When I click on the E-sign feature, I get the message --> "Create a copy to modify. Shared files can't be modified. Create a copy and make changes to your copy." How do I fix this?

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 Hi @Serena at Mentor North,

Hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out. We are sorry for the trouble you are experiencing and for the earlier support attempts not getting you sorted.

A few quick questions that will help pin down which of a couple of possible causes this is:

• When you say the document was "downloaded to Adobe Acrobat," is it opened from Acrobat's Google Drive connector (listed under Home > Other file storage in Acrobat), or is it a plain file saved to your computer's hard drive?

• When recipients open the emailed copy and click this message to fill in the fields, are they opening it in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader, or in a browser tab (Chrome/Edge's built-in PDF viewer)?

• Were the fillable form fields added using Acrobat's Prepare Form tool, or did they come over automatically when the file was exported from Google Docs?

Here's what's most likely going on, and the fix for each:

1. The Google Drive connection is the issue. If Acrobat is opening the file live from Google Drive through its file storage integration, Acrobat treats that as an actively-synced shared file and blocks direct edits/signing on it. That's exactly what triggers "Create a copy to modify." Adobe's guide on accessing Google Drive files in Acrobat explains how that connection works. The fix is to first make a genuine local copy (download it directly to your computer, not through the Drive connector) and then run the e-sign process on that local copy.

2. Recipients need the right app, not a browser tab. If people open the emailed PDF directly in a browser, the browser's built-in PDF viewer doesn't support form filling or signing and can display this same message. Adobe's article on filling in forms with Acrobat Reader explains why this happens and confirms that Fill & Sign requires the actual Reader app, not a browser preview. Ask recipients to open it specifically in Acrobat Reader (free download) instead.

3. The Google Docs origin may be part of it. PDFs exported from Google Docs don't always carry over a clean, interactive form-field structure. If the fillable fields were auto-converted rather than added via Prepare Form in Acrobat, it's worth rebuilding them on a fresh local copy using Adobe's Prepare a Form tool, which is built specifically to convert existing documents into properly interactive fields.

For the separate download/print issue on your website, that's likely unrelated to the above and is worth checking under Document Properties > Security in Acrobat to confirm printing/extraction isn't restricted on the file itself. Adobe's overview of PDF security and permission options explains where those settings live and what each restriction controls. If nothing's restricted there, it's more likely a setting on the website's embedded viewer rather than Acrobat.

Hope this information will help

Amal