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katierianne
Participating Frequently
May 5, 2025
Question

Editing files in Illustrator and saving over them but keeps opening old versions on Acrobat

  • May 5, 2025
  • 5 replies
  • 522 views

I've been editing several different files in Illustrator, saving over the original PDF files, but then the previous versions keep opening in Acrobat. In my files, it shows the updated file on the preview but when I open it on Adobe Acrobat, it's opening the previous version. No matter how many edits and saves I do, it just opens the original file.

The only way the changes save is if I save the file under a new name every time I make a change. I have lost so much work as I didn't realise this was happening, and it is frustrating having to change the file name every single time I edit a file.

 

I can see that several other users have had this issue, spanning over at least 4 years, but cannot find a solution anywhere! This has only started happening to me in the past couple of days. Illustrator and Acrobat and my OS are all up-to-date. Please can anyone help?? 

    5 replies

    K
    katierianneAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    May 6, 2025

    Switching to the old version of Acrobat only worked temporarily. I am back to having the same issues again! If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this, please let me know

    K
    katierianneAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    May 5, 2025

    I've just disabled the new version of Acrobat and it's working fine now. There's obviously a bug with the latest version. If anyone else has the same issue, try going to Edit in Acrobat then clicking "Disable new Acrobat" and see if that resolves it.

    T
    Community Manager
    Tariq AhmadCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    May 5, 2025

    Hi @katierianne, 

     

    I don't know if you are saving the file from Illustrator directly as a PDF file or an Illustrator file. 

    Secondly, when you make changes to the PDF file, don't leave it open in Acrobat. Saving any changes in PDF files is not the same changes to a Word document; Acrobat actually recreates the file.  

     


    ~Tariq

    K
    katierianneAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    May 5, 2025

    I was making sure to close the file in Acrobat before saving changes in Illustrator. Disabling the new version of Acrobat has resolved the issue for now. Hopefully they'll fix the bug with the new version.

    kglad
    Community Expert
    kgladCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 5, 2025

    save with a different name or the same name in a different directory.

    K
    katierianneAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    May 5, 2025

    Saving with a different name works but I don't want to have to keep saving files under new names every time I make an edit. I wasn't having problems with saving over files previously so I don't understand why it's not working properly now!

    kglad
    Community Expert
    kgladCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 5, 2025

    in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

    p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.



    <"moved from using the community">
    K
    katierianneAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    May 5, 2025

    Thank you!

    kglad
    Community Expert
    kgladCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 5, 2025

    you're welcome.  got it now?

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