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Why does text disappear and how do I stop it from happening?

New Here ,
Jan 25, 2017 Jan 25, 2017

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I was working with a PDF document using Acrobat Pro DC. I needed to respond to questions and place text in table cells. The "Fill and Sign" tool did not work with this document so I used the "Edit PDF>>Add Text" tool. I had no problem clicking on the pages (about 75 pages) and entering the text. I saved the document. Later I had to add more text and edit the text I had already added. Again there was no problem. The third time I needed to add or edit text I looked at my previous additions and half the text disappeared. The text box where the text had been was still there just was empty. Some of the text boxes still contained part of the text (e.g. in a City, State, Zip box the City and State disappeared but the Zip was still there).

Can anyone tell me why this happened and can I do anything to prevent this from happening again?

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Edit and convert PDFs

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Community Expert ,
Jan 25, 2017 Jan 25, 2017

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Did you add any pages from a different document to this document? Did you merge two or more documents? If only seen this problem in these two cases, but that does not meant that adding text could not also trigger it. See here for a potential workaround:

Workaround for Missing Characters After Merging PDF Files

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New Here ,
Jan 25, 2017 Jan 25, 2017

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Thank you for your effort. That is quite a workaround, unfortunately unembedding/subsetting fonts did not seem to affect my missing text. Your response prompted me to try a few things, one of which does seem to work. If I return to the page with missing text, enter the "Edit Text" tool, and select all text boxes, I can click on the "Bold" icon and all the text reappears and of course turns bold. Clicking the icon again removes the bold but the text stays visible. I've tested it by saving the document and re-opening and the text is still visible. Unfortunately, the "Edit Text" tool only works on one page at a time. There may be a need for an Action script like the one you described.

Thanks, again.

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New Here ,
Feb 22, 2022 Feb 22, 2022

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Hi Karl,

 

I have a similar problem but I have not merged documents. I've created a document in MS Word and then used Acrobat Pro to create a pdf. For some reason the text around an icon I have in the Word document as no text around it! I have tried to use different text wrappings in Word but the pdf presents a similar result.

 

Have you heard of this before as the is a first for me?

 

Thank you!

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New Here ,
Aug 17, 2023 Aug 17, 2023

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My text keeps deleting on its own 

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New Here ,
Aug 17, 2023 Aug 17, 2023

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How can I stop my text from deleting over and over

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Adobe Employee ,
Aug 20, 2023 Aug 20, 2023

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@Nevea31738779yb7k 

It would be nice if you could explain the whole scenario here. How are you entering text and when do you notice it's deleted?

Also, which Acrobat application is being used and where is your file located?

 

There's no such setting that would delete the text from Adobe PDF automatically. Its either not saving on doc or syncing on web.

 

Thanks,

Akanchha 

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New Here ,
Oct 04, 2023 Oct 04, 2023

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I'm having this exact same problem, your confidence in thinking that it doesn't is laughable. 

"There's no such thing", the absolute joke of this new update is absolutely terrible and I have not been trying to add text for the past 3 hours and it keeps deleting whenever at one point, this software then has an issue and causes everything to disappear. 

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 26, 2024 Sep 26, 2024

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I agree! I have poured several hours into docs just for half my text to disappear, the text can still be highlighted with my mouse cursor but it is invisable, the front color is already black it's not like it selected to white on accident.

It always seem to happen to me when i am in organize pages, either copy and pasting pages already in doc or re-sorting pages around. the only way i can get the text back is by highlighting all text boxes (which appears as no font selected in the edit pane) i select arial (it was arial already) and it reappears. GREAT to do on a 64 page project that I've already spent 3 days on just for it to glitch. PS last time i called in to adobe they thought my app was corrupt and walked me through how to repair the app, which I've done multiple times and it didn't fix anything. I am so happy and sad others are having the same struggle.

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New Here ,
Oct 09, 2024 Oct 09, 2024

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I am having the exact same issue and I can't find a solution anywhere! This is not the first time I have had this issue. It happens to me when I try to change the font size or type of font. I can hightlight it as well but I can't see it. I have checked to see if the colour changed to white but no that isn't the problem. If you have found a solution please let me know! 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 09, 2024 Oct 09, 2024

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I have a call into our private IT company, and will let you know how it goes. I think it may have something to do with "embedded fonts"? 

The only fix i have on my own is to select every editable text box by dragging select around the whole page while under edit images, and reselect the font type i already had, and then the text reappears. 

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New Here ,
Oct 09, 2024 Oct 09, 2024

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That is great! One thing I found is somehow there is layers to adobe but I can not figure out how to find them. I found one text box was on top of another but it was a fluke! It is frustrating because all the fixes I have found are not current to 2024. I will watch for your update! 

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Adobe Employee ,
Oct 10, 2024 Oct 10, 2024

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Hi, Apologies for the inconvience. Would it be possible for you to share the file on which you are seeing this issue ? 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 10, 2024 Oct 10, 2024

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Adobe Employee ,
Oct 11, 2024 Oct 11, 2024

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Thanks for sharing the file. We are able to see the issue in this file. We will analyze the issue and get back to you. 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 11, 2024 Oct 11, 2024

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Thank you! I would like to point out on this doc there used to be a lot more invisable text. When the glitch happens, it is about half of every text box that disappears. This version you are seeing I had already put some work in on making the font visable again. 

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Adobe Employee ,
Oct 13, 2024 Oct 13, 2024

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Hi @US36025327q6z8 

Could you please confirm what was the last operation on the shared pdf file? And before this file begin to show issues, can we get last known file (without this issue), so that we could try to replicate and come to current state, that will help us debug the issue?

 

Secondly, we're also trying to find some easy workaround to fix this issues for this specific file. I'm assuming the issue is file specific and all other files are working as expected. Please confirm.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 14, 2024 Oct 14, 2024

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I mentioned above, the text usually disappears when "It always seem to happen to me when i am in organize pages, either copy and pasting pages already in doc or re-sorting pages around." Still all under organize pages.

This has not been a file specific issue, this has been a PDF specific issue, it has happened at random for years.  

 

Attached is the doc I had brought all the text back via highlighting every text box and reselecting the font already selected.

 

 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 18, 2024 Oct 18, 2024

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And another one. This time I had only copy and pasted the PDF file within 1 folder. I was not in organize pages. 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 18, 2024 Oct 18, 2024

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US36025327q6z8_0-1729265475331.png

 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 18, 2024 Oct 18, 2024

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Sorry to bombard you, this is so far the best of all examples i have provided. I was in organize pages when it happened this time. 

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