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phoenix_7271
January 15, 2026
Question

Digital signatures / signature images being removed when opening PDF

  • January 15, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 215 views

Hi there,

 

I've got a very odd issue I haven't been able to figure out. I work IT for a university, and a user has received a PDF that has: one digital signature, one auto-generated "fill & sign" signature, and what looks like two hand-written "sign yourself" signature/initials.

 

When my user opens the PDF via the Acrobat web app, everything appears normal - signature boxes and forms are active, all signatures appear as expected, etc. The same is true if she downloads the PDF and then uses "Open With" and opens it in any given browser, as well as generic desktop PDF viewers.

 

But when she tries to open the PDF in the desktop app, the digital signature and the "fill & sign" signature are both gone. When she goes to close it, it asks if she'd like to save changes even though she didn't make any - so Acrobat seems to be making some kind of change within the app automatically.

 

I've tried all combinations of security and signature settings within the app, I've opened the file on multiple devices on both Windows and Mac under multiple accounts, I've tried just about everything I can find on Google. This has happened more than once on some documents but not all. This is an enterprise account and using the desktop app is a requirement, as well as being able to pass the document on for further signing (so "print as PDF" from the web isn't an option).

 

Any thoughts? I'm at my wit's end here.

1 reply

MikelKlink
MikelKlink
Participating Frequently
January 16, 2026

The Acrobat Desktop application is very sensitive in regard to uncommon details of digital signatures. Most other applications are not as sensitive here. 

Apparently in your user's PDF there are such uncommon details. For more details we'd need to analyze the document in question.

Often there is nothing one can do. Sometimes a trick like applying yet another signature which must be configured to lock the document helps. (Obviously that signature must be applied by a different app than desktop Acrobat.) But even then there is no guarantee that those tricks still work in the future with updated Acrobat versions. 

Meenakshi_Negi
Meenakshi_Negi
Legend
January 16, 2026

Hi phoenix_7271,

 

Thank you for reaching out and reporting this behaviour.

 

As mentioned, the signature appears fine on the web. The issue occurs only with the Acrobat desktop application.

Please check whether this happens with a specific file or with files from a particular source. Could you please share a sample PDF with us so we can check?

It would be helpful if you could share the video of the steps you mentioned above, showing what happens. Also, share the Acrobat and OS version used on the machine. We will get this checked.

 

Thanks,

Meenakshi 

 

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