Cannot type in any fields...

[james7660]

Several months ago I found I was unable to type anything into the Find or Search tools fields in Reader DC.

I can click and place an I-bar cursor. I can highlight and copy text. But when I type on the keyboard, nothing appears in the Find or Search tools fields.

I always have had the latest version.

I searched on these forums and found at https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2208416

that I could try removing Reader DC using Cleaner tool and then reinstall Reader DC from  http://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/ . I did that with no change in the issue.

Please advise how to further troubleshoot. Thank you.

[lance ww14719713]

I am having the same issue with 3 computers in our office.

[james7660]

Lance ww14719713, what operating system do you have?

[lance ww14719713]

windows 10

[S3lvah]

Hi all,

It would be nice to get help to this issue. I have the same problem. At work, I can use Reader no problem. At home, none of the fields of the program can be typed into (Find, Advanced Find, Page number, Zoom %, ...). You can get around the problem for page numbers and zoom, but the Find feature is impossible to use. I currently have to use another PDF viewer at home.

[james7660]

I'm thinking it could be related to Windows 10.

s3lvah, do you have Windows 10?

[S3lvah]

Yeah, Win 10 at home and Win 7 at work. But I've had 10 at home for years, and only started suffering from this recently.

[S3lvah]

Still have this issue. It was briefly gone yesterday when I opened a certain PDF, but today, even with that one I can't type into any fields. Weird.

Another symptom is that bringing up the 'Find' field with Ctrl + F isn't possible when it isn't working (press and nothing happens), but yesterday Ctrl + F worked as well.

[lance ww14719713]

This issue has now spread to all windows 10 machines in our office, total of 19. Strange thing is my laptop is windows 10 and has the full Acrobat and the reader version. The full version work fine but the reader, keyboard input does not work. I tried to chat with support today and the response was Acrobat it supported through forums and I need to wait for an answer. When I stated people in the form have been waiting since June 1st. the response was it is a know issue and they are working on it. Until they have a resolution we just have to wait I guess. I have found one workaround, you can right click in the search box and paste. Filling out forms which we do a lot of on one desk, it is a pain to type all of the responses in word then copy and paste each into all of the form fields.

[james7660]

Thanks for sharing what you've found out, lance ww14719713 - at least it's a known issue.

[jane-e]

Hi

I am not having this issue on my Mac, but since several of you seem to have pinned it down to Windows, can someone make a bug report to the engineers here: Share your feedback on Acrobat DC and post the link back to this thread so others can vote and share there thoughts?

Include your version of Acrobat Reader and Windows and a full description of the issue.

~ Jane

[lance ww14719713 · Accepted solution]

below is a link to a bug report that I have created. Please go vote and maybe we can get more attention to this matter. I don't know about y'all but I have 19 employees complaining daily about this issue. 

Cannot type anywhere and keyboard shortcuts do not work. – Share your feedback on Acrobat DC

[jane-e]

Voted, thank you for posting.

[james7660]

Thank you, Lance and Jane-e - I voted and commented.

[wheelermm]

Thank You! Sad for Shortkeys. I use it a lot. 

Yes! over a year later and the problem persists. Terminating ShortKeys fixed everything for me. 

[S3lvah]

Voted as well.

[lance ww14719713 · Accepted solution]

Are any of you also running a program called ShortKeys 3? I is a text replacement software by Insight that we use in our office. I found out today that it is causing our issue. If you terminate the program Adobe Reader starts working fine. If you restart the program then again you cannot type.

[james7660]

Well, glory be! Yes, I have ShortKeys. I terminated the program and I can type in the fields now.

How did you find that was it?

[lance ww14719713]

Glad it helped. I happened to setup a new workstation so I installed Adobe first and it was working find. I then tested it each time I installed updates and software until it started having the issue. One I found the issue I tested it on the other 19 computers. I have opened a support ticket with Insight.

[james7660]

Thanks for finding and reporting here, Lance. Thank you also for contacting Insight. I've had ShortKeys for years and they've been very helpful in the past.

[S3lvah]

Had ShortKeys Lite on all this time, and yeah, Adobe Reader starts working properly as soon as you terminate ShortKeys. Good detective work! I hope ShortKeys and Adobe can figure out the problem.

[PhilipSutton85375646]

Amazing. I've been struggling with this issue for months. It is ShortKeys (a program that I use all the time). I closed shortkeys and Acrobat Reader worked immediately without being rebooted. Hmm. Looks like we will have to take it up with the ShortKeys makers. Thanks everyone for solving my problem.

[PhilipSutton85375646]

I contacted the makers of ShortKeys and got this advice to prevent the clash between ShortKeys and Acrobat Reader::

In order for the two programs to work together, the Protected Mode feature in Adobe Acrobat Reader must be turned off. These steps describe how:
  - Open Adobe Acrobat Reader
  - Click Edit, Preferences
  - For Adobe Acrobat Reader DC or XI click Security (Enhanced)
  - For Adobe Acrobat Reader X click General
  - Click to uncheck the "Enable Protected mode at startup" setting
  - Click the OK button to save
  - Restart Adobe Acrobat Reader

[clairethebear]

Thanks! It was ShortKeys for me too