Delete all comments on a PDF at once

Report · May 10, 2019

I would like to add comments on a PDF for team use and proofing.

When the PDF is final, I would like the option to delete all comments on all pages and save as a final version for client, without the client seeing any of the comments.

Report · May 10, 2019

Not with one click but with just a few clicks: When you look at the list of comments, go to the last one and select it, then scroll up to the first one, hold down the shift key and select the first comment. This should select all comments. You can now delete them by right-clicking on one and selecting "Delete" from the menu. This should also work by selecting the first comment first, holding down the shift key and selecting the last comment, but I've had better luck with the process I described first.

You can also use the "PDF Optimizer" by saving the document as an optimized PDF (only possible in Acrobat Pro). Then from the different options you can select, make sure that only "Discard User Data>Discard all comments, form and multimedia" is selected (otherwise, more information may be removed from your document).

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Report · Dec 26, 2019

Hi,

++Adding to this discussion, I was also trying to help another user recently who wasn't able to delete any of the comments with annotations in his PDF.

As I was trying all the suggestions offered in this thread with no success, I noticed that in the PDF that he shared with me for review the comments weren't trated as comments fields per se.

The comments would work allowing a user to add more annotations to each comment field and then save the file normally with the changes.

However, if the user of the form wanted to delete the comments the delete options would appear greyed out It would simply not allow to use any delete method on them. I suspect that the PDF file that he was using was probably a refried PDF that was saved as a postscript file or to another file format and then converted back to PDF.

So as a work around solution, you will be able, however, to get rid of all of these comments if you go to Edit, and select "Edit Text & Images".

When you do this, you will noticie that if you right-click on each comment it will be treated as a note and not as a comment field per se. So If you right-click on the annotation it will popup a context menu with two options "Open Sticky Note" or "Delete Sticky Note".

If you ever run into this type of issue, choosing "Delete Sticky Note" resolves this particular problem.

Report · Dec 07, 2021

I have been racking my brain and scouring support channels, trying to find a solution for this. Thank you for sharing this information. This helped a ton!

Report · Dec 07, 2021

You're welcome

Report · Jul 19, 2020

1. Open the yellow comment tap on the right side.

2. Click the first comment.

3. Press Shift + End on your keyboard.

4. Press Delete on your keyboard.

Report · Oct 01, 2020

THANK YOU! Seriously, bless you for providing a simple, direct, and effective solution. I had to sign up just to let you know, haha.

Report · Apr 26, 2021

It worked!

I downloaded a pdf with 1000+ comments, thank you so much.

Report · Sep 26, 2024

This needs to be on page 1 as a reply to the top voted answer. Brilliant.

Report · Nov 06, 2020

I open the PDF and mine had 7550 comments in it. (Autocad text). Seriously slow and bogged down. Then I print to PDF and the new one doesnt have the comments.

Report · Apr 26, 2021

This document explains in detail why you shouldn't do this:

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A68be905e-5698-4cd4-9a87-61e7...

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

Report · Apr 18, 2023

I had the same issue.

The solution from try67 works where all others fail to remove locked SXH Text Comments. When they number in the thousands, they are the most common cause of Acrobat memory leaks and program crashs.

Search these forums for "How delete blocked SHX comments"

Report · Jan 07, 2022

I know other people have already offered solutions, but the easiest way to do this in my oppinion is to just open the pdf in google chrome and print to pdf.

This will quickly strip all comments and optimize a new pdf.

Report · Jan 08, 2022

(Bis)

This document explains in detail why you shouldn't do this:

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A68be905e-5698-4cd4-9a87-61e7...

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

Report · Jan 10, 2022

Interesting link.

Ive never personally seen any artifacts from "refrying" (new term I learned from your link) but I understand how that could happen.

In the context of this commenters question it seemed to be the easiest and fastest alternative. Im sure if the pdf didnt generate correctly then they would use any of the other options described in this thread.

Thanks for letting me know the pitfalls of this method though. I will definately use this method more cautiously now.

Report · Dec 04, 2024

You can also use a little Windows app called BatchPurifier to remove all comments at once, from a single PDF or from a bunch of PDFs in batch. It's a standalone app, so does not relies on Adobe Acrobat.