Acrobat Comments Not Visible to All Users

[OldPaint]

My colleague and I are collaborating on marking up a PDF with comments, both working on Windows PCs. The file is posted to a Teams (SharePoint) folder. He and I just stood next to each other, browsed to the exact same file in Teams, opened it in the Acrobat app in Windows, and discovered that we can't both see all of the comments that are posted in the file. I can see some of his comments, not all of them. He can't see any of mine.

We've been sending this file to another colleague (in another country) for updates, wondering why she wasn't making all our changes. Now we suspect she isn't seeing all of them. We tried filtering the comments in different ways, but he doesn't even see my user name for filtering purposes. I see everyone. There are no security restrictions on the file.

Is anyone else experiencing a similar problem with comments in Acrobat, and is there a way to fix the problem?

[Tariq Ahmad Dar]

Hi @OldPaint,

Thanks for reaching out. This can definitely be confusing. If comments in a shared PDF are not visible to all users, here are a few key things to check:

Common Causes & Solutions:

1. Comment visibility settings: 

   Make sure that comments are not marked as private or restricted to specific reviewers.

   → Go to Comment > Filter Comments and ensure “All Authors” and “All Types” are selected.

2. Shared review method (most importantly): 

   Are you using Adobe Acrobat’s built-in Send for Review feature or just emailing the PDF?

   Shared reviews hosted on Adobe Document Cloud or a network folder ensure all reviewers see updates.

3. PDF viewer consistency:

   Ensure everyone is using Adobe Acrobat or Reader—other viewers (like browser previews or third-party apps) may not fully support commenting workflows.

4. Save & sync issues:

   If the PDF is being passed around manually, changes must be saved properly. Use “Save As” after adding comments to preserve them.

5. Versioning conflict:

   If multiple reviewers are adding comments at different times without merging them, others may not see the latest version.

Recommended Workflow:

• Use “Send for Review” in Acrobat under Tools > Review & Approve.

• Host the file on Adobe Cloud, SharePoint, or a shared network folder.

• Ensure all participants are commenting within that review session and saving progress.

Let us know how this setup was done. 

~Tariq

[OldPaint]

1.  Yes, we checked the comment filters. We both have "All Authors" and "All Types" selected. My username isn't even available in his comment setup for filtering, which is one of the indications we had a problem.
2. We're not emailing the PDF. We posted the file in Teams/SharePoint and worked on the identical copy at different times.
3. We're all using Acrobat, not a third-party PDF app.
4. The PDF is not being passed around manually. It's in a shared network folder.
5. I don't know what you mean by "merging" comments. I open the file, I comment, I save the file, I close the file. My colleague does the same. There shouldn't be any other steps required to view comments by multiple individuals in a file, assuming those comments are posted to the same file at different times.

We're following your Recommended Workflow: The file is hosted in Teams (which means the file itself is in a SharePoint folder on our network), and all participants are commenting and saving progress. All the basics are covered; there's a problem with how either Teaams or Acrobat itself is handling the commenting/versioning. Nothing in the way we're handling the file should be causing some comments to become invisible to some users.