Participant

Question

Turn off all autocomplete and autosuggestions in Fill & Sign mode

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 9, 2023
6 replies
23003 views

I am using Adobe Acrobat Reader version 2023.003.20269 on Windows 11.

I am entering data into documents in Fill & Sign mode. As I complete the forms, the software is auto-suggesting data values that have previously been entered. The data is private medical information that I do not want to save or suggest.

I do not want any autofill feature to be active at all. Accordingly I went into Preferences -> Forms and set 'AutoComplete' to Off.

In another thread, I learned there is a separate featured called 'auto-suggest.' I logged in to acrobat.adobe.com, went into Settings, clicked the checkbox to set 'Auto-suggestions' to off, and clicked the button to also 'Clear suggestions.'

I have updated and restarted the Acrobat software.

Fill & Sign continues to exhibit the exact same behavior. It is auto-populating form fields with private medical information. I consider this a violation of expected behavior and of data privacy.

What is the difference between auto-complete and auto-suggest? Why should users have to turn such a similar feature off in two places, one of which is not accessible in the software? Why are neither of these settings being honored? Is there a third type of auto-populate and a third setting somewhere?

Thanks for any help and clarifications.

H

happyleedc

Participant

October 2025: I had the same annoying thing happen to me. I followed Michael's and Drew's suggestion, although the files he mentions in the app folder aren't there anymore, so I let that be.

So what I did was log on to acrobat.adobe.com, go into Settings, click the checkbox to set 'Auto-suggestions' off, also clicked the button 'Clear suggestions.' Then I logged out of the Adoble Software on my PC (which logged me out of the Adobe online. Then I logged in again on my PC software.

That seemed to do the trick.

G

GreenBeanCounter

Participant

*scroll

The point being Acrobat jerks the page to make room for the unhelpful list of previously typed text, fails to display that list while trying to make room for it, an hides the text box you're typing in from the visible area of the document in the process.

H

happyleedc

Participant

Such a stupid, stupid feature. I hope they remove it forever.

G

GreenBeanCounter

Participant

To make it even more annoying when using the Type Text tool in the mini-toolbar, as the unhelpful list of what's been typed in text boxes so far grows, Acrobat will jerk the page where you start typing such that the text box you're typing in is no longer visible. You have figure out where you now suddenly are in the document, and scoll in whatever direction is needed to go find the text box the cursor is in again. Who in their right mind would ever think that's helpful?

G

GreenBeanCounter

Participant

I've been an accountant for 30 years, and this may be the most annoying software "feature" I've ever seen. Income is lost because annotating documents takes far longer than it should, the client won't and shouldn't have to pay for the extra time, so I have to write off the time to firm admin and lose money. That this is still an issue over a year after this thread was created is beyond my comprehension. Every point made in the OP is valid.

C

Caressa37073489jmp5

Participant

This Is The Fix Adobe Tech Support Just Gave Me.

Meenakshi Negi

Community Manager

Hi michaeljsalo,

Thank you for reaching out.

This seems to be weird behavior. Did you check if the settings were disabled when you reinstalled the application?

Please try reinstalling using the following steps:

- Remove the application and run the cleaner tool (https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Labs/cleaner.html).
- Reboot the machine
- Install Adobe Acrobat Reader from the following page: https://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/.

If you experience the same behavior, please share the screenshot of the settings on which you make changes.

Share the screen recording while filling up the form. We will get this checked.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

J

Jack26423878low5

Participant

Hi - was this resolved? I am experiencing the same issue and cannot get rid of the auto-suggest.

D

drew sb38223813

Participant

I have a resolution!! This will clear the autosuggest and autocomplete features of Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Acrobat Pro/DC.

You need to do what michaeljsalo has done above: Login to Adobe online, go to setting and uncheck the auto suggestions/ complete boxes.

Now here's what makes the difference... After doing the above THEN, you need to sign out of Adobe in the application (if you are signed in) and then delete three files. The culprits are 3 files named "acrobat_fss_signature_initials", "acrobat_fss_signature_initialsi" and "acrobat_fss_signature_initialsk" located in "%appdata%\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\Security". Deleting them flushes the Fill and Sign cache. Just copy and paste "%appdata%\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\Security" (without quotes) into your file explorer address bar (i.e., open a random folder and put that in the address bar at the top)

TL; DR: Do what michaeljsalo said first, then logout of the Adobe Application on your computer, then delete "acrobat_fss_signature_initials", "acrobat_fss_signature_initialsi" and "acrobat_fss_signature_initialsk" located in "%appdata%\Adobe\Acrobat\DC\Security".

This should work for all versions. YOU MUST be signed out and close the application before you delete the files. You must do the steps in order (but you get unlimited tries!)

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