Acrobat always asks to save changes, even with no changes

[steves23210816]

Recently Acrobat DC has started asking about saving changes before closing upon opening every single PDF document.  No changes have been made ever, yet it still asks and forces me to answer to get out of the document.

I have read other articles that mentioned possibly corrupt PDF documents, but I don't think that is relevant as it happens on every document.  I have even created new PDFs from blank Word documents.  This also happens with others in my organization.

Any ideas on how to get rid of this very annoying, unnecessary, and time-wasting prompt?

[Karl Heinz Kremer · Accepted solution]

If this truly is happening with all PDF files, regardless of their source, then something in your Acrobat installation is modifying these files. This can for example be a plug-in. Do you have any 3rd party plug-ins installed? If you don't know, or if there are 3rd party plug-ins, I would bring up Acrobat without these plug-ins to see if that changes this behavior. You can disable all 3rd party plug-ins by opening Acrobat's Preferences, then go to the "General" category and check the box "Use only certified plug-ins" - only plug-ins that come with Acrobat are certified, so this will disable all 3rd party plug-ins. After you make this change and restart Acrobat, do you still see the save prompt?

[steves23210816]

YOU ARE THE MAN!  That was it. 

I believe I know which plug-in it is, but I wanted a way to be sure.  I clicked on Tools and compared the icons showing before and after the certified checkbox.  Only one icon is missing, and it was the plug-in I suspected.  I assume that pretty much narrows it down, or is there a more definitive way to check and see what plug-ins I have in my installation?

[steves23210816]

Disregard, turns out the culprit realized it very recently and are working on a fix.  Thanks!

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

Glad you figured it out. In general, you can find out what plug-ins are installed (that is, as long as they advertise themselves) by selecting the "About Third-Party plug-ins" menu item. This is either in the Help menu (Windows), or the Acrobat menu (Mac OS).

[tleetabor]

This may help people struggling with this problem... My Adobe Acrobat Reader was acting in the same annoying way... asking if you wanted to save EVERY file (mostly simple scans) after viewing and not changing anything.

I followed all the previous suggestions of Mr Karl_Heinz_Kremer, with no success. The above suggestion as usual did not work, and the "About Third-Party plug-ins" was not even in the menu that he pointed to (Help menu).

However, I noticed that in the "Help" menu was an entry that said "Repair Installation". I clicked that and went through the Repair process and afterwards the "Save" dialog did not pop up on any files unless I actually changed the file. I can understand why Mr Kremer didn't want to point to that as the cause, but in my case, the problem was caused by the Adobe Acrobat Reader itself, and solved by the repair process. 

[tleetabor]

Well, I take it back. Looked at a few more documents, and the dreaded "Do you want to save changes to ... before closing?" dialog has resumed for what appears to be EVERY file. Same type of files, simple scans. Same file location.

Please inform me of the proper way (everything above here did not work), to make it so non-modified files don't ask you whether you want to save or not.

EXTREMELY annoying bug.

[try67]

This probably happens because the files were created incorrectly, so the application tries to fix them when you open them (in order to be able to display them). Try downloading some PDF from the internet and see if it still happens. If not, that means the fault is with the application that authors those scanned files you're opening.

[glimmbo]

I think this is correct. I have a fresh install, no plugins, but I'm loading programmatically generated files. At start, there's a 'Fixing up form fields' prompt (so that's the change). Next question tho: what's happening in this process? Is there a log that I can view that shows what 'fixing' is happening? I'm also the one generating the files, it would help a lot to know what that process is. Thanks

[davidw61436923]

This 'Repair Installation' fixed my issue. I would open an existing PDF and instantly, with no changes, Acrobat Save icon would no longer be greyed out and the file dialogue appeard when closing. Thank you.

[Pascal5C75]

That's work for me !

Thanks a lot !!!

[default0m5xlo6ltu37]

Did not work

[John292481571s87]

Does Not work.

[John_Rohan7606]

Why is this marked as "solved"? Here it is in 2025, and it's not solved. I tried every solution on this page. This is driving me nuts. I open a pdf making no changes at all. Literally just opened it quickly to look at something, then closed it and it asks me if I want to save my changes.  

The only thing that helped was actually saving the file, overwriting the one I already had (again even though it wasn't changed). But doing that every time is even more of a time suck than just clicking "no" on the dialog box. There has to be an easier way to override this annoyance.  

[Divine_TeaLight0625]

Changing the Preferences under General and checking"Use only certified plug-ins" did not change the fact that each time I open a pdf it asks me if I want to save changes even when there are no changes. I have Adobe 2020 standard. What can I try to fix this? Thank you.

[Guest]

Most annoying!  None of these solutions worked.  I just force quit.  If someone has a better solution,please post.

[davidw61436923]

User tleetabor's idea fixed my issue. I went to   Help> Repair Acrobat Installation. After computer restart, was no longer and issue.

[Guest]

I don’t see that option in Help. Is that in Acrobat?

Sent from my iPad

[Garv1908]

I believe you can find that function on the top left corner of the application.

[O5F8F]

I tried all of the suggestions in this thread to no avail.

Then, I discovered the root of my specific case: Windows 10's "Save as PDF" choice in the print dialog. Upon opening and closing a file saved with that option, Acrobat XI would prompt me save changes. If you are an XI user, choosing to save with "Adobe PDF" may be your solution, too.

[O5F8F]

 

[Johnps302]

Save as Adobe PDF did it for me

[Brian25446766nl01]

Help/ Repair Installation worked for me. 

[jrsousa2]

None of the answers here was useful for me. None worked. It's not about repairing the program. The allegation that the file is being modified behind the scenes by some plugin (in Reader???) also doesn't make any sense at all. If the Reader or a plug-in is modifying the file without the user being aware of it, then it's up to them to save the file, not the user.

This save prompt is a huge no-no, it's annoying, it's anti-productive, it's non-sensical, it's frustrating, even more in Reader, which is supposed to only display the file, not change them. If somebody finds the fix for this, without it being another false lead, please let me know. There are many users here chanting victory too soon, before the thing is actually proven to work, which is misleading newly arrived users like me (I thought I had found the answer, only to be disappointed after reading more).

[default6agklue60s4i]

Adobe software has always been annoying, user unfriendly, nonsensical etc. In my opinion. I have never liked Adobe. But Adobe PDF is so standard you can´t be without it. I also have the Save-problem when opening and closing do PDF files. It drives me crazy.