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erica25225878
erica25225878
Participant
July 26, 2024
Answered

Fillable PDF Form - Field Suspected To Be Corrupt Won't Delete

  • July 26, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 1301 views

I'm using Adobe Acrobat Pro to edit a fillable PDF form for work. The file was sent to me from a coworker. Within the form there are a few fields that would appear to be text fields, but when looking in their properties a few things are noticed:

1. The field type is just "Field"

2. In each tab I can't edit any of its properties, and I can confirm it's not locked

3. It's name value is blank, as well as the tool tip. I can't give it a name given ^, so I can't delete it via the JS console

4. It won't delete by any conventional means, including the JS console.

5. I'm able to scale it by clicking and dragging its sides and translating it via click and drag. Rescaling or repositioning can't happen via its properties. 

6. In its Appearance properties, its border, fill, and text color and font size change to a random color/value every time I open the PDF as a whole. This leads me to think some kind of memory overflow is involved.

 

All I want to do is delete these fields. This is a critical business document I don't want to remake from scratch, any help is appreciated. 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer try67

I've seen such fields in the past. I call them "ghost fields". The only way I found of removing them is by using the Redaction tool. Move them to an empty part of the page and use the Redaction tool (while holding down Ctrl) to draw a redaction annotation over them, and then apply it. This should (hopefully) get rid of them. If it doesn't, you might need to start the file from scratch, or just that page.

3 replies

try67
Community Expert
try67Community ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 26, 2024

I've seen such fields in the past. I call them "ghost fields". The only way I found of removing them is by using the Redaction tool. Move them to an empty part of the page and use the Redaction tool (while holding down Ctrl) to draw a redaction annotation over them, and then apply it. This should (hopefully) get rid of them. If it doesn't, you might need to start the file from scratch, or just that page.

Souvik Sadhu
Community Manager
Souvik SadhuCommunity Manager
Community Manager
August 26, 2024

@erica25225878 Hi Erica,

 

Thanks for writing in!

 

While you have a solution already shared above, would you mind sharing a sample file with me to test this issue? 

From the description, this sounds strange and shouldn't be happening.

 

If I am able to get a test file to try and reproduce in-house, it would be helpful to share the data to the devs to come up with a more concrete solution.

 

-Souvik

creative explorer
Community Expert
creative explorerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 26, 2024

@erica25225878 I totally this it may be corrupted. When your co-worker exported or saved as a PDF, what 'compatibility' did the save it? I usually use Acrobat 5 or 6. 

 

m
PDF Automation Station
Community Expert
PDF Automation StationCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 26, 2024

I have encountered this previously with forms sent to me so I don't know how it happens.  When you run a script that lists field names and also call those fields, you end up with a field name, but null when you call the field.  In other words, the field name is present but the field is null.  After that you can find the field in the field panel in form editing mode and delete it from there by selecting it and pressing the delete key.  Here's the script I ran in the console:

 

 

 

for(var i = this.numFields - 1; i > -1; i--)
{
var fieldName = this.getNthFieldName(i);
console.println(fieldName+":"+this.getField(fieldName))
}

 

 

You should get a list of field names and [object field] seperated by a colon.  If you see null instead of [object field], select that field in the panel and delete it.

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