Saved a fillable form, the form was no longer fillable.

[Sylvara]

Basically title. My co-worker completed a form, and then hit save. Once he did that the form was no longer fillable. I know that it has form fields because I created it. I've never come across this before. There are no scripts in this form.

Does anyone know what might cause this?

[jane-e]

Did he sign it? That might be the reason.

[Sylvara]

No, he didn't sign it.

[jane-e]

When you go to File > Properties, what does it say in the Security tab?

What do you see when you go to the Prepare Form tool?

What does your co-worker think happened?

[Sylvara]

File > Properties reads as "No Security" All document restrictions under summary are allowed.

When I hit prepare form, I am able to adjust all the fillable fields that I created. After I close it, I am still not able to edit the fields.

It's just happened to me, on the same file he was using yesterday. I opened the file, made a couple of changes after proofing, then hit save and it got rid of any fillable field. It's almost like a print to PDF, but when saved.

[jane-e]

Are you ”hitting” Save with File > Save or is there a command button on the PDF that you are clicking?

What happens if you choose File > Save As instead?

[Sylvara]

Just hitting "Save" (floppy disk looking icon).

If I hit file > Save as, it prompts me to locate where to save and asks if I want to either reduce file size or restrict editing (both are check boxes, unchecked). I select the location where we save these types of files, and the type is a .pdf (Adobe PDF File).

[Bernd Alheit]

Are the fields set as read-only?

[Sylvara]

Not as far as I can tell. We have used this form many times in the past with no issues. We recently changed from Adobe Pro to Adobe Acrobat DC, so I suspected it might have something to do with that. But I just can't find any reason why this is happening all of a sudden. It's only a few select files as well (so far!).

[Bernd Alheit]

Can you share the form?

[Sylvara]

I wish I could, but it has proprietary information in it. I was thinking the same thing

[jane-e]

Sylvara  wrote

I wish I could, but it has proprietary information in it. I was thinking the same thing

Me too! Can you share it with Adobe Staff if we alert them?

If the save was a command button, I would look to see if a Flatten command had been attached to it along with the Save.

When you do a Save As, is it the same or does it work properly?

[Sylvara]

How would I check to see if a flatten was attached to the save function? I'm still learning with Adobe

I did a save as to try it, and it did the same thing. I've got copies of the original (fillable) forms that I can access, so I do have a work-around, it's just a matter of trying to solve this mystery!

[jane-e]

I was hoping the Save was a button that was created as part of the form and then you would go to Properties and look in Actions and remove it. It would have been an easy fix.

If you were choosing the built-in Save and if the Save As works the same way, we rule that one out, unfortunately.

~ Jane

[try67]

What application did they use?

[Sylvara]

He was using Acrobat DC.