How to make scrollbars always visible in Acrobat

[Derek Williams Music]

I find I cannot see the vertical scrollbar unless I wiggle the trackpad to make it appear and then try to grab the scroll handle before it vanishes again. I have set scroll handles in macOS to be 'always visible', but Acrobat overrides this setting and hides them.

I have not a clue as to why anyone at Adobe thought I would not want to see one of the most essential attributes of screen nagivation, but I would like to be abe to choose, and ideally, for developers to stop hiding things, thereby sending me to google forever and a day to find out how to see them again.

Same goes for obscure icons that are supposed to represent things like printers and so on, that I always have to mouseover to figure them out. Please assume I can speak English, and understand words like 'Printer'[.

[absethi · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

The issue has been addressed and now we have a preference to enable the scroll bar in Mac.
Please find details for the fix here:- https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/scroll-framework-upgrade-macos.html

Thanks,
Abhinav Sethi

[Meenakshi Negi]

Hi Derek Williams Music,

Thank you for reaching out.

Please refer to the information provided in the following help document about Acrobat scroll framework upgrades for macOS: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/scroll-framework-upgrade-macos.html.

However, this has been reported to the team, and they are looking into this.

Would you mind sharing more information about the issues you are experiencing with the icons? 

Share the Acrobat and Mac OS version numbers.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

[Derek Williams Music]

Hi Meenakshi

Thank you for responding. I could see the point of hiding scrollbars if they were masking something, but in the 37 years I have been using Macs, I have never wanted the scrollbars to be made inaccessible. If anything I want them to be made as wide as they used to be, because they're so skinny now it's extra effort to grab them.

With the new behaviour in Acrobat, the scroll bars appear only when I start to drag on the trackpad or move the trackball wheel, and then immediately vanish again. This bewildering behaviour hasn't improved the user experience for me in any way, indeed nor have the macOS upgrades that hide more and more stuff, because I have to google questions like "where are the scrollbars in Acrobat?" which is what led me here. Hiding stuff makes the application less intuitive.

Regarding icons, some have been around awhile and are familiar to most people, such as the floppy disk icon for disk interaction, but others I have to mouseover to figure them out. Below, most of the images are fine except for printer, personnel, bookmark and the four squares. The printer looks nothing like the object it represents, the personnel I think would be clearer if it had several heads such as in Microsoft Outlook; bookmark would be more obvious without the three lines. The four squares? No idea without mousever.

The images below I had to mouseover every one except the rotate and drag-select buttons. I suppose it is incumbent to learn these, but in general I have to mouse over practically everything nowadays. Where possible, if space permits, I much prefer words, even if there is still a icon.

[Meenakshi Negi]

Hi Derek Williams Music,

Thank you for sharing the information.

The information about the scroll bars has been shared with the team, and they are working on this.  

We will share the feedback about the icon with the team.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

[Philippe MG]

We all want our scrollbars back!!! Working with Acrobat now is a real nightmare, especially when you work on large size documents!

[chitahunter]

The same issue persists when the Page Thumbnails pane is being used. No visible scroll bars there unless I move my scroll wheel and can catch the scroll bar before it disappears. 

[Meenakshi Negi]

Hi Philippe MG and chitahunter,

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your feedback. 

We appreciate your valuable feedback! We're always looking for ways to make Acrobat better, and we appreciate the time and effort you have taken to share your feedback with us.  

As the team is working on this, we will keep you updated with the latest information.

We appreciate your patience.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

  

[Christopher35444318ccqt]

Is this a joke? Do you assume every Acrobat user is a programmer? I'm not. When do I hit enter? When do I add a space? I work in dersign and pay for Acrobat Pro out of pocket and putting a 'feature' in that just taunts you by showing a scroll bar for a second and disappears before you can grab it, is absurd. What's the purpose? I have followed every suggestion and they do not work. Incredibly aggravating. macOS Sonoma 14.3.1

[thibavo]

I have reverted to using older versions of Acrobat that keeps scroll bar in, whoever chose to remove this feature should not be on the UX design team. 

[Christopher35444318ccqt]

Thanks. I saw someone else also did that and I’ve considered it. On top of just getting another update a couple days ago, I didn’t want to have to go back to an older version, but so far I’m not thrilled on the recent update and may entertain going back to the older version. I appreciate your input.

[Robert32791995iguo]

There now seems to be some update on how to make the scrollbars visible at

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/scroll-framework-upgrade-macos.html

The "fix" uses PlistBuddy. Well. I did that and guess what? Yes, that's right... it made no difference whatever (And, incidentally Adobe> when you post literal keystrokes like that

perhaps if it isn't too much trouble you could arrange for lines not to wrap as it is not then clear what is real whitespace and what isn't.)

