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Tessellate
Tessellate
Participant
April 15, 2024
Answered

Comments Pane in Acrobat will not disable

  • April 15, 2024
  • 11 replies
  • 19448 views

Hello all,

All I did was add a text box comment to the document, now the comment pane shows up everytime I open it. I have attached the offending PDF.  At this point I will discontinue using comments, a bit annoying.

 

I go to the Preferences in Acrobat, in the Commenting category. I then uncheck the "show comments pane when a PDF with comments is opened", then hit the OK button and preferences closes. I then close the program, have restarted my computer, yet when I open a document with comments the comments pane shows back up and when I go back into preferences the box is checked again. I also did an uninstall and reinstall, but that did not help either.

 

I have also tried the check "Restore last view settings when reopening documents" without success.

 

Does anyone have any idea to resolve this or is this a bug that Adobe needs to fix, if so how do I submit this for processing...?

    Correct answer Fake37122266bf9w

    My solution is simple. I have CCleaner instaled in my PC. There is an option to clean "Adobe Acrobat Reader". I used CCleane to clean it and soon after I was able to uncheck the "show comments pane when a PDF with comments is opened".

    11 replies

    E
    Exquisite_adventures1915
    Participant
    October 29, 2025

    I found if you set the following registry value mannually it works.  Acrobat should be doing this from the preference screen but fails to for some reason.  With Acrobat closed, open RegEdit and navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\Classic\AVGeneral], find "bOpenCommentAppAutomatically" and set the value to 0.  We use their "Classic" version, your exact path maybe diffrent depending on what version of Acrobat you have.

    R
    RticPhoenix
    Participant
    February 24, 2025

    If you're experiencing issues with comments automatically appearing in Adobe when opening a PDF, here’s a simple solution you might try before using any cleaning tools or reinstalling the program:

     

    1. Open a PDF file that does not contain any comments.
    2. Go to Menu > Preferences > Commenting and locate the option "Show comments pane when a PDF with comments is opened."
    3. Uncheck the box, then recheck it, and click OK.
    4. Return to the Preferences menu, uncheck the same box again, and click OK once more.
    5. Open the Preferences tab one last time to confirm that the box remains unchecked. If it does, click Cancel to exit.
    6. Close Adobe completely, then reopen the PDF file that contains comments.

     

    After following these steps, the comments should no longer appear automatically. When I tried this, the preference setting finally remained unchecked, whereas before, it would revert back after clicking OK.

    While this may not work for everyone experiencing this issue, it’s a quick and easy first step to try.

     

    Best of luck to anyone dealing with this frustrating problem!

      C
      CD5D2C
      Participant
      November 3, 2024

      I had this issue today, and solved it by doing the following:

      1. Go to menu in the top left corner of acrobat -> Disable new Acrobat Reader
      2. Program will restart, open PDF with comments
      3. The comments pane should open. Click the three dots in the top right of the comments pane, then click "Commenting Preferences"
      4. Turn the "Show comments pane when a PDF with comments is opened"
      5. Click OK.
      6. Close the comment pane, and reopen PDF to make sure setting stuck.
      7. Now, hover over "View" at the top left of the screen and click "Enable new Acrobat Reader" to change the UI back.
      8. The preference should now stick. If you ever want to turn the comments pane preference back on, it seems you have to repeat the above steps to make sure it stays on.

       

      It appears this issue stems from using the new Acrobat Reader, so reverting to the old one and changing the setting fixes the issue. At least, this is my experience with it. 

        J
        James_Carey3949
        Participant
        November 4, 2024

        didn't work for me

         

          D
          defaultbxq7ffxr75jv
          Participating Frequently
          September 7, 2024

          same issue. Tried every single one of the solutions listed above, comment pane still showing. Disagree with adobe guy, the program is NOT running fine. This is such a dumb, simple issue; it is absurd that there this many comments in the thread and it still isn't solvable for me. Thank you everyone here EXCEPT for adobe. 

            G
            GINA22767620sbrc
            Participant
            August 26, 2024

            I think found a work-around.  I discovered this with other bugs - find a different way to get to the same option.  For this I opened the comment pane frome the icon on the right menu bar (instead of from Edit>Preferences).  Then click the three dots at the top for Options. Then select Commenting Preferences.  Uncheck the box for "Show comments pane when PDF with comments is opened."  Now test it out.  It's silly but it worked for me.  

            J
            James_Carey3949
            Participant
            September 19, 2024

            tried it as well; didn't work for me

              D
              Dawoo73180
              Participant
              August 20, 2024

              I like the last comment on this page have tried everything mentioned on this page and I am still experiencing the same results of the box being rechecked. I have tried changing the preferences in both Reader and Pro. No luck.

                W
                WASand2
                Participant
                July 16, 2024

                I had the same issue. Changing the setting without any PDF open, or even with a PDF without comments didn't work for me. I had to create a blank PDF. Then, it stayed. I want this feature turned off, and I'm skeptical that it won't work to turn it off again, so I'm not taking any changes; I'm just leaving it off.

                  cindyc69536512
                  cindyc69536512
                  Participant
                  July 28, 2024

                  I am having the same issue. I tried everything on this page INCLUDING creating a blank PDF (without comments) and it didn't work. Nothing I've tried, including deleting and re-downloading the app allows me to disable the setting to open the comments pane in a document with comments. I am on a Mac OS Monterrey 12.7.5. I didn't used to have this problem. I believe it started in the last few weeks.

                    L
                    L23370334ofdk
                    Inspiring
                    August 12, 2024

                    Same for me - a month ago, the dumb comments pane started showing up automatically, everytime I open a PDF in DC.  Dealing with DC's cartoonish icons and convoluted layout is bad enough (why can't Adobe bring back the grown up version, Acrobat Pro?), but these dumb glitches make it even more frustrating to use. 

                      M
                      Maurice31274336ytq9
                      Participant
                      June 24, 2024

                      I see this Comment Box re-checking problem has been going on since 2018. Six years and they still can't make it work?? And they are still asking for screen shots. Unbelievable.

                        F
                        Fake37122266bf9wCorrect answer
                        Participant
                        May 1, 2024

                        My solution is simple. I have CCleaner instaled in my PC. There is an option to clean "Adobe Acrobat Reader". I used CCleane to clean it and soon after I was able to uncheck the "show comments pane when a PDF with comments is opened".

                        S
                        SiRaDuDe
                        Participant
                        April 21, 2024

                        My Solution to this issue:
                        Open Acrobat Reader but DO NOT open a pdf document. Disable setting and it should now stay disabled.
                        Note: After a sucessfull option change, future changes to this option can be made even with an open pdf document.

                        M
                        Matt25705082tjzl
                        Participant
                        April 29, 2024

                        I'm using AcrobatPro Version 2024.002.20687 (64-bit), and so are the otherpeople in my office. Nobody can disable the comments pane from automatically coming up. I tried the above soultions.  Any other ideas?

                          Amal.
                          Community Manager
                          Amal.Community Manager
                          Community Manager
                          April 29, 2024

                          Hi there,

                           

                          Would you mind collecting the Adobe CC logs https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-log-collector.html , Procmon logs (Win Only) https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/acromonitor.html and share them via any cloud storage. Just upload the log file to the cloud and generate the link and share that link with us for further investigation.

                          Regards
                          Amal

                           

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