Fillable fields disappearing in random ways

[alison_4057]

At my work we are trying to transition to paperless data packets. As a part of this we have made several fillable forms. They were created and are combined (using the combine tool) with other PDFs, all in Adobe Pro. 

The problem is that it seems anytime you combine or save any PDF that contains fillable fields there is about a 5% chance that some of the fields will disappear, including ones that have already been filled in. For drop down boxes, they may appear to be there but there is not way to click on them. The outlines of the fields are still visible if you go to the prepare form tool, but their contents have disappeared. It has been very frustrating.

How do I prevent this from happening? 

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

How are you combining the files? Which version of Acrobat are you running? The two files you've attached have the same number of pages, so they are not the results of adding in another page or file. How was the file created? What was the exact process to go from the first one to the second one?

[PDF Automation Station]

Good questions.  In the document properties, one shows Microsoft Word as the PDF Producer and the other shows Adobe Acrobat.

[alison_4057]

We combine them in Adobe using the combine tool. It is Adobe 2025.001.20813. The one with disappeared files is from a combined data packet, but since I am not permitted to share the data packet, I extracted the form portion to share.

The original form was combined with 52 other PDF pages, most of them comprised of 3 page-long files. No other files were forms except for the one I've shared. The form was partially filled out by the "preparer" and the data packet saved.

Then a second user opened the data packet to review it. They completed filling out the form and saved it. As soon as it was saved, the radio buttons disappeared. 

[alison_4057]

It is true, that the original form was created off of a Word document and then the fillable fields added to it.

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

What exactly do you mean by "data packet"? 

Do you have any 3rd party Acrobat plug-ins installed? I've never seen this behaivor with Arobat forms, so I am looking for what non-Adobe software could have touched this document, and a 3rd party plug-in could potentially cause effects like this. 

[alison_4057]

I work in a lab, and when I say data packet I mean a combined PDF composed of data reports from our instruments. The first pages in the data packet are made up of a review form, such as the one I shared.

I don't believe there are any third party plug-ins installed. When I was trying to figure out how to see whether any were installed, online help said to go to help>About third party plug-ins, however I don't have this option in my Adobe help menu. Also, downloading a third party plugin sounds like the sort of thing my organization would not permit us to do. I don't have admin permissions.

[Thom Parker]

Do you use any document management tools?  

[alison_4057]

We are required to use document control software. Any forms we use are uploaded into the document control software, where they are authorized, and after that users must download them from the document control software.

When I shared my before example, I might have used the original version before it was uploaded into the document control software, and my coworker should have downloaded the form from the document control software. 

If I share an empty version of the form that I know has not been downloaded from the document control software, and also share one that has been downloaded, can you see if they are different and whether the one from the document control software is corrupted? 

Okay, as I did this I noticed that the size of the downloaded one is significantly smaller, which seems like a bad sign and and answer to the question of whether the document control software is messing up our forms...

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

This is what I was looking for when I said "what non-Adobe software could have touched this document". When you open up the document properties of the file form your DMS, you see that the producer is now "OpenPDF 2.0.2" - this means that your DMS software basically recreated your PDF file and it does not seem to "know" about certain form field types. 

You may be able to prevent that by protecting your document, and only allow form filling, but without knowing exactly what your DMS is doing, I might be wrong. 

[Thom Parker]

I agree with KHK, it appears the document control app is corrupting the PDF.   This may be a setting in the DMS, for example it could be related to file compression. Or this could be the result of some kind of malware protection in the DMS.  

[alison_4057]

Thank you guys very much for the help!

[Thom Parker]

Just to be very clear, you state that the form fields are in the combined PDF and working. Then they dissappear after the second user fills the form and saves it.  What application are they using to fill the form?  Something else has to be touching the PDF at this point, where it's saved, not where it's combined. 

As a test, can you extract the form from a combined file that has not been filled by the second user, and post that form so we can see the difference? 

[Thom Parker]

Yes, how was the second "dissappeared" file created?  Since it is not a combined file.  Exactly what tools (apps) were involved?

The fields appear to have dissappeared because the parent objects for some of the fields have been removed from the AcroForm object. This could result from pages being copied to a new doc without copying the associated document level data.