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Adobe form - Read only after filling and saving the form

New Here ,
May 02, 2025 May 02, 2025

Hi All, 

I am trying to figure out how to make an Adobe form read only after the form has been filled and saved. 
How can I do this? At the moment, the form is still editable after it has been saved. Is there a way to set the form as read only after it has been saved?

Thanks

TOPICS
Create PDFs , Edit and convert PDFs , How to , PDF , PDF forms
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1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Community Expert ,
May 02, 2025 May 02, 2025

Then a digital signature is really your only option. Setting the fields as read-only is easily reversible, but a digital signature isn't. If you edit the fields after it was applied, the signature becomes invalidated and you have proof that the file was manipulated.

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Adobe Employee ,
May 02, 2025 May 02, 2025

Hi Ayaz ahmad,

 

Thank you for reaching out.

 

Please let us know how you create the PDF form and send it to the recipients. What do you mean here by the form is editable? Are you referring to the form or signature fields that can be modified? I think more details about the workflow would be helpful.

 

Did you try to use Acrobat Sign to send documents? If not, please try once. In Acrobat Sign, the document is encrypted once it is signed and filed by all recipients. It is not possible to make any changes to the document after that. For more information, refer to the information in the following help document: https://adobe.ly/3Sh7b7v.

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

Thanks,

Meenakshi 

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Community Expert ,
May 02, 2025 May 02, 2025

The best way is to use a Digital Signature field. You can set it to lock all fields when signed.

If you don't want to do that then use a button to "finalize" the form (by setting all the fields as read-only). Don't do it when the file is saved, or you'll get plenty of complaints from users who just wanted to save the file for whatever reason and discovered they can't edit it any longer...

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New Here ,
May 02, 2025 May 02, 2025

@try67 Thanks for your reply. 
I'll give it a shot and see how it goes. I'm working on creating a form for our customers to fill out and return to us. However, we want to ensure that the form becomes non-editable once it has been completed and submitted

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Community Expert ,
May 02, 2025 May 02, 2025

Then a digital signature is really your only option. Setting the fields as read-only is easily reversible, but a digital signature isn't. If you edit the fields after it was applied, the signature becomes invalidated and you have proof that the file was manipulated.

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New Here ,
May 02, 2025 May 02, 2025

@try67 Thank you very much. I will give it a try 🙂 

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Adobe Employee ,
May 08, 2025 May 08, 2025
LATEST

Hello @ayaz!

 

I hope you are doing well. 

 

We are following up to check if you are still experiencing the issue or if it has been resolved with the suggestions provided above. Please feel free to reach out if you need any further assistance.

 

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

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