New Participant

Answered

Disable "Do you want to save changes before closing"

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
January 12, 2018
12 replies
74695 views

I'd like to know if there's a way to disable the popup that says "Do you want to save changes before closing?"?

For example, I open a multi-page pdf. I extract one page. Click the "Save" icon. "Save as PDF" window opens. Type new file name. Click "Save." Click the "x" to close the newly saved file. Then the prompt for "Do you want to save changes before closing?" pops up....WHY!?

It's the same for just simply opening and closing a file. Open file. Click the "X" to close. BOOM. stupid "save" prompt comes up. I don't have any changes to save.

This is a HUGE time-suck considering how frequently I use these functions. The previous version of the program that I had did not give me this issue. I only got the prompt to save when I'd actually make changes to the document.

This is for Adobe Acrobat Standard 2017. This is on my office computer as well, so I likely won't be able to run scripts or whatever other fancy fixes are suggested. I'll likely be limited to options already preset within the program....so really this post is directed DIRECTLY at Adobe. Please tell me there's a setting to make this awful popup go away! @adobe adobecare

Correct answer Karl Heinz Kremer

Actually, it is true that Acrobat (or Reader) will not prompt you when you close a document that was not modified. If you do get the prompt, that means that something in the document was modified. You may not have modified the document, but behind the scenes, something happened that makes the document different than it was at the time it was loaded into Acrobat. This can be either due to some JavaScript calculation in the document, or due to a problem with the PDF file that was fixed by Acrobat. Without access to the documents, it's impossible to say what happened. You can try to disable JavaScript in Acrobat's preferences to see if that gets rid of the prompt. If it does, then the prompt was due to a change in the document's state caused by a script. If you are still getting the prompt, then chances are that you are dealing with a corrupt PDF file (and there is very likely evidence of that in a very brief message that pops up on the screen, but may go away before you are actually able to read it).

You can file an enhancement request with Adobe for a read-only mode: Feature Request/Bug Report Form

A

Andrew340260288sg3

New Participant

Turn off Protection Mode. EDIT - PREFERENCES - SECURITY (ENHANCED) .. untick ENABLE PROTECTED MODE AT STARTUP..

M

Marfayaga

New Participant

awesome! it works!! 🧡🧡🧡

K

k15A7

Participating Frequently

The solution to this problem was solved several years ago. That annoying prompt is generated by Adobe when you have a PDF that was not created with Adobe, e.g. using MS Word to "save as PDF." It's a control thing. Adobe wants you to always use their software, not Windows.

M

mickm54045621

New Participant

I noticed the same "Do you want to save changes before closing?"prompt and finally figured out that it happens to pdfs downloaded from a specific supplier(s). Other pdfs downloaded from other sources or scanned pdfs do not generate this prompt, at least in my case. When I do save the changes as requested, and open the pdf again, there're no prompts thereafter.

J

jrsousa2

Participating Frequently

I saw one answer in the stack exchange sites that is from way back in 2012 (and was hopeful that it would be the silver bullet, but the answerer himself acknolwedges it's all that he could think of). It's ubelievable that these people still didn't fix this garbage since 2012. I am very angry and annoyed about this. This type of thing just makes us to minimize Adobe files usage (if not run away from it entirely).

Thom Parker

Community Expert

There are situations where a file could be marked as changed without the user doing anything. At least one was mentioned in the previous posts. If a document is marked as changed, then Acrobat has no choice but to ask the user if they want to save the file.

I believe the most common issue is scripts on the PDF that run automatically on startup. This is an issue caused by the author of the PDF, not Adobe. So, whether the annoying save ask is a problem really depends on the specific document. This is not a general Acrobat issue.

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

J

jrsousa2

Participating Frequently

No, as I explained, if the user is making the changes himself, then yes, it makes sense for the Reader to ask him if he wants to save the file.

But what users are complaining about is that they do anything at all and are still asked if they want to save the changes, a question that confuses then because first of all they are not aware of changes being made to the file.

The file may have changed somehow, God knows why, but if it's not the user making the changes, then the user should not be asked if he wants to keep the changes. If these changes are being made behind the scenes by some plugin, some 3rd party, whatever, then it's up to those extra apps to save the changes without intervention from the user. It doesn't make sense from the point of view of the user to be asked to save changes that he doesn't know about.

That said, I think I figure a little more about this issue. It doesn't happen to all documents, for example, it doesn't happen with my Latex generated PDF's. But it happens with the PDF's of a medical clinic I went to. It's possible that those files are being generated with some sort of corruption. Every time I open them I am asked if I want to save the changes (that I didn't make), but the same doesn't happen with my Latex PDF's.

M

Marc25053446edjp

New Participant

I may have narrowed down the issue since Im getting it too.

