Digital Signature Disappears When Opened In Acrobat Pro

[mljones01]

Our business office is experiencing the following issue.

When a signed PDF is emailed to her, the signure disappears when she opens it in Acrobat Pro. The signature is displayed in the preview feature in Gmail so we have determined it IS there. But when it's downloaded and opened in Acrobat it is no longer displayed. The document was signed in Acrobat Pro, emailed to the Business office, downloaded then opened in Acrobat Pro. It is here where the signature is no longer showing as it shows in the email preview.

I then had the user send me the PDF and the signature displays in my email preview, but once I open it, it no longer displays. I attempted this on two different computers in both Acrobat Pro and Adobe Reader DC. All applications are up to date. We are running MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 on all computers. Unsure of what could be causing this and why the signature would show up when we view the file in the Gmail preview but then be cleared when opening it in Acrobat Pro/Reader DC on our end.

[Amal.]

Hi Mljones,

We are sorry for the trouble. As described the signature is not displaying after sharing the file via email to a different user.

Is this a behavior with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs? Please reboot the computer once and try with a different PDF file and check. If its a file specific issue please share the file with us for testing.

Also make sure you have the latest version 20.12.20043 installed for Adobe Acrobat/Reader DC. Go to Help > Check for Updates.

Also, go to View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Signatures and see if this brings up the signatures in the PDF file.

For testing Purposes: Please try to open the PDF in a web browser (Chrome) and check if the signature is visible there.

What is the workflow/steps you are doing to share the signed PDF file? Please try to share the file using the share options available in Acrobat top right corner as shown in the screen shot below:

For more information about sharing the PDF files please look at the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/in/acrobat/using/sharing-pdfs.html

Let us know how it goes

Regards

Amal

[mljones01]

Thanks for the response. We have tried rebooting, it only happens with one specific file though just just reported it happening again with a different file, I verified they are on the latest version of Adobe. I'd be happy to share the file for testing. What's the best way to share it?

[try67]

You can attach it to the original message using the tiny paperclip icon at the bottom when you edit it, or upload it to a file-sharing website (like Dropbox, Google Drive, Adobe Cloud, etc.), generate a share link and then post it here.

[ALarsen317]

Hi There,

Was this issue ever resolved? Our office is having the same issue and it's not with every document, but with a handful, the digital signatures disappear when downloaded from an email. We can see the digital signatures when we view the pdf form in our email in the browser (chrome), but once the pdf is downloaded and opened in adobe, all the digital signatures disappear. 

How do we fix this?? 

[Eiko5C6E]

I have the same problem, I believe it is not all files but some files. I open attached Acrobat form digitally signed, and it still shows up as unsigned signature field. This is also unsigned in signature pane. However when I open in chrome, digitally signed signature is there. Is there soemthing that needs to be done on acrobat to see the signature?

[Test Screen Name]

Chrome doesn't have a signature panel, so what exactly do you mean by "when I open in chrome, digitally signed signature is there." Are you by any chance making that call by looking for an appearance signature? You really need to ignore appearance signatures and train everyone else to do so. This is vital, because appearance signatures can be faked in seconds.

[Elise30204725q8mt]

STOP telling people to reboot, it doesn't work, adobe either shows sig's in chrome or in app, never both and they are too lazy to fix it, just want to blow smoke up your azz.

[margueritek]

Was this actually signed in Acrobat, with an Acrobat signature method? If the SigFlags entry in the AcroForm dictionary is not set properly (bit position 1 set) Acrobat/Reader will think there are no signatures, and none will be displayed. 3rd party previewers don't look at that bit.

[Test Screen Name]

A digital signature isn't a mark on a page, and it's very important not to trust or look for any marks, because they can be faked in seconds. Look instead at the Signature panel (left hand side). Has the signature vanished from this panel?

[try67]

Make sure you never open the file in an application like Apple Preview or inside a browser window.

[JR Boulay]

"What's the best way to share it?"

==> https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/sharing-pdfs.html

[ALarsen317]

Is this related to the digital signatures disappearing on pdf files? 

Thanks!

[Stephanie16B7]

Has this issue ever been resolved?  I can't share my file because of the contents, but I am definitely having this issue.

[grippybananas12]

Any solution? Signatures not appearing with opening with Acrobat. Signatures appear when opening PDF with MS Edge. 

