Hand tool no longer allows me to select text

Report · Mar 11, 2020

I know about the preference -> make hand tool select text option. It is and always has been selected. For some reason, I must now always select the cursor tool to select text, then switch back to the hand tool to scroll using my touch enabled laptop. Before, I could touch a section of text and the cursor would change to the selction tool (what I need) but it stopped working. I have the latest updates to Acrobat DC pro installed. I typically open large files and highlight a lot of text, and constantly switching from hand tool to selection tool is very cumbersome.

Report · Mar 12, 2020

Hi there,

Enabling preferences for Text & Images selection with hand tool, is a design behavior and it should work accordingly. For me its working.

Would you mind checking the status of your Security (enhanced) setting under preferences? Open Acrobat>Edit>Preferences>Security(enhanced)>Protected View and Enhanced Security is it disable or enabled?

Turn it on if its set to off and check back after rebooting Acrobat.

Thanks,

Akanchha

Report · Jul 08, 2022

I'm facing the same exact problem.

Report · Jul 15, 2022

Hi,

I'm sorry for the delay in response to your post. Thanks for sharing the details over DM as well.

The screenshot and gif are helpful. I can see that the hand tool isn't selecting the text, even though the preferences setting is enabled.

Please try the below steps and help us with some more details like:

1- Have you started experiencing the issue after installing the latest update of Acrobat or Windows?

2- Is this the only document that's causing trouble?

Try-

1- Open Acrobat>Help>Check for update. If it's up to date, Open Acrobat>help>repair Installation.

2- Navigate to Acrobat>Edit>Preferences>Security (Enhanced)>disable "Protected View" and "Enhanced Security">OK>close and reopen Acrobat and then check back

Note: these changes are only for testing purposes. Once tested, please change it back to the previous setting.

Thanks,

Akanchha

Report · Jul 15, 2022

Hi. Thanks for the response!

1. I genuinely don't remember if I had updated Windows or Adobe before the problem started, but I ussualy always try to have all available updates installed.

2. No, it doesn't work with any document.

I tried all the above mentions steps. The Widnows 10 as well as Adobe Reader are all updated to the latest available versions. I turned off Protected mode and Enhanced security features, but the problem still persists.

Report · Jul 26, 2022

Sorry for the delay in further response.

I appreciate you tried all the suggested steps. Sadly, it still didn't make any progress.

Can you share the screenshot of the exact version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC installed on your machine?

Open app>Help>About Acrobat Reader

Thanks,

Akanchha

Report · Jul 27, 2022

Report · Aug 11, 2022

I have the same problem since yesterday and I've tried so many things to correct it, to no avail - force shut down, repair installation, uninstalled and reinstalled the program. I've checked the status of my Security (enhanced), have the latest update, and have played around with the different general preference options (including disabling protected view and security enhanced). It doesn't work for any of my PDFs either 😞

Report · Aug 11, 2022

Hi,

Thanks for confirming the version.

We have Acrobat and Reader's latest patch available 22.002.20191

This update will be automatically pushed to all existing installations of Acrobat and Reader. If you want, you may manually trigger the update early by opening the application and going to Help > Check for Updates>reboot Acrobat.

More information about this release is here: Release Notes | Adobe Acrobat, Reader

If it still doesn't work, even after installing the latest patch, then please do the following:

Collect the Adobe CC logs https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-log-collector.html and share them via document cloud as explained here https://helpx.adobe.com/document-cloud/help/sharing-pdfs.html

ProcmonLogs :

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/acromonitor.html

Thanks,

Akanchha