59.mov

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mimi_runswithscissorsAuthor

Participant

Hi again, adding that comments with replies also frequently uncheck themselves when I check off a reply. Doesn’t matter which I check first, one will turn off the other.

Sometimes it works just fine, but most of the time it does not.

Neither the recent release, 2025.001.21208, nor rebooting my computer made any difference.

I’m using a MacBook Pro 2021, 64 GB memory, macOS 26.3 (25D125).

creative explorer

Community Expert

@mimi_runswithscissors Double check your preferences. Command K. Security (Enhanced). If 'Enable Enhanced Security is check' — uncheck it. And say Ok. We want to see if this temporarily makes the checkmarks to start "sticking." If they do, we know it's a permission conflict with the Mac's file system.

Also under Preferences, Forms, make sure 'Automatically detect Form Fields' is checked. I actually have all this on.

If I can also remember, each checkmark needs it's own properties. So, Checkmark1, Checkmark2, Checkmark3

Also, how are you working with your files? On the Cloud or locally? If you do both, that may be the issue. If the file is saved in a synced Cloud folder, Acrobat often refreshes the file to match the cloud version. If the cloud version hasn't registered the checkmark yet, it overwrites your local change, making the checkmark vanish. Meaning, those checkmarks are now gone. EECK!

If you are working from the Cloud, try moving the PDFs to your computer locally (desktop or documents folder (maybe create a new folder)—This SHOULD prevent the Cloud refreshing from undoing your checkmarks in real-time. Since checkmarks are behaving poorly, try right-clicking the comment and selecting Set Status > Completed. This writes a more permanent piece of metadata to the comment than a simple checkbox and is less likely to be overwritten by a sync glitch.

m

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