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Answered

PDF fillable form not displaying field data

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
June 9, 2020
31 replies
208470 views

Greetings,

I have an employee who is receiving fillable PDF forms for work via email. When opening file preview on the form within Outlook Desktop the form is displayed and the field data is in the fields designated. When opening the PDF with Reader or Acrobat Pro the forms field data is blank. Clicking on fields to highlight test does not reveal anything, and trying to insert a space and delete the space within the field nothing is revealed. When opening the file with MS Edge, all the forms field data is then viewable. I have another employee that was able to open the same form using their Acrobat XI and was able to view the field data as well. With opening the PDF's via Edge, we are able to print form to MS Print to PDF and upon doing so and opening with Reader or Acrobat Pro the form data is viewable. I have checked the versions of Reader and Acrobat Pro and both are up to date as well. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Correct answer try67

This is usually the fault of the application used to fill in the form, most likely Apple Preview, MS Reader or one of the browser plugins. Instruct the users to only use Adobe Reader and it should work fine.

Maggie I

Known Participant

I have a problem with a fillable form I have set up. 2 of the fields have been populated where the text doesn't show until the field is clicked on, the field text also won't print. The other fillable fields are ok. The 2 fields that only appear when you click on them are on page 1. A brief description... and page 2. From what other external sources...

Can anyone help with this, please I have attached the form. Thank you Maggie

1-St_Peters-Inkberrow.pdf

D

dmontigny

New Participant

The way I fix it is entering prepare form and opening the properties of the suspect fields and toggling the font to something different and then back to the original.

I am finding this an ongoing problem that reandomly appears even of forms that have been used for a long time. It really gets annoying.

Maggie I

Known Participant

Thank you dmontigny, your suggestion works! Maggie

R

rik_9226

New Participant

Not to beat a dead horse here, but I have several users experiencing the exact same problem. After trying all sorts of suggestions (hint: it's not JavaScript), I found that when opening a filled form that appears blank in Acrobat, closing the tab with the document and re-opening the same document makes everything show up as expected. All further filled forms show up correctly during the same session. When you close the Acrobat window completely, the problem comes back.

To me, this proves that it's not an issue with the application used to fill the form, but a glitch with the redering of the document in Acrobat.

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LisaRaymond

New Participant

One of my clients just experienced this with an Adobe PDF for the first time. She can't see the fillable fields, asked me to take a look, and I actually created a fillable format before realizing it was already fillable! Adobe, why hasn't this been resolved since first posted in 2020? It's ongoing, worsening. I'm also going to ask from a business perspective, how in the world is this newer format ADA compliant? Thank you.

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JB431236389rjcy

New Participant

Having this issue as well when attempting to view or print Adobe LiveCycle documents. If Adobe is used to fill the form, Adobe is used to open the form, Adobe should be able to view the contents of the form. It seems counter intuitive that two productivity solutions from the same company are not compatible without a reliance on work arounds. Almost like needing a Samsung adapter in order for your iPhone and Apple watch to work together. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

try67

Community Expert

Can you share the file in question? I have a feeling most of the issues posted in this thread are caused by scripts embedded in the files that are resetting their contents when opened (just like the one from the previous reply), or other structural issues with them. Having an actual file with these issues makes it much easier to identify (and maybe fix) them, otherwise it's a fool's errand trying to figure out what went wrong.

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dmontigny

New Participant

Would the scripts you mention be generated automatically? I do not create scripts for my forms and this issue appears randomly. There was a post saying it was tied to someone opening the forms using a web browser for editing them and this seems the most probable cause to me.

For me changing the font of the affected fields and then changing it back seems to fix it but the issue should not be occurring at all.

B

Bigpor2gee

New Participant

Well, now it's 2025 and this problem is still not resolved. In their original "correct answer", try67 stated that "This is usually the fault of the application used to fill in the form, most likely Apple Preview, MS Reader or one of the browser plugins." While that may USUALLY be true, it is not in my case. I am filling out a state government form (*1376(1_09)F.pdf (louisiana.gov)). I opened the form in Adobe Acrobat and filled in the fields, then saved the form under a different pdf filename. I need to email this form to my supervisor to have them e-sign it. However, when I re-open the new file in Adobe Acrobat, all the fields appear blank (oddly, EXCEPT for my e-signature). I emailed the apparently blank file to myself and, as noted by other posters, when viewing the attachment in Outlook preview, I can actually see that the info for all the other fields is there. The info very briefly appears (split second) when I open the doc in Acrobat and then disappears (except for the aforementioned e-signature). When I try to open the doc in Microsoft Edge, all fields appears as they should. So the insistence that this is not an Adobe issue is (at least partially) wrong. Note to Adobe staff - please download the referenced document and let us know if you see the same issue.

try67

Community Expert

The answer is very simple. This file contains a script that resets the form when you open it. This was done on purpose by the creator of the file, so they must have a reason for it (although I can't fathom what it might be).