The save changed option does NOT show when i open PDFs downloaded from wherever, but it DOES show for the pdfs created by windows "scan" tool (in my instance). Theres gotta be a way for adobe to override these background fingerings or give us the option to do so

D

defaultlk6dhlq8e8df

New Participant

IT IS ANNOYING!

happens to me too, if Just open PDF, Without scrolling down or click in on it, i can just close them without going thru that annoying message. My not perfect solution, change the default PDF reader to Sumatra, google Chrome, etc. and change it back to Adobe when I have to.

Thom Parker

Community Expert

Acrobat only asks to save the PDF if it is modified. So, your document must be doing something to modify itself when it's opened.

Those other readers are not true compliant PDF viewers.

Its entirely posssible that the modification is coming from a script in the PDF. Chrome does not run PDF scripts. Which is an example of non-compliance.

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often

J

Jean34518218my13

New Participant

So, your document must be doing something to modify itself when it's opened.

By @Thom Parker

Are you serious ? Are you really considering this is normal behaviour ? Didn’t you read customers messages in this thread ? CUSTOMERS open pdf documents and don’t modify them, so they don’t want to be asked for confirmation change. End of story.
You should always start from what the customers want, not keep on sticking blindly to compliance/non-compliance or whatever should be according to you.

K

k15A7

Participating Frequently

I figured out the solution. After reading about this issue for a couple of hours and trying all the solutions, none of them worked. I can't remember if I found this on my own or if it was the last solution I read. That is, it was only doing it with documents where I had used Windows command "Print as PDF" to create the PDF file. This happened whether I was saving a web page using Print as PDF or saving a Word document as PDF. Change the default PDF option in the Windows print prompt to Save as Adobe PDF. Problem solved. I suspect this is not a Windows issue but just Adobe reading the PDF when it's opened and determining it was not created with their software. So they're trying to be annoying. I have tried both ways, and quality is the same. But to get rid of the annoying prompt, you have to save as Adobe PDF.

R

Ramsey5CB2

New Participant

Wow, crazy how the answer is always on the last page. YES adobe you suck again!! Imagine all PDF files have to be saved by your file extension and lose their thumbnail picture so that we can AVOID that stupid pop up SAVE AGAIN task. WTF?! You are the best in the World? Not really with this crap. Please remember the customer wants a Best Experience and there is a lot of competition.. Especially when the simple task is opening PDFs. - so mad!

T

Test Screen Name

Brainiac

So are you actually using Print to PDF to save a PDF as a PDF? That will cause all sorts of problems and disasters. I know a lot of people do this, but I'd love to hear why they go to all that trouble?

K

k15A7

Participating Frequently

I tried all these solutions, including the repair and reboot, and still get the annoying request to save every time I open any pdf file in acrobat. When going to Help, I only get "About Adobe Plug-Ins" option, there is no option for Third Party Plug-Ins.

A

AS123

New Participant

I was just having this problem today, and attempting fixes based on this and other threads. I had just completely given up, when I noticed my pages weren't printing with great resolution, so I unchecked the "Save Print/Toner" checkbox on the Print pop-up window. AND THAT STOPPED THE "SAVE" PROMPT! 😄 Though it could be the combination of that and some of the other various settings I checked and unchecked in my troubleshooting. But I kept getting the prompt until the Save Toner was unchecked.

B

bahd06

New Participant

ah!! thank you for this! I've been wresting with this same issue for over a week. I print off pdf'd invoices by the hundreds per week and for years I've never once had this pop up. It seemed so random and was so irritating. As soon as I read the words "Save print/Toner" i knew that was the problem! Since the prints are for internal use only and don't need to be pretty I thought it was smart to save on toner. I switched that on for the first time ever right around the time the pop up started so i knew that had to be it. I tried all the other recommended fixes i found online with no change. Switching off the Save Toner feature and we are back in business! thank you a bunch for sharing!

D

Dr Linda 린다 愛してる

New Participant

ouch!.. changing registry files didn't really work for the dialog asking to save file, it's still there.. i must have tested it on previously saved files. but the ticked option to save ink/toner when printing is cleared though.
and adobe forum doesn't provide a way to delete comment as well. guess i'll stick to using Foxit to view documents.
sorry.

D

davidk19414194

New Participant

The only thing I have figured out to reduce this problem isn't going to help people who are just looking at a file one time.

However, if you are opening and re-opening the same file, here is what you can do.

Save and replace the file (which involves hitting enter 3 times, then the left arrow and enter again to confirm that you want to replace the file). The next time you go into the file and just look at the file and close it, you will not get the annoying box asking "Do you want to save changes to file XXX before closing?"

This is a really frustrating problem, and it's extra frustrating to be told that we have modified a file when we've definitely only opened it.

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded