Participant

Answered

How do I disable a pop up in Acrobat which says “ Share your PDFs using WhatsApp?”

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This pop up window appears everytime I open Acrobat Reader and no matter what options I have tried turning off after numerous Google searchs, it still persists.

Please tell me how to stop this happening as it’s incredibly annoying!

Thanks

Meenakshi NegiCorrect answer

Community Manager

Hi troyjack,

Please use the steps as suggested below for Mac OS:

Make sure no Acrobat processes are running in the activity monitor, if yes, please close all the Acrobat reated processes.
Make sure you're on build 26.2.21869.0.
Open Go → Go to Folder
Navigate to /Library/Preferences
Download the attached .plist file and drag it into this location, replacing the existing file.
Note: Please do not use the “ ~ ” icon before /Library/Preferences
Once done, please reboot the application and your device and check whether this resolves the issue.

Let us know if you need any help.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

F

focused_questioner9291

Participant

You can’t be serious about that, right?

First: why is that a feature in the first place? And why is it placed right next to something as basic as copy, paste and highlighting?

Second: what were you thinking when not giving any option for disabling it? And no, having to mess around with the registry is no real option for normal users.

That needs to be fixed asap. And please try to think about your users for once before adding such bloat that can’t even turned off in a user-friendly way.

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V

VMN-A

“ Let us know if we can be of any further assitance.”
=> Yep. You can stop forcing paying and non-paying users to use tiers apps.

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Hamish25697538ryai

Participant

For Windows users, the registry fix does work, it just wasn’t explained properly: it needs a DWORD not a key.

You need to create a ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value’ named ‘bEnableThirdPartyWhatsappShare’ with value 0 in the registry directory:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown

Then restart Acrobat and it’s gone.

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VMN-A

Finally !! Can’t believe we had to wait from an user to get the right way to do it… The path was wrong also… Thanks a lot.

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Precious_realist7244

Participant

Stupid program, why do I want to share via Whatsapp?? I will uninstall Adobe Reader!

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troyjack

Inspiring

Any update to the ability to disable this very annoying feature?

On MacOS and none of the suggestions already mentioned work.

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Meenakshi Negi

Community Manager

Hi troyjack,

Sorry for the trouble this may have caused.

We are checking with the team for further information and will update you with the correct information.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

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Meenakshi Negi

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hi troyjack,

Please use the steps as suggested below for Mac OS:

Make sure no Acrobat processes are running in the activity monitor, if yes, please close all the Acrobat reated processes.
Make sure you're on build 26.2.21869.0.
Open Go → Go to Folder
Navigate to /Library/Preferences
Download the attached .plist file and drag it into this location, replacing the existing file.
Note: Please do not use the “ ~ ” icon before /Library/Preferences
Once done, please reboot the application and your device and check whether this resolves the issue.

Let us know if you need any help.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

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com.adobe.Acrobat.Pro.zip

C

caring_Harmony4ae2

Participant

I’m seeing this too, and it’s frustrating that the normal WhatsApp and message preferences don’t seem to stop it. The registry setting looks interesting, although it seems to depend on the Acrobat version. I’ll probably try the compatibility setting first and then check the FeatureLockDown option if it still appears. Hopefully Adobe provides a proper fix rather than requiring users to change registry settings. I’ll also keep an eye on for related compatibility discussions.

[Third-party link of an APK removed by Adobe Moderator]

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Meenakshi Negi

Community Manager

Hi caring_Harmony4ae2,

Thank you for reaching out, and sorry to hear that you are still experiencing the issue.

Please update your application to the latest version, 26.001.21771, which was recently released. In Adobe Acrobat, go to the Menu > Help > Check for Updates. For more information on the latest version, you can refer to the following help page: Acrobat Release Notes.

After updating the application, please relaunch it and let us know if the option still appears.

We look forward to hearing how it goes!

Thanks,

Meenakshi

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Felix123

Participant

If Adobe is actively trying to aleniate their users, they’re on the right track. I’ve just got another PDF editor installed. I may never come back to using Acrobat.

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Giddy_kindness0673

Participant

@Felix123 what program did you end up going with?

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Felix123

Participant

For my needs, Bluebeam, but there are many alternatives.

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V

VVky

Participating Frequently

Those of you on a Mac, uncheck ‘show text actions on text selection’ under general in preferences

This will also disable other quick actions on the tooltip, but it is worth it.

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Meenakshi Negi

Community Manager

Hi All,

Thank you for your patience so far.

The preference settings only disable the Send to WhatsApp button in the application. However, you may disable the Send text to WhatsApp option from the pop-up by using the following feature lockdown key:

bEnableThirdPartyWhatsappShare -0

Let us know if that helps.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

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VMN-A

Hello,

Can you please at least specify where this key has to be created in regedit ?

Thanks

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Anand Sri Bhattacharya

Community Manager

Hello @VMN-A

I hope you are doing well, and sorry for the trouble you had.

The path is:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\Beta\FeatureLockDown

Please note that the version details highlighted will be different on your computer. Add the feature lockdown key: bEnableThirdPartyWhatsappShare and the value will be 0.

I have also sent you an email with more details. Please check your email.

Let us know how it goes, and please reach out if you need any assistance.

Regards,

Anand Sri.

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roguevoice

Participant

I’m on a Mac and have the exact same problem. Just started this week. I have always had Generative AI features disabled. I also double checked and, “Show Send to WhatsApp Shortcut” is also disabled. I’m also in Classic view because I hate the New Acrobat layout.

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