[Amal.]

Hi @grippybananas12 

Hope you are doing well and sorry to hear that

Is this an issue with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs? Please try with a different PDF file and check. If the file is stored on a shared network/drive please download it to your computer locally and then try again.

What is the version of the Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version go to Help > About Acrobat and make sure you have the recent version 23.01.20093 installed. Go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

Also try to repair the installation from the help menu (Win Only) and see if that works.

Please try to reset the Acrobat preferences as described here https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/how-to-reset-acrobat-preference-settings-to-defau...

You may also try to create a new test user profile with full admin rights in Win or enable the root account in MAC and try using the application there and check.

Regards

Amal

[Elise30204725q8mt]

You are useless

[default1it1k021rt99]

Hello,

We are having the exact same problem.

When someone sends a digitally signed doc, the signature shows in browser (Chrome or Edge) or on the docs previews in MS Teams and Outlook for example and even in PDF24 app.

When you save the file and open via Adobe desktop app it only shows a blue rectangule where the signature should be, as you can see: 

When printing the pdf to Microsoft Print to PDF and saving the document it shows the signature again.

We have the latest versions of the products. Any suggestions to solve this ? I already did all the troubleshooting I came across.

Thanks.

[Ross31544699076a · Accepted solution]

had same issue. fix was to print to PDF then upload to Adobe Sign 

[davew41876904]

• Go to View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Signatures and see if this brings up the signatures in the PDF file.

[Evan33776736hur2]

I think the problem might be with Outlook. I have had the same thing for a handful of doc.'s (not all of them but it randomly seems to happen). Printing from the email in Outlook also erased the signature for me. I signed in to my email via my organizations web browser and was able to print the doc. and keep both signatures. Hope this helps!

[Debbie329515679pjf]

I am still having this issue. It happens more often than not. Yes, I can print it to PDF, and the signatures show, but this is unacceptable. Fix the system, please. It is causing too many issues for everyone, and this issue seems to have been going on for years now.

[Anil26439474r69r]

Is this a digital signature or e-signature . Can you please share the issue file ?

This issue arises when a user applies an e-signature to a digital signature (DigSig) field. The DigSig field expects a certificate-based signature (a signature with both a signature dictionary and appearance dictionary for visible signatures). However, an e-signature, or appearance-based signature, doesn’t utilize the signature dictionary— it only creates a visual appearance. Therefore, if an e-signature is applied to a DigSig field, it results in only a visual representation without the necessary signature dictionary.

Other PDF viewers, like Chrome or Preview, lack the ability to validate a digital signature and rely solely on the appearance. As a result, they display the signature appearance regardless. Adobe Acrobat, on the other hand, requires a certificate-based signing process for DigSig fields. If this isn’t done, For complying with security of signature standard Acrobat ignores the appearance entirely.

When users choose to “Print to PDF,” the interactive DigSig field is flattened and removed, so it no longer functions as a DigSig field. Consequently, Acrobat displays the appearance in this flattened format, similar to how other viewers handle it.

[Michele268451885lqf]

This issue showed up this past week.  When someone sends a digitally signed doc, the signature shows in browser (Chrome or Edge) or on the docs previews in MS Teams and Outlook for example and even in PDF24 app.  Also, I had signed files saved where you could see the signature, but now even those files do not show the signature anymore.  In addition, if you click on the signature area in the doc, it ask for you to sign, so it is not even recognizing the doc was signed.  The signature shows in all apps, MSPrint to PDF, Google, Edge, Teams, and Outlook Preview, but disappears when you open the doc in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Pro.  Don't ask or tell me to do all the Tech I troubleshooting mentioned in this thread because of course I have already tried all this and none of it fixes the issue.  I had two other people try it on their computers and they are having same issue.  So this is all signed documents, all users, in all versions of Adobe.  This is an Adobe issue that needs to be fixed.

[Tariq Ahmad]

Hi @Michele268451885lqf, 

Sorry for the delayed response, just following up to check if you are still experiencing this issue. 

Also, you keep mentioning a doc file, which is usually Microsoft Word file format. Are you trying to view those files in Acrobat, and it is not showing the signature, or do you have PDF files? If you are still experiencing this issue, could you share with us a file that exhibits the behavior at your end?  

~Tariq