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Kevin32688340jglk
Participant
April 10, 2024
Question

Signatures disappearing, appear when opening with Chrome and not with Acrobat.

  • April 10, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 8231 views

Hello all,

 

I am having an issue with Acrobat signatures. We have some documents that require digital signatures. The users usually use the chrome acrobat extension to sign the document and send it off, either through outlook or shared to sharepoint. The problem is when the PDF is downloaded and opened in Acrobat, the signature is no longer there. If I right-click the pdf and "Open with > chrome" it is there, but opening with acrobat it is missing.

 

This also happens with text blocks sometimes but that is more rare and is less important.

 

-Kevin S.

3 replies

M
Miklo36858359gxrx
Participant
June 3, 2025

Came across this issue in the year 2025 . 

 

My user showed me that the signed document which was sent via Outlook shows the signature when clicking on "Preview" inside the outlook app. Then when clicking "Open in Adobe Acrobat" The signature dissapears , and Adobe brings up the Signature Field, which cannot be removed. My user mentioned that their do-workers can see the signature when opening the same file from the same email inside Adobe. This seems to be Per device issue and not a single file across devices issues.

 

My user just had to view the signature to make sure it was good, so all i did was Enable "Protected View" for "All files" via Adobe settings (Security (Enhanced)). I tried re-installing adobe to no avail.

S_S
Community Manager
S_SCommunity Manager
Community Manager
June 3, 2025

Hi @Miklo36858359gxrx,

 

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the trouble with Acrobat and signatures.

 

Would you mind checking if Internet Access from PDF files is allowed on the machine? 

 

This can be viewed by going to Preferences > Trust Manager > "Change Settings (screenshot attached)."

 

Try changing it to allow and let us know how it goes.

 

Look forward to hearing from you.

 

Regards,
Souvik.

    M
    Miklo36858359gxrx
    Participant
    June 4, 2025

    Hello, I toggled the setting to allow and block all connections to no avail. The only way the user can see the signature is if the file is in Protected View mode. 

    I've attached screenshots of when the file is in Protected Mode and when its not.

      M
      MMayorga
      Participant
      April 13, 2024

      I have the same problem. Using an older community post, I changed the security features under preferences and then they appeared with a message that some features had been disabled with a button to enable feataures. I hit enable features and the signatures disappeared again. The problem is that I do not know which feature is inhibiting the signatures. I am using version 24.1 which I believe is the latest version at least according to the Creative Cloud Desktop. I can also see signatures in other files. I suspect it might have something to do with the computer/app that created the file that might be counterindicative.

      M
      MMayorga
      Participant
      April 13, 2024

      I discovered that when I put the file in protected view (sandbox), then I can see the signatures. This is the message I receive. So there is something about the file that Acrobat considers a risk and by turning off some feature, the signatures are no longer blocked.

        ls_rbls
        Community Expert
        ls_rblsCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        April 13, 2024

        That is great feedback.

         

        Do you get any weird messages if you go ahead and validate the signatures?

         

         

        ls_rbls
        Community Expert
        ls_rblsCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        April 10, 2024

        Hi @Kevin32688340jglk ,

         

        Assuming that this is not a bug, I've only seen something similar with a signed PDF document that has many pages and the signed page is extracted to separate file.

         

        But in that case, the digital signature is removed completely as a layer of security.

         

        Your issue seems to be something entirely differrent and it makes me wonder if your Acrobat is missing any updates or if it gets fixed by repairing your current Acrobat installation.

         

        Is this happening with just that PDF or with every signed PDF that it is shared through Outlook or Sharepoint?

         

        In any case, when I've encountered issues with my PDF documents, I test them out on the Acrobat Mobile app (on my mobile devices).

         

        If the PDFs render and display fine whith the mobile app, then I can narrow down my troubleshooting focusing only on the Acrobat full desktop app and the operating system that it is on.

         

        Are you able to share an example of the file with no sensitive data on it?

         

         

         

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