[Robert32791995iguo]

Update to my posting. Success

The problem with the instructions at

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/scroll-framework-upgrade-macos.html

is that the parameter names are wrong. This URL

https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/47248445-scrollb...

has the correct solution

A given the parameter names begins ":AVGeneral:". It should be ":DC:AVGeneral" (for each of the three PlistBuddy lines".

When I did this I got the scrollbars back. Finally, after months!

PS: do NOT forget the last step telling Apples preference dameon to reread the configuation:

sudo killall cfprefsd

[Charles35811544ip89]

It is unnecessary to request the version numbers because the problem is in the current version. The problem is very simple and obvious. This is a standard useability failure by the UX design team at Adobe, specifically the UX Directors as they are responsible in the end. Not showing the scoll bar makes it it hard to scroll because the up down arrows sometimes moves a few line, a whole page or multiple pages with no apparent reason. So having the scroll bar persistant would make it a lot easier to find a position. But there is no way this or any other usability issue will make its way to the UX team to be fixed. Even if it did reach the design Directors, they would ignore it because its so trending to hind everything like its a Ipod from the 2000's.

[Charles35811544ip89]

After using the latest version of Adobe Creative Cloud I sold my stocks in Adobe. I noticed a week later Adobe stock tanked while the AI-related tech companies are Bullish. I'm sure the Adobe executives will make other explanations for the selloff. There is no way people's frustrations and usability issues will make it to the ears of the UX director let alone the executive. I've been using Adobe products for decades and really sad the UX department is so weak.

[tlmurray23]

I came here looking for tips on finding how to get the scroll bares out of hiding, and I see I have the same complaints as others:

• The scroll bars are too skinny
• Have their show/hide preference much easier to see; the Preferences window needs a search field
• They disappear far too quickly

[Mayank Panwar · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

You can enable the scroll bar to appear consistently in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader by performing the following steps:
Step 1: Adjust the scroll bar appearance in macOS settings

1. Choose the Apple menu > System Settings.
2. Select Appearance in the side bar.
3. Choose Show scroll bars > Always.

Step 2: Turn on the preference to always show scroll bar

1. Select Acrobat > Preferences.
2. From the Categories on the left, choose Page Display > Always show scroll bars.

Please refer this link: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/acrobat/using/scroll-framework-upgrade-macos.html

Thanks,
Mayank

[J. M. S.]

I did all this a long time ago, and it still doesn't work for me.

Version 2024.003.20121

MacOS 10.15.7 and 12.7.6

Scroll bars don't show in single page / full page view.

[chitahunter]

Ditto, as also stated Feb 2024, scroll bars do not show if Fit One Full Page is the Page Display, despite the Acrobat and Mac settings being as stated. MacOS 14.6.1. Acrobat Version 2024.002.21005.

[Karen5E0B]

HAZZAH!!! You have to quit out of Acrobat and relaunch it to be able to see the scroll bars.

[gerald_7896]

This isn't working. I followed the instructions, but still no scroll bar.

[Abambo]

See the correct answers here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/adobe-pdf-scroll-bars-still-missing/td-p/14097495

[Derek Williams Music]

Thank you - the only "correct answer" I can see to get the scrollbars back is to revert to the 2020 release version here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/download-install/kb/acrobat-2020-downloads.html 

If I go ahead and delete the current veresion, and revert to 2020, will this allow me to open documents created more recently than in 2020?

[Enchanted_difference1549]

To make it work as expected (until Adobe updates app with a proper preference option) and without any use of PLIST Editors or XCode (which you might not have or be comfortable with) do this:

•  Open "user">library>Preferences and find com.adobe.Acrobat.Pro.plist
  [to open user's library folder you can click on Finder's "GO" menu while pressing OPTION key and you should see it there]
• Use an editor like BBEdit to open com.adobe.Acrobat.Pro.plist file [it's binary encoded, TextEdit won't work] 
• FIND the string "Honor" and you should get to a parameter named "HonorOSTheme". Just after the end of that <array/> tag, insert the following:
  <key>HonorSystemScrollerPref</key>
  <array>
  <integer>0</integer>
  <true/>
  </array>
• Save and exit
• execute terminal "sudo killall cfprefsd"
• Acrobat now has scrolling bars always visible (if you set up "always" in MacOS preferences>Appearance>Show Scroll bars).

Please see the attached screenshot on where to insert the array.

**This HAS TO BE temporary!!** It works but we need this preference toggle inside Acrobat Pro Preferences panel asap...

[davycrockett]

This worked.  Thanks.  I was highly annoyed by Adobe's silly decision to nix the scroll bars.

[thibavo]

Tried your above Honor recommendation, didn't work for me, seems each time I do it and restart acrobat/cache and I recheck the file, its back to its original script with out your code above. Hope Adobe fixes this, Im impressed they made such a simple scroll feature with out staying visible the whole time and Im a UX designer, and this is bad accessibility as I use tablet to draw with and no scroll wheel on a mouse.