Participating Frequently

Question

How do I stop Adobe from opening previously viewed documents from the page where I last closed it? And how do I do so without causing other issues?

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
February 9, 2026
2 replies
134 views

Good morning,

So, I use Adobe for the multitude of PDF’s I get on the daily. However (and I don’t know how many times this has caused me issues in the past or made me look foolish, as I have never noticed this before) when I went to view many of my previous doc’s one after another, towards the end (there were lots) I realised that Adobe was opening documents at the last place I was on when I closed it last, i.e. at the bottom. Considering I was just scrolling down to see if a certain doc was present before closing them, I likely missed the one I wanted. I personally think this is a terrible feature, but others may find it useful, so no judgements.

However, to the point of the matter. I searched how to turn this feature off, only to find that it was one I had to specifically turn on to stop another issue previously, (How do I stop Adobe from changing my view and page settings because of the settings used when the document being viewed was created?). The issue with that is that I am sent PDF’s from others, and Adobe kept messing with my display to match what the creator had theirs set for, I don’t care how they like to do work, only how I like to do work.

So how do I stop Adobe from opening doc’s at where I happened to find the thing I was looking for last time? And how do I do so without making it so Adobe makes decisions on its own about how I should view documents based on the original creators settings?

I use “Classic view”.

I have “Open PDFs from last session on Acrobat launch” turned off.

I have “Restore last view settings when reopening documents” turned on. (This one must stay “on” or my views get altered all the time which makes performing tasks agonising as I have to re-find all my tools.)

Regards,

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Uncheck this option in the Preferences:

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

I

impressive_member8897Author

Participating Frequently

Hey mate,

I mentioned this option in the body of the post. I discovered this option for a previous issue I had with Adobe where it would override my view and toolbar options if the person sent me a document that was created with different settings; making it a nightmare to work on the document as everything was either closed or in the wrong spot. I need to keep that on to retain sanity since Adobe thinks I care how someone else has their computer set up.

Regards,

Amal.

Legend

Hi there

Hope you are doing well and sorry for the trouble.

Just to make sure I’m guiding you correctly, could you confirm a couple of things:

Which Acrobat app are you using (Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Pro/Standard)?
What’s your OS and version (Windows/macOS, and which version)?
Do you notice this behavior with all PDFs, or only with certain files (for example, ones received from others)?

Right now, Acrobat is behaving as designed based on this setting: “Restore last view settings when reopening documents.”

This option bundles a few behaviors together:

It remembers zoom, layout, tool panels, etc. (the part you want)
It also remembers the last scroll position / page (the part causing trouble)

at the moment, there isn’t a separate toggle to remember tools and layout but ignore last scroll position. So you’re running into a limitation of how those preferences are grouped.

You can try to use “Go to first page” before closing - a quick habit, without letting Acrobat override your view based on the sender’s settings

Before closing a PDF, hit Home or Ctrl + Home (Windows) / Cmd + ↑ (macOS) to jump back to the top.

This resets the “last position” Acrobat remembers, so when you reopen the file later, it won’t dump you at the bottom.

Hope this will help.

~Amal

I

impressive_member8897Author

Participating Frequently

Good morning,

Not too bad for a Monday, thanks for asking. I hope your weekend was good.

I’m kind of just used to having issues with Adobe tbh, I don’t find it a particularly intuitive system to use, and it is full of glitches and features that I am forever contending with.

I can’t tell you if I use Reader, Pro, or Standard, as it doesn’t tell me anywhere. No matter where I look it just says “Adobe Acrobat”. I have edit capabilities so I assume I have either Standard or Pro. I checked “Properties”, “Preferences”, and “Program Manager”, and they all just say the same thing.

I use this on a Windows OS.

As for the changing settings to match others; I have noticed a few times, enough times to lead me to ask for support in to how to fix it. I can’t show you the info I was given as, since the migration of the Adobe Community questions, a lot of my previous correspondence has vanished. Restoring the last view settings stopped it happening MOST of the time, but not every time. It is really annoying when it does as I have to then go and set up my toolbar etc. how I had them before, but MUCH rarer now. As for the scroll position, that happens everytime and it is the thing I wish to not happen, as I don't find it a helpful feature at all. Genuinely I think it is an unnecessary unintuitive hinderance.

So, basically I have to just remember to scroll back to the top of the document before I close it? So Adobe decides to either change my viewing settings because it decides it doesn’t like the way I set up my workstation, or it decides that when I say I’m finished with a document and close it, that apparently I was wrong and that I’m not finished with it?

I reiterate my earlier comment “I’m kind of just used to having issues with Adobe tbh, I don’t find it a particularly intuitive system to use, and it is full of glitches and features that I am forever contending with.“

Well, thankyou anyway. I am aware it is not your fault and you are trying to help me navigate this...program in the best way possible with its limitations.

Regards,

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded