After filling and saving, the form fields are no longer editable.

[Andy_Isaac]

I'm filling in a massive document. After saving, the blue editable form fields turn white and are now locked. I need to make edits! Yikes! Perhaps I'm not phrasing the question properly, but I can't find an answer anywhere. How can I unlock them, finish the form and not have a serious breakdown? I have Acrobat DC. Thanks

[Meenakshi Negi · Accepted solution]

Hi AndyIsaac,

As you have mentioned above, after filling and saving the form fields locked.

Could you please confirm if you are adding the signature to the form when you fill it.

Just to inform, that once you add the signature to the PDF and save it, you cannot make any changes to file.

Check if this is the case.

If not, can you share the file with us?

Please refer the steps mentioned here How to share a file using Adobe Document Cloud to share the file.

Also, please confirm if you are using the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and Adobe Acrobat DC.

Feel free to update the thread if you need any help.

Regards,

Meenakshi

[Andy_Isaac]

Thanks for your reply Meenakshi. You are right, it was the signatures locking the file. I had added them and then spotted a mistake. Something to remember for next time!

[Scott26061193ng8e]

I will say this is silly, though. It shoudl allow edits if the person has not signd the document yet and only lock once signed. This is the way a competitor of yours works as an FYI. It really hampers productivity esepcially with no "clone/copy" option to start over (like a competitior as well).

[AndrewPMathis]

If you go to edit PDF form (or prepare form) you can click on any of the boxes, double click/enter, then unselect lock, unselect read only, unselect required if it is selected. When you exit from prepare form the unlocked boxes will be editable again. 

[Raghu Vamshi34273417rxrv]

There are some documents like my "Grad University Course - Plan of Study.pdf", where I need to take signatures from multiple professors, and some information is being filled by them. The solution is to come up with a feature to allow-edits after saving.

[try67]

A signature field can be set to not lock certain fields (and lock others) when signed.

[try67]

Did you sign the file?