You can remove this code yourself, since the file is not secured (another mistake), but I'm not sure if you should do that. I would report the issue to them and ask for a new version, without this code.

You can easily see that's the cause if you fill in the file, save it, then disable JavaScript in the application (via Menu - Preferences - JavaScript), then close and re-open the file. You'll see that all of your input is still there.

B

Bigpor2gee

New Participant

Thank you for your quick response. This definitely resolves my instance of this issue. Interesting that the form doesn't get reset when opened with other apps - like Microsoft Edge browser. Maybe the offending script is only pertinent to Adobe?

And, to be clear, to resolve my specific instance, I am disabling JavaScript in Adobe Acrobat for this (and all other) file(s). If I need to share the document (e.g. for another e-signature), I'll need to instruct the other signee that they'll need to disable JavaScript before they open the file. Same goes for any other subsequent destination of the e-signed file, right?

After all this is done, we'll need to go back into our respective Acrobats and re-enable JavaScript (to deal with the next "normal" pdf file).

Really happy this was simple for you to troubleshoot. I, like many users, am not a scripter (I would argue most users are not). Thank you for your expertise.

A

aleks_1724

New Participant

Hello.

Everything discussed from 2020 is not a solution at all ... My point is that when advisers here write "Problem solved" which require changing something every time you open PDF file - they provide wrong directions, they provide workarounds, not fixes ... Clients are picky and they don't want to do all those tweaking steps over and over again with each PDF file, they consider them annoying ... The solution should work once and for all cases ... There should be some kind of Adobe Acrobat Pro configuration feature change that works no matter which software was used to create PDF

Meenakshi Negi

Community Manager

Hi aleks_1724,

Thank you for reaching out.

As suggested, the issue generally occurs when the document is filled using other software. If the problem arises when the PDF is filled via the Adobe application, let us know.

You may share your suggestion on this with the team via the following help document: https://adobe.ly/4ibswef.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

A

aleks_1724

New Participant

Hello,

Thank you for your response.

It appears that "other software" is Adobe Designer generating forms from
web site.

So, Adobe has Acrobat and Designer which are not in sync.

This is a shame and we are suffering from it.

Thanks.

Regards.
Aleks.

A

Annie33024059m06n

New Participant

Easiest method is to save the document on your OneDrive > open the document in your Adobe Acrobat BROWSER (NOT App) > This should show the filled fields.
Print as Microsoft pdf or Adobe pdf.

J

Joe2994949172e1

New Participant

I WAS ABLE TO FIGURE IT OUT!!!

For the life of me I was just so stuck on not being able to figure it out I did everything. But I can finally confirm that, I GOT IT!
All you had to do was

Check the Form Properties

Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat or a PDF reader that allows form editing (such as Adobe Acrobat Pro).
Ensure that the form fields have not been set to "Read Only" after you filled them out. You can do this by clicking on "Tools" > "Prepare Form" and checking the properties of the fields.

From there youll see it say "Locked"
Unclick "locked" and get rid of "Read-Only"

Click "Form Field:" and click "Visible"
You can also Shift + Click all of them and do them all at once!

Happy Forming!

A

Anastasiia377113406bpl

New Participant

You just need to change text field properties in Adobe Acrobat -> Edit PDF -> Right Click on a field and choose properties -> Options -> Check Multi -line and Scroll long text

M

milesdeelite

Participating Frequently

Had the same problem. Fillable Form Fields and Radio Buttons did not display in chrome.

The solution is in fact pretty simple:

Make sure “Fast web view” is not active.

You can check this by opening the PDF within chrome > selecting “Document properties”.

If “Fast web view” displays “Yes” open the PDF in Acrobat Reader and check “menu” > “preferences” > “documents” > “Save As optimizes for Fast Web View”. It has to be unchecked. Save a Copy of the PDF and the forms are displayed as it should be. Interactive PDFs right out of InDesign do not have this setting, so this is one extra step to make sure it works with any build in PDF viewer.

I hope this will help affected users.

E

EPW36500487dk9c

New Participant

I designed my Form with Acrobat DC. I filled in my form fields using Acrobat DC and saved. I opened the filled in form with Acrobat DC. My filled in fields do not show what I entered unless I click on them. This was all done with the same Adobe DC software on the same computer. I read this entire thread and tested all the "solutions" to only validate that the "experts" still have no solutions for almost four years now! Please... either provide a single step answer or admit that Adobe has no clue how to ressolve this.

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barbc88891985

Participating Frequently

This is, by far, the BEST example that Adobe could ask for in order to troubleshoot. Thanks for sharing. I think it is safe to say, "there is no resolution", just work-arounds of various sorts. For us it was using a browser instead of Acrobat Reader OR zooming the document in Acrobat Reader; if we zoomed in or out, the fields would suddenly popluate.